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from the bad-dime-for-a-stubbed-ub-nobe dept.
The Charlotte Observer reports on freakish behavior being exhibited by alligators in one swamp in eastern North Carolina.
Alligators in one eastern North Carolina swamp have proven it was no fluke last winter, when they survived a cold snap by freezing themselves in place with their noses above the ice.
It happened again Monday at The Swamp Park, only this time more -- and bigger -- alligators joined in
The video posted by nosey park manager George Howard shows several of the alligators frozen in place here
A few alligators exhibited this behavior last year, surviving a freeze for several days without ill effect. This year more joined in, including one gator 11 feet in length.
Howard says the alligators seem to sense when the water is at the freezing point and they respond by poking their nose above the surface “at just the right moment.”
Once frozen, they enter “a state of brumation, like hibernating,” until the water thaws
No word on how many ice hockey rinks across the swamp is. According to The Spruce Pets Brumation is a dormant state in reptiles similar, but not identical to hibernation in mammals:
During hibernation, a mammal is sleeping and does not have to eat or drink. But brumation is not a true sleep and the reptile still needs to drink water. A brumating reptile may have days where it will awake, show some activity, drink water, and then go back to its dormant state. Hibernating mammals, on the other hand, are in a deep sleep where they don't need to eat or drink.
I believe I mastered brumation around my sophomore year.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by nobu_the_bard on Thursday January 24 2019, @02:24PM (7 children)
Alligators are a very old species. They may have had this instinct for a very long time. In older days cold snaps may not have been uncommon?
Note they probably can only do this to survive relatively brief cold snaps.
I am not saying global warming isn't a problem. I'm saying blaming alligators being good at surviving isn't to be blamed on it. If things keep going this way we may end up finding out what other animals have those kinds of tricks.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by opinionated_science on Thursday January 24 2019, @03:00PM (3 children)
I'm curious though *how* long they can last when frozen...
there would be a great deal of interest in understanding viable cryogenic mechanisms - especially in a common animal.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 24 2019, @05:05PM (1 child)
Probably quite a while. If they haven't gotten serious problems from frostbite within the first day, they can probably go weeks like that. These are animals with a very low metabolic rate and as long as they're getting air, they'll probably be fine for weeks. I'm curious how they're either avoiding or dealing with frostbite.
The only thing stopping humans from doing that for weeks or even a month is that our tissues get frostbite relatively quickly and we've got no protection against heat being lost to the water, as a result we'd be dead within a day. And probably a matter of an hour or two tops.
(Score: 2) by toddestan on Saturday January 26 2019, @05:25AM
A day? Assuming the water in that swamp isn't much above freezing, a person submersed in it would last maybe a half-hour before losing consciousness. You survive another hour if someone is around to pull you out and you don't drown first.
(Score: 3, Funny) by DannyB on Thursday January 24 2019, @05:05PM
As long as they don't have freezer burn the Microwave Defrost cycle should be just fine.
Gatorade, made from freshly squeezed alligators.
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(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 24 2019, @03:25PM (1 child)
as far as I know alligators/crocodiles are indeed older than dinosaurs, in the sense that very similar species lived back then (I doubt they'd be able to interbreed).
so they've been through some serious deep-freezes.
by the way, does anyone know whether small species of alligators/crocodiles survived the various extinction events (in particular the nuclear winter after the dinosaur killer), to then evolve into large versions again, or was it the full-size versions that survived? for instance I've always assumed that large birds did not survive, but some chicken-like thing did, and then grew into ostridge (too lazy to look up the spelling, deal with it) or dodo.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 24 2019, @04:15PM
I doubt that even a gator could keep it stiff that long.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 24 2019, @11:32PM
What does this mean? Aren't all species the exact same age?
Every species is evolving (including humans). Humans and chimpanzees (and indeed shiitake mushrooms) share a common ancestor if you go back far enough, and we are as different from it as the chimpanzee is.
It's not like there is a "true original species" and other ones fork off of it.