跑速驚人的北極狐

科學(xué)家們驚訝發(fā)現(xiàn)，北極狐在短短76天內(nèi)從挪威跑到加拿大，全程2000英里

How’s this for a road trip? A young Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) has trekked across the ice from Norway to Canada in a mammoth 3,506-kilometer (2,176-mile) journey in record time.

這一路它是怎么做到的?一只年輕的北極狐(Vulpes lagopus)以創(chuàng)紀(jì)錄的速度，穿越挪威到加拿大的冰面，完成了3506公里(2176英里)的長(zhǎng)途跋涉。

Scientists from the Norwegian Polar Institute used a GPS tracker attached to a collar to follow her as she left the Svalbard Archipelago on March 26, 2018 and reached Ellesmere Island in Nunavut, Canada just over 2 months later. She made the journey in just 76 days, meaning she was traveling at an average rate of 46.3 kilometers (28.7 miles) a day – that’s more than a marathon every day for over 10 weeks.

2018年3月26日，挪威極地研究所的科學(xué)家們用一個(gè)系在項(xiàng)圈上的GPS追蹤器跟蹤她離開(kāi)斯瓦爾巴特群島，兩個(gè)多月后到達(dá)加拿大努納維特的埃爾斯米爾島。她只花了76天就完成了這趟旅程，這意味著她每天的平均速度為46.3公里(28.7英里)——這比連續(xù)10周每天跑一場(chǎng)馬拉松還多。

Reported in the journal Polar Research, the researchers write that this is “among the longest dispersal events ever recorded for an Arctic fox.” It’s also the fastest movement rate recorded for this species, 1.4 times faster than the previous record-holder, an adult male that was tracked in Alaska.

研究人員在《極地研究》(Polar Research)雜志上撰文稱(chēng)，這是“有記錄以來(lái)北極狐追蹤時(shí)間最長(zhǎng)的事件之一”。這也是該物種有記錄以來(lái)的最快遷徙速度，比此前在阿拉斯加追蹤的成年雄性記錄保持者快1.4倍。

Unfortunately, the GPS collar stopped working on February 6, 2019, so the team no longer know where the intrepid fox is. Nevertheless, the research team managed to gather enough data over the course of 2018 to detail its incredible Arctic hike.

不幸的是，GPS項(xiàng)圈在2019年2月6日停止工作，所以研究小組沒(méi)能知道這只勇敢的狐貍之后去了哪里。盡管如此，研究團(tuán)隊(duì)還是在2018年收集了足夠的數(shù)據(jù)，詳細(xì)描述了這次令人難以置信的北極之旅。

"We didn't think it was true at first. Could the fox have been found dead and now onboard a boat? But no, there are no boats that go so far up in the ice, so we just had to keep up with what the fox did,” Eva Fuglei, study author from the Norwegian Polar Institute, said in a statement.

“起初我們并不認(rèn)為這是真的。這只狐貍會(huì)不會(huì)已經(jīng)死在了哪條船上?不對(duì)，沒(méi)有船能在冰上走這么遠(yuǎn)，所以我們只能跟上這只狐貍的腳步。”挪威極地研究所的研究作者伊娃·福格蕾在一份聲明中說(shuō)。

The study notes that this individual will have to adjust to some big dietary changes now they are in the Canadian Arctic, as the population there tend to eat lemmings and small mammals, rather than the marine-based diet they eat in Svalbard.

該研究指出，由于加拿大北極地區(qū)的居民傾向于吃旅鼠和小型哺乳動(dòng)物，而不是他們?cè)谒雇郀柊腿簫u吃的以海洋為基礎(chǔ)的食物，這種狐貍將不得不適應(yīng)一些重大的飲食變化。

While this might sound like a feel-good story of an adventurous fox, the story also unpins the importance of addressing the effects climate change, and the shrinking of the polar ice caps, is having on animals. Ice is vital for foxes and other creatures to venture around the Arctic and between continents. Arctic foxes have already become marooned on Iceland due to the demise of the polar ice and if things continue as they are, the population in Svalbard could become completely isolated too.

雖然這聽(tīng)起來(lái)像是一個(gè)冒險(xiǎn)的狐貍的故事，但這個(gè)故事也揭示了應(yīng)對(duì)氣候變化和極地冰帽縮小對(duì)動(dòng)物影響的重要性。冰對(duì)于狐貍和其他生物在北極和大陸之間的活動(dòng)是至關(guān)重要的。由于極地冰層的消失，北極狐已經(jīng)被困在冰島的荒島上，如果事情繼續(xù)這樣下去，斯瓦爾巴特群島上的北極狐種群也會(huì)完全被孤立。

“If the sea ice disappears, the archipelago of Svalbard will be isolated,” confirmed Fuglei.

“如果海冰消失，斯瓦爾巴群島將被孤立。”福格里證實(shí)。

“This is another example of how important sea ice is to wildlife in the Arctic," added Norwegian Minister of Climate and Environment, Ola Elvestuen. "The warming in the north is frighteningly fast. We must cut emissions quickly to prevent the sea ice from disappearing all summer.”

“這是海冰對(duì)北極野生動(dòng)物重要性的另一個(gè)例子，”挪威氣候和環(huán)境部長(zhǎng)奧拉·埃爾維斯圖恩(Ola Elvestuen)補(bǔ)充說(shuō)。“北方的升溫速度快得嚇人。我們必須迅速減少排放，防止整個(gè)夏天海冰消失。”