The “blizzard of the century” spares no one in the United States. The cold snap that has hit the country since December 23 is also hurting local wildlife. In the south of the country, temperatures have dropped to around 0°C.
Stung by this cold, in Florida, the iguanas fall from the trees and find themselves frozen to the ground. Unable to move, these large lizards appear dead. They are in fact only paralyzed by these low temperatures. Their body no longer has enough energy to move. Most of them will be able to move again when temperatures rise.
Houston bats hit by cold
Iguanas are not the only animals to suffer from the harsh climate. In Texas, in Houston, bats freeze and end up on the road. Some of them are collected by volunteers who try to warm them up. A first cold snap in 2021 destabilized the bat colony, while Hurricane Harvey in 2017 decimated the population.
On the human side, the current storm has caused the death of at least 49 people, including 27 in a single county in New York State. More than 300,000 American and Canadian homes were without power.