Videos of frozen alligators in North Carolina and Texas have captivated audiences across the country.
The photos and videos of “gatorcicles” with their snouts and mouths sticking out have sparked fear and amazement online.
While the sight may be alarming, those who work with the alligators say the reptile isn’t dead and there’s nothing to fret about – it’s simply a survival instinct. As temperatures drop, alligators in the South rely on this adaptation that is so rarely observed.
“The key to life is adaptation, who better to show this than the American Alligator,” the Swamp Park & Outdoor Center, a tourist attraction that lets people see alligators in their natural habitat said in one of several posts of the gators frozen in ponds.
An employee of the park located in Ocean Isle Beach, located about 45 miles south of Wilmington, North Carolina, explained in a video posted this week, that when it gets too cold, alligators “will instinctively tilt their nose up, to the point where it’s out of the water, so they don’t just suffocate.”