Have You Tried Brumating Like a Texas Alligator?

When the temperature dropped to 18° F in Beaumont, Texas last week, a few alligators got caught in the big freeze, locked solid in the ice. They’ll be fine though, as long as their snouts stay above water.

At Gator Country, a wildlife rescue center in Beaumont, a few gators were recorded completely submerged in ice except for the snout, which had broken through the surface. The exposed nostrils are the difference between life and death here, as they keep the creature supplied with oxygen.

As a reptile, a gator can’t regulate its temperature, so it survives by entering a state of brumation, in which its metabolism slows down and the body becomes lethargic (lethargy is probably the only way to exist frozen in place).  Unlike a hibernating mammal, an alligator will emerge and move around on warmer days, and then brumate again if necessary.

According to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, alligators in Texas brumate from about mid-October until March.

Tim Patton / US Forest Service

Photo credit: David Arbour / Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation