Glacial Gophers Comeback

South Island, New Zealand -- In one of the oddest incidents ever reported, a team of mountaineers evaded death on the ice late last week. Three climbers nearly perished in deep crevices while climbing near Mt. Cook (3,754 m) in scenic Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park, South Island. The climbers apparently slipped into ice pockets created by the New Zealand Ice Gopher, an animal previously thought to be extinct.

This newly famous rodent goes by the scientific name Zyzomys Canterburia, and is actually a highly adapted species of rat distantly related to the Australian Central Rock-rat, Zyzomys pedunculatu. Speciation apparently occurred about 90 Million years ago when the Tasman Sea was formed separating a large landmass into what is now Australia and New Zealand. Ice Gophers are only found on the South Island of New Zealand.

Ice Gophers are probably the smallest true rodents to inhabit the Mt. Cook region. Weighing approximately 45 grams and only 5-7 centimeters long, this remarkable animal is able to survive by deep tunneling into glaciers. Park managers believe that the climbers undoubtedly walked unknowingly into a veritable hive of rodent dwellings. Normally, Ice Gophers tunnel close enough to the surface to allow oxygen to suffuse into their burrows. Shallow tunnels also facilitate cultivation of their main food source.

Ice Gophers survive largely due to adapted scent glands near the rodent’s anal orifice which produce a glycol-like substance the animals spray on the floors of specially widened ice chambers. Since it resists freezing, the substance is penetrable by fungal spoors tracked in on the rodent’s feet. These spoors germinate and develop into an as yet unidentified fungus which later becomes a staple in the diet of these burrowing mammals. An adult Ice Gopher is believed to eat almost 25% its own weight daily of this fungus.

Bluish-white in color the rodent was unknown even to the indigenous Maori. The Ice Gopher was accidentally discovered when a 1954 expedition following a route similar to one of Sir Edmund Hillary’s practice climbs for his 1953 Everest Expedition, stumbled across what they thought was a steam vent in the ice field. The warmer sub-glacial rodent tunnels gives off a mild mist under certain conditions of no wind and high humidity. It was this misting which attracted the attention of the three climbers who narrowly escaped death by rodent misadventure.