How Alligators Survive Al Gore's "Global Warming"
Global warming alarmists like Al Gore warned not too long ago that the Earth had become so hot because of human activity that mankind had likely witnessed the “end of snow” as we once knew it.
But as much of the United States is dealing with a bitterly cold winter that just saw northern Florida dusted with snow, the alarmists are spinning madly to try and explain how a warmer planet can lead to colder temperatures and icy snowstorms in typically mild regions that rarely see such winter weather.
One such area that doesn’t often experience sub-freezing temperatures is southeastern North Carolina, and the way some residents of that region dealt with the recent unexpected ice from a massive winter storm has gained international attention, according to the U.K. Daily Mail.
Those particular residents are the alligators that live in the Shallotte River Swamp Park in Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina, and they survived Al Gore’s “global warming” by sticking their snouts above water as the surface of the swamp froze around them.
The video was captured by the park as a way to showcase how those cold-blooded creatures manage to survive in exceptionally cold weather.
“It’s a survival mechanism. They’ll go wherever it is warmest,” explained George Howard, general manager of the Swamp Park, according to ABC News.
In this case, the water was warmer than the air above it, so the gators stayed beneath the surface even as it froze solid, though not before poking their noses out of the water at the last moment so they could continue to breathe.
Howard further explained that what the alligators were doing was known as brumation, a process similar to hibernation, in which cold-blooded animals significantly slow their metabolism rates to a level that barely keeps them alive.
“It is very, very abnormal for southeastern North Carolina” to experience freezing temperatures and ice, said Howard. “It is not abnormal for the (the alligators) to do this because they know they have to breathe.”
The winter storm caused the surface of the water to freeze solid on Friday, and it remained frozen throughout the weekend, leaving the gators “suspended” beneath the ice for several days with just their snouts poking through.
“They didn’t care. They’re just doing their thing,” Howard stated. “Alligators have been around for hundreds of years. They’re survival machines.”
According to The Washington Post, Howard initially thought the protruding snouts were merely the stumps and roots of cypress trees, but realized they was his gators once he looked closer and noticed all of the teeth.
“They have been around for millions of years,” Howard said of alligators as a species. “They are one of the only species in existence that is virtually unchanged. And they continue to be good at just surviving. This is just another example of how tough they are.”
Indeed, tough enough to survive a bout of Al Gore’s freezing cold “global warming,” it would seem.
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