European Arctic Fox Walks to Canada

Arctic fox in Nunavut, Canada (photo from Wikimedia Commons) 17 September 2026 We think nothing of birds flying from one continent to another but the idea of a mammal walking from Europe to North America boggles the mind. There is no dry land between the two continents, only ice that thins in autumn. In 2018 polar researchers Eva Fuglei and Arnaud Tarroux tagged a young female arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) with a satellite transmitter to see where she would go when she dispersed from her natal home on Spitzbergen in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago. They were in for a surprise. 76 days later she settled in Canada. Daily movements of a young Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) female using sea ice as a bridge while dispersing from her natal area in Svalbard, Norway, to Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada. When the fox left her parents’ territory on 1 March 2018, Arctic sea ice was soon to reach its maximum extent on 17 March. Nine days later, with ice hugging the Spitzbergen’s eastern shore, she…