Frozen caribou

Jan 25, 04:14 PM

These pictures come from a friends friend who lives in Alaska. This caribou froze while standing up in -80°F winds on the North slope at the top of Alaska.

— Viral Nerd

Comment

Thank god that these animals can freeze and thaw like this and still be ok. Does anyone know how fish and caribou can do stuff like this but humans can’t?

— jafraldo · Jan 25, 08:48 PM · #
I doubt that it survived.

— Ed · Jan 25, 08:52 PM · #
Its dead u douches!

— rperigot · Jan 25, 09:02 PM · #
It’s thermostat must have got stuck.

— schnazalope · Jan 25, 09:07 PM · #
“#

Thank god that these animals can freeze and thaw like this and still be ok. Does anyone know how fish and caribou can do stuff like this but humans can’t?

— jafraldo · Jan 25, 08:48 PM · #
“

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

— humour · Jan 25, 09:12 PM · #
Mammals cannot freeze and thaw because the water in their blood crystalizes and punctures the cell walls.

— Babaganooush · Jan 25, 09:20 PM · #
Fish pull this trick off by adding a type of Antifreeze into their blood to stop it from crystalizing.

— loganis · Jan 25, 09:36 PM · #
uh oh I think my heart stopped…no there it goes!

— barney g · Jan 25, 10:04 PM · #
Mmmmmm…..caribou steaks!!

— sweets · Jan 25, 10:14 PM · #
@jafraldo, that was awesome.

— Nerdhappy · Jan 25, 10:27 PM · #
Yeah, freezer burnt caribou steaks.

— Greg · Jan 25, 10:51 PM · #
I doubt the inner meat is freezer burnt.

— jackalope · Jan 26, 12:21 AM · #
Same with frogs:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3209/05.html

— Flyen · Jan 26, 12:41 AM · #
Amphibians and Fish aren’t the same as mammals.

— Youl · Jan 26, 01:33 AM · #
Amazing

thanks for the post

— jolinarodriguez · Jan 26, 02:03 AM · #
Sigh, this animal is dead! Or did you ever hear about herds of caribous standing around frozen?

— Schubi · Jan 26, 03:41 AM · #
No no he’s not dead, he’s restin’!

— jane · Jan 26, 07:54 AM · #
The following link explains it all about frozen frogs and the problem with frozen human organs.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3209/05.html

— Segfault · Jan 26, 09:22 AM · #
It’s tragic. But not nearly as tragic as the comments.

— adfg · Jan 26, 09:28 AM · #
No, he’s not dead. He’s pining for the fjords…

— arngriv · Jan 26, 09:31 AM · #
Actually, jafraldo’s comment is not as silly as it sounds.

There have been numerous documented cases of penguins and seals (and occasionaly caribou) freezing “solid” during very cold storms and reanimating once thawed.

This seemingly impossible scenario is caused by these animals’ ability to very quickly lower their metabolism and reduce the flow of blood to the outer layers of the body, thereby allowing them to rapidly create a hard protective shell, whilst the vital internal blood supply is kept warm and circulating.

Whilst not sustainable indefinitely, some emporer penguins have been known to survive up to 3 days in this “suspended” state.

— Stu · Jan 26, 10:09 AM · #
We now know where to relocate Gitmo!

chsw

— chsw · Jan 26, 10:36 AM · #
I’m going to call hoax on this one. If the temperature reached -80 degrees, there’s no way that any humans would be in the area any time thereafter to take the photographs. I would also think that, in cases of extreme cold, the animal would just collapse and die on the ground instead of being frozen stiff while standing up.
Another thing – aren’t reindeer herd animals? Where are the other reindeer that would have frozen just like this one did?

— g2d2 · Jan 26, 01:11 PM · #
I meant to write, “any time soon thereafter”.

— g2d2 · Jan 26, 01:12 PM · #
1. Just because the animal froze in -80 degrees temperature, that doesn’t mean it was that same temperature when the picture was taken.

2. As to “Where are the other reindeer…” apparently they were smarter than this one was.

— Strawberry Macaw · Jan 26, 02:08 PM · #
The article says -80 “winds” not -80 ambient temperature. There’s a difference. I work on the North Slope of Alaska(Prudhoe Bay), where it is currently -22 ambient with -45 wind chill. g2d2, you obviously have never been in arctic conditions. We have parkas, reindeer don’t ;)

— Robert · Jan 26, 04:34 PM · #
message

— paul · Jan 26, 05:09 PM · #
you guys are too funny, thanks for the laugh on a teary day

— dee · Jan 26, 05:40 PM · #
I don’t know. I live way up here and
I’ve never heard of this. The pics look a bit Hokie. :) They wouldn’t be at North Slope during winter.

N.Alaskan

— Just Jan · Jan 26, 05:54 PM · #
Caribou migrate to the tree line in the fall, where they live off shrubs and bark, lichens and mosses, and move back up north in the spring. They travel in herds of up to 1,000,000.

