Fuzzy Green 'Glacier Mice' Move In Groups And Puzzle Scientists : NPR

Fuzzy Green 'Glacier Mice' Move In Groups And Puzzle Scientists : NPR





Glacier mice in Breiðamerkurjökull, an outlet glacier in Iceland, in 2005. (Ruth Mottram)

Balls of moss move like a flock

Squishy pillows of moss appear to slowly move across glaciers in a coordinated fashion, researchers have found. In a long-term study in Alaska, researchers tagged the rolling ‘glacier mice’ to monitor their motion. The herd seems to move in unison, at a speed of about 2.5 centimetres per day. Their motion didn’t align with the prevailing winds, and they weren’t rolling down a slope — so what propels them is still a mystery. “It's very hard not to think of tribbles from Star Trek,” says climate scientist Ruth Mottram. The team hopes to track glacier mice that were tagged a decade ago to see how they have moved over a longer period.

NPR | 6 min readSource: Polar Biology paper