To survive cold winters, alligators allow their bodies to be frozen in place with their noses and large teeth protruding from the ice.

The bizarre scene was filmed by a North Carolina swamp park after the "bomb cyclone" sent chills across the coastline.

"Just hanging out in the water," says the narrator of the video, showing closeups of the snouts sticking through the ice. "Pretty amazing. ... Look at those teeth. This is the time of year when they are just hanging out, waiting for it to get warm."

Alligators know when the water is going to freeze, so they enter a state of brumation, or hibernation for reptiles. But not before they stick the tip of their snout above the water just as it freezes around them.

The video, which was posted on Facebook by Shallotte River Swamp Park in Ocean Isle Beach, has more than 200,000 views (Mark Price, Charlotte Observer, Jan. 8). — CS