Arctic hare travels nearly 400 kilometres in 7 weeks; longest dash ever by its species

In an unusual migration story, an Arctic hare set a record of hopping nearly 400 kilometres in seven weeks, making it the longest distance travelled in the species of hares, rabbits, or their relatives. Arctic hares are known to be non-migratory creatures as they prefer to spend their lives in locations where vegetation is adequate and easily available. However, this hare, named BBYY, because of its blue and yellow ear tags, has challenged this belief by travelling 388 kilometres in 49 days across Ellesmere Island in northern Canada. 

"To think that such a small animal living under such extreme conditions averaged about eight kilometres per day across seven weeks is truly astounding," Joel Berger, an ecologist at Colorado State University in Fort Collins and a senior scientist at New York's Wildlife Conservation Society said as per Science News. Arctic hares, which form a crucial part of the Arctic food web being prey to foxes and wolves, weigh no more than cats, around four kilograms. 

The toughest one among its 24 companions

BBYY's journey was recorded using a satellite tracking collar, which was fitted onto the creature along with 24 of its companions were captured near Canada's northern Ellesmere Island. According to Explorers Web's report, BBYY gave birth to its offsprings, before it began the weeks-long journey from an old Canadian Forces base called Alert, which dates back to the Cold War era and is still active. The arctic hare reportedly travelled over the Hazen Plateau and past Lake Hazen, which has mild summer weather and rich vegetation. 

The tracking device revealed that out of the 25 hares, 20 of them travelled somewhere between 113 and 310 kilometres but none came close to the distance travelled by BBYY. The research was led by mammalian ecologist Dominque Berteaux of Canada's Université du Québec à Rimouski, who along with his colleagues wanted to monitor the movement of animals across cold and dry landscapes. After travelling almost 400 kilometres, BBYY also made its return journey but died of unknown causes about 100 kilometres away from its starting point.  However, Berteaux said that this study revealed something unexpected about these creatures which the experts thought they knew well about. 

Image: Unsplash