Sorry for the long post but believe it or not, this is 100% true.
Id be lying to you if I said I was shocked or surprised, but Im not. This has happened to me before with an amazon green tree frog. Im curious if anyone else has experienced something like this before.
In a freak occurance, I received a 500 gram ball python this morning that appeared dead, frozen solid as a rock. No signs of life whatsoever, just coiled up and rock hard cold. It couldnt even be uncoiled. It was hard enough that it almost seemed possible to snap the snake in half. I was really bummed out and sad for the little guy. I even emailed the sender that it was DOA.
However, although the snake was obviously dead, it was not limp as one would expect. Due to being cold and apparently frozen, I figured "what the hell, lets put him in a tub over the heat tape to see what happens". Sure enough, two hours later, he's resurrected and crawling around his new tub like nothing ever happened.
Back when I was a kid, my green tree frog was left in the car for an hour in cold weather. When I came back, it was frozen solid laying on its back. An hour in my hands under the cars defroster and he was as good as new again.
It seems there is a fine line where certain reptiles can go into a sort of hibernation to survive a brief cold surge. I imagine this sort of slows their heart rate to save itself. Amazing creatures I must say!
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