Chilling footage shows an alligator literally frozen in ice. Don’t worry, it’s not dead; it’s just showing off its cool survival skills for winter.
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A video purporting to be from a Colorado gator farm (Colorado Gators) shows an impressively large gator seemingly frozen solid, with only its nostrils exposed to the open air. As the camera pans across the massive animal, it seems to move ever so slightly.
“Sometimes alligators will encounter cold weather and find themselves trapped under the ice,” the caption to the post reads. “In order to survive this, an alligator will enter into a state of brumation. This is what has happened to this alligator here.”
The amazing footage also found its way to X (formerly Twitter).
Chillin' like a reptilian! 🐊❄️ Check out this gator in brumation, frozen under the ice. pic.twitter.com/yFvzdtkAxb
— AccuWeather (@accuweather) December 30, 2024
Per ReptiFiles, brumation, often compared to hibernation in mammals, is a natural process that allows reptiles to endure the winter months. During this period, their activity slows dramatically—they stop eating and may sleep for weeks at a time. This survival strategy typically begins in autumn and lasts until spring, helping wild reptiles conserve energy and withstand colder conditions.
In the audio of the original video, the narrator explains that the handlers at the farm routinely break the gators out of the ice.
The Origins of the Frozen Alligator Footage
The account, called “iron.gator,” purports to be a “Professional gator handler. My job requires me to feed, interact with, and catch alligators, crocodiles, and caiman,” reads the description.
However, many of the comments to the Instagram post couldn’t help but question the logistics of everything the post entails. Why an alligator farm in Colorado, a place well known for freezing winter temperatures? Why break the scaled behemoth from the ice if it’s natural for the creature to hibernate in the ice?
In a follow-up video, the alligator handler explains why he breaks the reptiles free from their frozen state.
“We remove our alligators from the ice when we find them frozen so they will survive the freezing cold here in Colorado,” they write in the caption. “Our water is geothermal, so they are nice and toasty in the winter.”
In the comments, the handler also reveals the origin of the Colorado gator farm.
“[Our farm] is a sanctuary for rescued alligators that used to be people’s pets,” they explained. “These are animals that can’t be sent back to the wild. We give them a home once people realize they can’t or shouldn’t have them as pets.”
“As pets, a human fed them. As a result, they will approach people for food, and this makes them dangerous. The laws of most states consider dangerous alligators as nuisance alligators, and those are trapped and killed,” he added.