![]() Though they're called ice worms, the creatures Hotaling (right) and his colleagues study on the glaciers of Mount Rainier can't handle the slightest bit of freezing. He admits that it bothers "probably no one else that comes here." Many people who hike, ski or work on these mountains have never seen an ice worm despite their abundance, partly because the beasts only come to the surface at certain times of the year, at certain times of day. And it is a source of frustration for me." The National Park Service's visitors center near Paradise Glacier, for example, has a nice display on alpine wildlife, Hotaling says, "and there is somehow nothing about ice worms. ![]() "If you were going to put a biological mascot on glaciers of the Northwest," Hotaling says, "it's an ice worm."Īnd yet, with the possible exception of the annual Cordova Iceworm Festival in Alaska, these bizarre worms have generally been either ignored or treated as a mere curiosity. Ice worms, however, show that this fragile environment - where the glaciers are vulnerable to climate change and are retreating - is potentially far more complicated. "And if every one hosts that density of ice worms? That is just a massive amount of biomass in a place that is generally biomass-poor."įor a long time, he says, biologists have written off high-altitude glaciers such as these as basically sterile, lifeless places. "From where we're standing right now, I can see, five, six, 10 glaciers," he says. An estimated 5 billion ice worms can live in a single glacier. "There are so many," says Hotaling, a researcher at Washington State University. Scott Hotaling Billions and billions of inch-long black creatures Scientists aren't sure why the segmented worms, each less than an inch long, wriggle to the surface of the glacier late in the day, though they think it may be to feed or to soak up the sun's rays. It's just one of many mysteries about these worms, which have barely been studied, even though they're the most abundant critter living up there in the snow and ice. These thread-like worms, each only about an inch long, wiggle up en masse in the summertime, late in the afternoon, to do - what? Scientists don't know. The ice worms have returned, snaking in between ice crystals and shimmering in the sun. The glacier's surface quickly transforms as more and more tiny black creatures emerge. Small black flecks suddenly appear on the previously blank expanse of white. "It's happening," he says, gesturing across Paradise Glacier. But Scott Hotaling is looking down toward his feet, studying the snow-covered ground. High up on Mount Rainier in Washington, there's a stunning view of the other white-capped peaks in the Cascade Range. For a long time, Hotaling says, biologists have written off high-altitude glaciers as sterile, lifeless places. Listen Ice worm researchers Scott Hotaling and Peter Wimberger led a trip to study life on the glaciers of Mount Rainier in June.
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