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![]() GREENFIELDBOYCE: Hotaling says the worms live at 32 degrees Fahrenheit, but lab tests he and a colleague did show that if temperatures dip even slightly below that, like just one degree, the worms die. HOTALING: They can't handle even the slightest bit of freezing. But, again, who knows? And here's the most surprising thing about ice worms, which, after all, have ice in their name. They're thought to eat algae and bacteria. GREENFIELDBOYCE: Winters here are brutal, but that may be when living is easy for ice worms because when they come out onto the glacier surface at the start of summer, they're actually fatter than they are at the end of the summer season. HOTALING: I've kept them in my fridge in my home for physiology experiments for a year or more without adding anything to their system, and they're fine. Hotaling guesses they can live under 30 feet or more of snow, down where seasonal snow meets the older snow of the glacier. When we stop for breaks, I ask questions about ice worms the answer is almost always the same - no one knows. We see other snow-topped peaks in the distance - Mt. GREENFIELDBOYCE: We keep going, ever higher. HOTALING: That suggests to me that they're starting to come up. ![]() Hotaling says finding one on the surface is a good sign. It's wet, and its dark body sort of shimmers and glistens as it writhes in between ice crystals, going pretty intently and gracefully. GREENFIELDBOYCE: It looks like a moving piece of thread, about an inch long, thin and jet black. Eventually, you get good at spotting them. GREENFIELDBOYCE: I would never have guessed that was a worm. After some more hiking, Hotaling bends down and scoops up some snow. GREENFIELDBOYCE: It was a small stack of scientific papers because hardly anyone has studied them. And all of a sudden he pulled out this little, small stack of papers, and he said, damn it, they're real. PETER WIMBERGER: And he realized I didn't believe him. ![]() Wimberger thought the guy was pulling his leg, that it was a prank. He got interested in ice worms about 15 years ago when a student said he wanted to study them. GREENFIELDBOYCE: Trudging along beside us is Peter Wimberger from the University of Puget Sound. Hotaling says these worms are the most abundant beast that lives up high on these mountains, at least when it comes to animals you can see with your eyes. GREENFIELDBOYCE: The worms only venture out onto the surface of a glacier at certain times, like late summer afternoons. But it's so beyond your expectation when you're in a glacier environment that there will be worms. HOTALING: They're very obvious once you notice them. GREENFIELDBOYCE: He says many people who spend lots of time on Mount Rainier and other Pacific Northwest mountains have never seen one or didn't understand what they were seeing. HOTALING: I have no shame in promoting ice worms. GREENFIELDBOYCE: He's a researcher with Washington State University and a kind of ice worm evangelist. SCOTT HOTALING: Ice worms essentially changed my life from the first time I saw them.
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