An Arctic fox has amazed scientists by walking nearly 2,200 miles (3,500 kilometres) across the frozen wastes of the Arctic from the Svalbard archipelago of Norway to Canada.
It was not just the distance that the diminutive fox trekked but the pace at which it traveled – completing the journey in just 76 days and walking as much as 96 miles (155 kilometres) in a single day.
Scientists were able to track the fox because it was fitted with a device attached to a ring around its neck.
The young female fox, which had not even reached its first birthday, set out from the island of Spitsbergen in the Svalbard archipelago of northern Norway in March last year.
Three weeks later it reached Greenland, before continuing on its epic odyssey across sea ice and tundra to Canada’s Ellesmere Island, where it arrived in early July.
In what scientists described as “among the longest dispersal events ever recorded for an Arctic fox,” the animal crossed huge expanses of sea ice as well as glaciers, foraging for food as she went.
Arctic fox's epic trek
It travelled an average distance of 28 miles (46 kilometres) a day but that spiked to 96 miles when it crossed the flat ice sheets of northern Greenland.
“This is the fastest movement rate recorded for this species,” scientists said in a paper published by Polar Research, the journal of the Norwegian Polar Institute.
On its journey the fox would have had to make drastic changes to its diet – in northern Norway the species preys on seabirds, crustaceans, seaweed and carrion, whereas in Canada the foxes feed on lemmings.
This particular fox had a grey-blue coat, enabling it to blend into the boulders and rocky shoreline of its original home in Svalbard.
Mark Smith/Getty
Researchers were so astounded at the animal’s odyssey that at first they thought it had died and somehow been carried to Canada on a ship.
“We were really surprised at the speed the fox traveled,” Arnaud Tarroux, a researcher from the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, told The Telegraph.
The fox may have been on the move to look for new food sources. “One possible trigger is food, although we don’t know for sure. Another explanation could be that there was competition with other foxes on Svalbard, so this young female was chased away."
Sadly, the ultimate fate of the fox is unknown – the tracking device stopped working in February.
“We think she probably settled in Canada – that is where she spent last summer and autumn,” said Dr Tarroux. “Most likely she is still there.”
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Her trans-continental journey was only possible thanks to the sea ice that linked the land masses she was traversing – but global warming is likely to change that.
If the sea ice around Svalbard shrinks further, then the foxes living on the archipelago will become completely cut off from other populations across the Arctic.
Arctic foxes living on Iceland are already isolated because of receding polar ice.
“The trend of declining sea ice is a big worry for the future,” said Dr Tarroux. “Foxes on Svalbard have plenty to eat – there are lots of reindeer and sea birds – but it would have an impact on the genetic diversity of the species.”
Weighing 7-17lb, the Arctic fox is a hardy species that can survive temperatures as low as -58F in the frozen wastes where it wanders.
The animals dig burrows on land and during blizzards tunnel into the snow to seek shelter.