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“They can sense temperature changes and will stick their noses out of the water to breathe,” Howard said. “It just so happened southeastern North Carolina recently had a freeze like none other, so the ice literally froze right around their snouts.”
With their bodies on ice, alligators go into a state of dormancy called torpor in which their metabolism slows considerably. But unlike mammals that hibernate, gators don’t go into a deep sleep.
“In that state, they are still alive, still moving, but very lethargic,” Howard said, describing torpor.
If the alligators didn’t keep their snouts above the water surface, they’d perish in about 24 hours ― the maximum amount of time they can stay underwater
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