Ice Worm

Ice worms are cold-loving creatures that live inside glaciers. If it is cold enough outside they will crawl out of their holes in order to bask in the frigidity. As they bask they make a chirping sound that is loud enough to keep awake anyone trying to sleep nearby.

Ice worms were first described in 1898 by E.J. "Stroller" White, a journalist for the Klondike Nugget in Dawson (located in the Yukon). Thanks to his account of them, ice worms became a local attraction in Dawson. Residents went on expeditions to find them, carefully listening for their characteristic chirping, and bartenders in town began serving a drink called 'Ice Worm Cocktails.' These were prepared by pulling a long skinny worm out of a piece of ice and dropping it into a customer's drink. Some skeptics suggested that the bartenders were actually pulling pieces of spaghetti out of blocks of ice, and in a few cases this allegation may have been correct since many bartenders were known to pass off fake ice worms on ignorant out-of-towners who didn't know what the real thing looked like.

The ice worms described by "Stroller" White are a whimsical cousin of ice-living worm species, such as Mesenchytraeus solifugus, studied by mainstream scientists. The kind of ice worms studied by scientists, besides having a firmer footing in reality, are not known to chirp.

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