That looks like a mounted animal that was posed. Humans in temperatures of -50 Celcius will have any exposed flesh frozen in two minutes. I worked in Canada’s north and Alaska, and these warnings were on the radio daily!

— Pat · Jan 26, 06:44 PM · #
The first comment must have been written by Sarah Palin!

— Dave · Jan 26, 09:12 PM · #
dis be a bad hoax

— lol · Jan 26, 09:12 PM · #
You guys dont know what you are talking about! I see this all the time. All you got to do is take a cup of warm water and soak their balls in it and after a short while bam! they are back to normal!

feckin noobs!

— Dr Brady Barr · Jan 26, 10:07 PM · #
jafraldo is dumb as bricks.

— Ed · Jan 27, 01:36 AM · #
Lobsters can reanimate as well

— Ross · Jan 27, 01:38 AM · #
This is just a dead deer someone shot in Ohio or somewhere chilly, let freeze in the backyard and then took some pictures of it the next night proped up. good eatten

— Barak Obama · Jan 27, 01:39 AM · #
If you look closely at the first picture you can see where the bullet hole entered in the middle of the upper back, thats where hunter aim to kill these meat wallets.

— Barak Obama · Jan 27, 01:42 AM · #
There has been a case where a mammoth was found frozen solid with food still in its mouth. Plus, this is a juvenile, not an adult. If it didn’t get enough to eat, with a low metabolism and a thin layer of fat, it could easily have frozen.

— Joe · Jan 27, 01:43 AM · #
if u beat it with a club will it shatter?

— flea · Jan 27, 01:53 AM · #
Wow, its amazing

— Qatar · Jan 27, 02:09 AM · #
-80? No Thank You

— Cheap · Jan 27, 02:25 AM · #
is that a bone sticking out of his leg in the first picture?

— wishmetall · Jan 27, 04:53 AM · #
Someone said fish add an antifreeze to their blood… can scientists make this antifreeze in a lab and inject it into human blood and then we can cryogenicly freeze ourselves?

— reid · Jan 27, 05:26 AM · #
Lobsters can reanimate as well..

— Donna · Jan 27, 06:00 AM · #
I doubt that it froze to death. It most likely had a heart attack when it got its gas bill.

— Andrew Other · Jan 27, 06:10 AM · #
so yer saying theres fish&frogs in my car that keeps it from freezing or over heating?

— loaf · Jan 27, 07:03 AM · #
It looks as if it starved a lot before freezing.

— Mistr Eulberg · Jan 27, 08:18 AM · #
33.You guys dont know what you are talking about! I see this all the time. All you got to do is take a cup of warm water and soak their balls in it and after a short while bam! they are back to normal!

feckin noobs!

— Dr Brady Barr · Jan 26, 10:07 PM · #

Oh…I didn’t know that! Can females be brought back in the same way?

— Mark · Jan 27, 10:02 AM · #
Pre-frozen elk, guaranteed fresh

— Ed · Jan 27, 10:21 AM · #
reindeer? can you effing read what everyone is saying? its an undead caribu

— omg · Jan 27, 10:37 AM · #
Deersicle

— Mark · Jan 27, 10:56 AM · #
It’s comin’ right for us!!

— southparkish · Jan 27, 11:31 AM · #
i had a wife that would freeze at night and reanimate in the morning. it’s twue.

— crazy · Jan 27, 11:44 AM · #
Kill him!!!
oh, right,
it’s dead.d
sadsadasd

— poncho se corto · Jan 27, 11:48 AM · #
Mother nature knows no mercy.

— Perry Crann · Jan 27, 12:40 PM · #
G.L.O.B.A.L. W.A.R.M.I.N.G

It would have saved that poor animal’s life… I’m just sayin…

— wowzerz · Jan 27, 02:53 PM · #
I don’t think this is real. If you look at his hooves you can see the snow is recently disturbed, as if he were just set there. If he had been there for hours or days what you would expect to see is smooth, wind blown snow all around. Also, judging by the car lights and terrain in the background it appears as though this is right next to a road, quite a coincidence in remote northern Alaska. On top of that I simply don’t see an animal freezing like this, I would guess it would be more likely hunkered down behind something trying to stay warm rather than standing out in the open. And if it were to die out in the open it would fall over immediately, not simply balance there and freeze. I’m guessing this is either stuffed or an animal that was already dead and frozen and was simply stood up like that for the picture and sent to us “lower 48ers” as a joke.

— Aaron · Jan 27, 03:41 PM · #
He’s not dead – He’s pinin’ for the fjords!

— TShannon · Jan 27, 04:42 PM · #
Whomever said he’s “pining for the fjords”: I want to kiss you on the mouth!

— SavageLettuce · Jan 27, 04:44 PM · #
Aaron, why would anyone bother to try and make ‘lower 48ers’ look foolish, when you do such a good job? Jeeze, you are one dumb mother!

