Alligators have been filmed in North Carolina trying to stay alive in a frozen pond by sticking their snouts through a sheet of ice, ABC News reports.

Footage taken by an NBC affiliate station showed a handful of the reptiles at the Shallotte River Swamp Park in Ocean Isle Beach breathing through gaps they created using their snouts in a pond that has been frozen by the brutal cold spell ravaging the United States.

Experts say once the alligators are able to breathe through the ice, they fall into a state of hibernation known as brumation by lowering their body temperatures and metabolism.

Once it becomes warm and the ice melts, the creatures thermoregulate their body temperatures to their regular state.

Bone-chilling arctic air has created dangerous conditions for a large portion of the U.S. and has resulted in at least 18 deaths since the beginning of the new year, including four in North Carolina traffic accidents and three in Texas.

The weather has played havoc with U.S. wildlife, with frozen iguanas dropping from trees and frozen sharks washing up on the beach.