With the tip of its snout sticking just above the icy surface and its nostrils fully exposed, it was breathing
An alligator was captured frozen in a pond by local animal rescuers amid the cold temperatures in the Gator Country Beaumont, Texas.
During the recent cold wave, the daily lives of people were brought to a near halt, and the animals also witnessed adjusting to such low temperatures.
A TikTok video, that went viral showed an alligator in frozen water but it was not dead.
The video was captured in a local rescue center in the Gator Country Beaumont, where temperature highs were no greater than the 40s last week, according to a CBS News report.
“We all know what alligators do during the summer and spring … but what do they do in the winter and how do they survive?” Gator Country owner Gary Saurage said in the video before pointing to an alligator in frozen water.
With the tip of its snout sticking just above the icy surface and its nostrils fully exposed, it was breathing and not dead.
In the video, the reptile can be seen completely submerged in the frozen water.
“That animal is in full hibernation right there,” Saurage said adding that “his heart is beating three beats per minute. Folks, that’s amazing. That’s how alligators survive in the ice.”
The rescue center official in the video was talking about a process of brumation in which a reptile can go into a low metabolic condition, with nearly no activity but they wake and drink, according to the South Carolina Aquarium.
Wildlife officials in Texas noted that alligators enter in this condition between mid-October and early March and usually brumate in dens, however, sometimes, they end up in water.
When that water ices over, Oklahoma Ranger District Wildlife Biologist Robert Bastarache said in 2021 that the gators will use their snouts to make a hole so “that they can stick their nostrils out to breathe”.
“As long as they can keep their nostrils above water level, they should survive,” he said.
