TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — An alligator in Texas was spotted poking its snout through a hole in an icy pond last week.
TikTok’s Gator Country posted a video of the gator, showing how it Florida managed to survive in cold conditions.
“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 the gator.
The video shows the gator almost completely submerged in the frozen pond. Only parts of its tail and the very tip of its snout were sticking out of the ice.
“You can see the entire body of the alligator, but most importantly, look at its snout,” Saurage said. “It has pushed its snout up so through so it can get oxygen, so it can breathe. That animal is in full hibernation right there. His heart’s beating three beats per minute. Folks, that’s amazing. That’s how alligators survive in the ice.”
According to the South Carolina Aquarium, alligators go through a process known as brumation during the winter months. The gators enter a low metabolic state where they engage in minimal activity, but still wake up and will drink to avoid dehydration.
Texas Parks and Wildlife said alligators brumate between mid-October and early March. Usually, gators brumate in dens but sometimes they end up in water.
