Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Thursday January 27 2022, @10:06AM   Printer-friendly
from the hare-raising-story dept.

An Arctic hare traveled at least 388 kilometers in a record-breaking journey:

BBYY, as the adult female [hare (Lepus arcticus)] was known, made a wild dash of more than 388 kilometers [~384 miles] in 49 days — the longest distance ever recorded among hares, rabbits or any other relatives — researchers report online December 22 in Ecology.

[...] Arctic hares — which weigh roughly the same as house cats, about four kilograms [~9 pounds] — are desirable prey for foxes and wolves on the tundra. Given the hares' important role in the Arctic food web, mammalian ecologist Dominque Berteaux of the Université du Québec à Rimouski wanted to know how the animals move across the arid landscape.

In 2019, Berteaux and colleagues affixed satellite tracking collars on 25 hares captured near the northern tip of Ellesmere Island in Nunavut, Canada. As the hares swiftly hopped away, the researchers had no idea the creatures were beginning a mind-blowing expedition across the tundra, Berteaux says. That's because hares and their relatives, called lagomorphs (SN: 3/8/58), typically spend their lives within a single, familiar territory where food is plentiful and easy to find.

[...] For a hare to endure such a perilous journey, it must balance the need to find food without becoming food, says Dennis Murray, a terrestrial ecologist at Trent University in Peterborough, Canada, who wasn't involved in the work. That makes BBYY's excursion even more impressive, he says.

Journal Reference:
Sandra Lai, Émilie Desjardins, Jacob Caron-Carrier, et al. Unsuspected mobility of Arctic hares revealed by longest journey ever recorded in a lagomorph, Ecology (DOI: 10.1002/ecy.3620)


Original Submission

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
(1)
  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27 2022, @11:51AM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27 2022, @11:51AM (#1216132)

    Arctic hares are also desirable prey for Arctic Hawks, which can fly over 400km from their nests in search of prey. That would explain why the tracking collar was found at the foot of a tree containing a large nest. But at least the researcher gets credit for not blaming the bunny's movement on AGW.

    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27 2022, @12:32PM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27 2022, @12:32PM (#1216135)

      I don't think we can make a Disney/Pixar movie out of that scenario...

      • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27 2022, @12:58PM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27 2022, @12:58PM (#1216142)

        Sure you can, it's an arctic hare, so it has White fur. Just give the hawk dark feathers and you're good to go.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27 2022, @01:22PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27 2022, @01:22PM (#1216146)

          Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah!

        • (Score: 4, Insightful) by PiMuNu on Thursday January 27 2022, @01:40PM

          by PiMuNu (3823) on Thursday January 27 2022, @01:40PM (#1216149)

          > Just give the hawk dark feathers

          and some sort of physical disability - perhaps blind in one eye or something

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27 2022, @02:09PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27 2022, @02:09PM (#1216154)

      Hare today, gone tomorrow.

  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27 2022, @12:45PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27 2022, @12:45PM (#1216140)

    Did the tortoise catch it already?

  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27 2022, @01:03PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27 2022, @01:03PM (#1216143)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKL1_3vmXF8 [youtube.com]

    But really. 388 kilometers [~384 miles]
    How about 241 miles?

    • (Score: 2) by NateMich on Thursday January 27 2022, @05:43PM

      by NateMich (6662) on Thursday January 27 2022, @05:43PM (#1216206)

      Yeah, if 388 kilometers really was about 384 miles, conversion between them would be pretty trivial.

    • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 28 2022, @09:06AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 28 2022, @09:06AM (#1216408)

      Still not corrected? It is like nobody cares anymore, since Ari is gone.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Thursday January 27 2022, @02:46PM (1 child)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday January 27 2022, @02:46PM (#1216166) Journal

    The bunny was being chased by an arctic fox, known for it's 2,000-mile migrations.

    https://wildlife.org/arctic-fox-breaks-records-with-over-2000-mile-journey [wildlife.org]

    Arctic fox breaks records with over 2,000-mile journey
    July 9, 2019

    Researchers tracked an Arctic fox on its 2,000-mile, 76 day journey. Image ©Jon Leithe/Norwegian Polar Institute
    An Arctic fox fitted with a tracking device recently moved at the fastest rate ever recorded for the species on its 2,000-mile journey from Norway to Canada. The Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) left Spitsbergen in Norway’s Scalbard archipelago on March 26, 2018, made it to Greenland by April 16, then arrived in Ellesmere Island in Canada on July 1. It traveled a total of 76 days. The researchers said this is one of the longest Arctic fox journeys ever recorded, with the fastest movement rate recorded for this species. It traveled at an average of about 28.8 miles a day, but one day, in northern Greenland, it traveled as much as 96 miles. The species moves across sea ice and glaciers, and researchers are concerned about how climate change may affect their future travel.

    Read more in The Guardian or read the paper here.

    The paper https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/3512/9288 [polarresearch.net]

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27 2022, @03:50PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27 2022, @03:50PM (#1216175)

      That fox had a really hot date!

  • (Score: 2) by KritonK on Thursday January 27 2022, @04:19PM

    by KritonK (465) on Thursday January 27 2022, @04:19PM (#1216180)

    They keep going [youtube.com], and going, and going, and g...

(1)