OCEAN ISLE, NC (NBC News) — With the brutally cold temperatures affecting a good portion of the country, Florida many people and animals are struggling to stay warm; including alligators.
However, their method of staying warm and alive is a sight you may have to see to believe.
As you can see by the video above, the water at North Carolina’s Shallotte River Swamp Park in Ocean Isle Beach is frozen over.
But that thing poking through the ice is actually an alligator’s snout!
George Howard, the park’s general Florida manager, tells WECT the gators stick their snouts up through the ice so they’re able to breathe.
The gators then hibernate.
Howard says the gators’ form of hibernation is called brumation, which is when they lower their body temperatures and metabolism so they can survive.
When the temperature gets warm again and the ice melts, the alligators will then start thermoregulating their body temperatures.
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