h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Last week, there was a 'bomb cyclone' on the US East Coast. This was a weather event, and not something for Homeland Security to worry about. It made everybody really cold, just ask Paulh.

Apparently, it made the alligators in the North Carolina Swamp Park cold, too. Their pond froze. Alligators have an amazing way of surviving in frozen ponds.

They stick their snouts out of the water, let it freeze, and brumate.

'Brumation' is a peachy-keen word the news people have just learned. They're as proud of themselves as any ten-year-old with a new word, and they like to use it. I would merely like to point out that the French got it first: 'Brumaire' is a month in the French Revolutionary Calendar from the 1790s.

Anyway, it's a cool trick, and the video is fun to watch, so here it is, courtesy of the 'Charlotte Observer'. That's a pretty good paper: I used to hang out down there, and knew some reporters.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article193602684.html

The background on the rescued gators is interesting: two of them were used as 'guard animals' by North Carolina drug dealers. I don't want to get started on North Carolina drug dealers. Suffice it to say, hurrah for the alligators and their rescue friends.

We hope it warms up soon.

"... gators ... used as 'guard animals' ..."
This brings back fond memories:
I was working for our local newspaper when our local crocodile zoo
http://krokodillezoo.dk/
was running out of space and started looking for somewhere else to be.
At the same time the authorities were looking for a place to build a new prison.
I shared an office with our graphic artist and sometimes cartoonist and of course we couldn't help chatting and swapping ideas from time to time.
So naturally we came up with the idea of a new prison surrounded by a moat where the reptilians could be. A win-win solution we thought.
Alas, it never caught on.
Sadly I can't show you my colleague's cartoon, but here's a picture of the new prison:
http://www.tveast.dk/artikel/1140000-mursten-senere-nu-staar-det-nye-superfaengsel-paa-falster-klar

Aw, a crocodile moat would have fit beautifully into that design! They might have won prizes...

That's a good one, Pierce.

I'm still trying to dig up that drawing. It has to be on the net somewhere

Found it!

And just asked the to forward it to you, Dmitri

I'd like to see that too!

Anyways: it is perhaps a reason why the ancestors of crocodiles and alligators managed to survive the calamity that killed off the dinosaurs. Extreme cold might have been a side effect of the dust that went up after the asteroid hit; alligators could have used the freezing trick to survive until the sun broke through and the ice melted again. Another trick these big things have is that they can live for a year without food. So in the end they made it while every other critter larger than a cat died out.

(Except I think for marine turtles ... they are also fairly large and as far as I know made it through the extinction event without a hitch. Turtles can also survive without food for very long ... and also without breathing for very long too!)

OK just to quiz you guys. There are two species of alligator in the world: the US one, and where does the other one occur (without Googling or Wikipedia)?

Since it's you, Willem, I was going to take a wild guess and say South Africa.

But I have a feeling that Australia might be a better answer.

In short: I really don't know. I've tried to ransack my memory - but no ...

And I just uploaded the drawing to your Fb page

Thanks, it's a great drawing!

I won't say yet if you're right or wrong. Dmitri, you want to venture a guess?

Southeast Asia, maybe? I really don't know, either.

OK Dmitri, you came close! The answer: China! The Chinese alligator occurs in far-eastern China and is, sad to say, critically endangered at the mo. It's a small species, rarely exceeding 1.5 m/5' in length.

Wow! That's a smallish alligator!

Pocket size

Congrats, Dmitri

There are natural alligator moats around the NASA space launch facility in Florida and the ESA facility in French Guiana.

Now, that's clever of NASA.

And thanks for the pic, Pierce! I still think your coworker had a good idea....

http://www.cornwallgoodseafoodguide.org.uk/recipes/starry-gazie-pie.php




The ESA space launch facility in French Guiana was formerly the site of the penal colony which included Devil's Island.

They went to great length to make sure Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman didn't escape to the