What months do alligators hibernate?
Alligators typically undergo brumation for four to five months, from late November to late February. When alligators emerge from their underground lairs, known as “gator holes,” which they effectively create by digging tunnels in the muck, other creatures move in and begin to live there.
Alligators stop feeding when the ambient temperature drops below about 70° F and they become dormant below 55° F, according to the Florida Fish & Wildlife Management Commission.
Alligators are Most Aggressive During Mating Season and Nesting Season. American alligators are most active and aggressive during mating season, which lasts from April to June. Male gators are on the prowl for a female and can have a home range of over 1,000 acres during the mating season.
During brumation, an alligator's metabolism slows down, allowing the reptile to go without food and just "chill" for four to five months. They can't let their bodies get too cold, however, or they will die.
Alligators are dormant throughout much of the winter season. During this time, they can be found in burrows (or "dens") that they construct adjacent to an alligator hole or open water, but they occasionally emerge to bask in the sun during spells of warm weather.
Alligators tend to stop feeding when the temperature drops below 70 degrees and become dormant at around 55 degrees Fahrenheit.
Alligators are reptiles and are not warm-blooded. They have the ability to live in water as cool as 40ºF, although weaker animals may die at that temperature. They may, however, be very active in 40ºF weather by using behavioral adjustments.
When temperatures get up into the 60s or 70s and stay there for a few days, something not that uncommon during Lowcountry winters, gators will emerge from their burrows and dens to bask in the sun and gather warmth.
Like snakes, alligators brumate during the winter – only they do it in the water. They stick their snouts above the surface so they can breathe and remain in the water while hardly moving until the temperatures warm up. This is called “icing behavior” in alligators.
American alligators are most active during their springtime courtship and mating seasons, April through June, that's when the temperatures are warm between 80° and 90° F, and the 'wet season' begins.
Do alligators come out in the winter?
Alligators can go into a state of very low activity, to the point that they are nearly immobile when extreme cold weather strikes and the body of water they live in freezes over. They stick their snouts above the water so they can breathe and remain in the water while hardly moving until the temperatures warm up.
Warm spring weather means alligators are more active and more visible, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said. Courtship begins in April then mating happens in May or June, according to FWC.

While cold winter days might be the perfect time for people to stay inside with a warm blanket and a nice cup of cocoa, alligators bundle up in their own way, retreating to burrows and dens under roads or in the banks of ponds and lakes, many of them under water, according to Andrew Grosse, alligator program biologist ...
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