Frozen gators

I thought when I moved to SC from Maine I was heading to a warmer place!  This week it's warmer up there.  We are really having some crazy southern weather.  Didn't get out of the 30's today and ridiculous wind to go with it.  Reminded me of a cold snap we had last winter where the ponds we have out behind the lab froze over for a couple weeks.  In those ponds we have a male and female pair of alligators and some of their offspring.  Many of us took the opportunity to get into the enclosure and take some photos assuming the cold would have them moving pretty darn slowly.  Here are a couple of the photos I took then. One shows the male entirely under the ice except for the breathing hole he created.  In the second one the female had been completely under the ice but when we got a bit too close she broke through and gave us a warning to stay away from her and her babies.  You can see a chunk of ice on her head.  Gators here are pushing the edge of their range so this is not a normal occurrence for them.  Hopefully we'll warm up and get some rain so we can get back to amphibian field work!