— MaPisa · Jan 27, 05:40 PM · #
sub-zero wins.

fatality.

— joe · Jan 27, 05:43 PM · #
mom said wear a coat. that’s what you get for not listening.

— Liza · Jan 27, 06:19 PM · #
It happened to me… I froze one night and then after a week and a half i was back to life… It was so so so cool….

— Nando · Jan 27, 07:31 PM · #
Puts! Fiquei impressionado com as fotos. Pobre do bicho, se é que ele ficou de fato com os cascos presos na neve, até ele morrer deve ter sofrido pra burro!

Parabéns!

— osé Geraldo Magalhães Júnior · Jan 27, 08:21 PM · #
Its sad you have people on here that are so misguided and and foolish.
And its these same people that Say No! to opening Anwar.
You people in the lower 48 have no clue what can and does happen on the north slope.
WE work snow or rain , wind or not.
I have been on the slope working and the wind chill was -105f it was miserable but we did it.
I am glad this cold ass weather keeps most of lower 48 in the lower 48.
And as far as the Caribue thats a cow boo and there is really nothing for it to get behind to protect it from the wind so it froze.

— PurEvil · Jan 27, 09:30 PM · #
If this isn’t a hoax (which it more than likely is), could it be another example of that pesky global warming? Ha!

— willdogs · Jan 27, 09:42 PM · #
This is footooshoop I can tell from the pixies.

— Bjartur · Jan 27, 10:33 PM · #
Now that’s Fresh -Frozen’ alright!

— equinamin · Jan 27, 10:55 PM · #
I wish they would do this to Rosie O’Donnell!

— Anonymous · Jan 27, 11:17 PM · #
He’s still because it’s a photo. Solved!

— einstein · Jan 27, 11:37 PM · #
WOW. I never thought the photos would this much attention. Especially, in such a small amount of time. I can’t wait to see what else everyone has to add. I promise I’ll explain what happened, when I get back, on February 4th. Thank you, for your comments.

— Buck O'Banon "AK Buck" · Jan 28, 01:21 AM · #
Maybe if a girl blows him he’ll come back to life?

— Uncle Perv · Jan 28, 05:24 AM · #
— jafraldo You made me laugh so hard it hurts..

You Sir. Rock.

— me · Jan 28, 12:58 PM · #
Look at the fur on the first pic, it looks like it had been laying on its side and someone stood it back up. Doesn’t it?

— Phenix · Jan 28, 03:16 PM · #
Uh…. directed at the first post, there is exactly ONE vertebrate on earth that can survive being frozen. It’s a certain species of snake. That caribou is VERY, VERY DEAD.

— Lumancer · Jan 29, 01:31 AM · #
thank God we have global warming to prevent the damn caribou from freezing… wait… what? the caribou froze anyway?!?!? some one get al gore on the phone now!!!!

— tobin · Jan 31, 02:09 PM · #
Shopped. Pixels are all wrong. I have seen many photoshopped pics so I can tell.

— pterzw · Jan 31, 10:06 PM · #
Blam! dead before it hit the ground.

— me · Feb 1, 07:44 PM · #
ばびった

— sssss · Feb 2, 05:15 AM · #
ワロス

— xxdg · Feb 5, 11:45 PM · #
“Mammals cannot freeze and thaw because the water in their blood crystalizes and punctures the cell walls”

Mammals are animals. Animals do not have cell walls, only cell membranes. Otherwise, that is correct – in mammals leastways, freezing indeed crystalizes the water in cells and ruptures the cell membranes. Most creatures are unable to survive that type of damage.

— Brian · Feb 6, 07:06 AM · #
Did it survive? God I hope so.

— Ray Terrible · Feb 6, 02:28 PM · #
When almost any material drops in temperature, it shrinks. This is even true with water, except when water freezes, it expands. This is why ice floats and if this were not true, our planet would be entirely different and probably not able to support life.

But this also means that if your cell wall is firm, freezing will cause the water in your cells to burst that wall. Cell death occurs. But if that wall has some give in it, you may survive. Or if you can evolve a way to change the water to another substance that won’t expand, there too you can survive freezing.

Ice-nine, invented by Felix Hoenikker, shows some promise here for humans. It’s a different form of ice that shrinks rather than grows larger. But it’s tricky stuff. :)

— mark · Feb 8, 01:04 PM · #
Are bears not mammals ?
because they have the ability to hibernate

— Tommy · Feb 12, 10:12 AM · #
you all make me laugh—from the science geek to the rambling Alaskan…..cheers to that frozen “lookin” piece o’ meat!

— roberto · Feb 15, 10:34 PM · #
“sub-zero wins. fatality.

— joe · Jan 27, 05:43 PM · “

HAHAHA – best comment yet!

— Harrrry · Feb 18, 01:11 PM · #