Several years ago I read a magazine article, possibly in National Geographic or Natural History, about exploration in Antarctica. The highlight of the article was the "discovery" of "ice-boring voles". Apparently the researchers had observed penguins and even mammals suddenly disappearing through the ice blocks that they were standing upon. Closer inspection showed that voles had gathered beneath the ice, and using the heat of their noses, had melted the ice so that the hapless creature standing above would fall in the water, and would then be eaten by the voracious voles.

I wish I had saved that article because I was never able later to find anything about the strange Antarctic voles on the internet or in books or magazines.

I wish I had the imaginative power to have fabricated this idea but unfortunately stories of this caliber are beyond my measly capabilities. Can someone help me track this story down, or at least, has someone else out there read that magazine article too?

I read it on the Web at one stage but my husband (who is a scientist) told me the whole thing started as an April Fool's Day joke.

Oh no! What a terrible trick to play on us.....I guess the Antarctic researchers had plenty of time on their hands to think up this one. I've also heard that they've inadvertently taught the penguins to play football!

Here's something more about this famous hoax:

Hotheaded Naked Ice Borers

In its April, 1995 issue Discover Magazine announced that Dr. Aprile Pazzo, a noted wildlife biologist, had found a fascinating new Antarctic species: the hotheaded naked ice borer. These bizarre creatures were each about half a foot long, very light, and had a bony plate attached to their head that could become burning hot, allowing them to bore tunnels through ice at high speeds. They used this ability to hunt penguins. Packs of them would melt the ice beneath a penguin causing it to sink into the slush, at which point the borers would surround the hapless creature and consume it.

Dr. Pazzo discovered the borers by chance as a result of their predatory nature. While studying a group of penguins, she noticed one frightened member of the group rapidly sinking into the ice. When she pulled the hapless creature out of the fast-growing slush pool that surrounded it, she found a host of small creatures attached to it. These creatures turned out to be the Hotheaded Ice Borers.

After careful research of this fascinating new species, Dr. Pazzo theorized that the hotheads might have been responsible for the mysterious disappearance of noted Antarctic explorer Philippe Poisson in 1837. "To the ice borers, he would have looked like a penguin," the article quoted her as saying.

Discover received more mail in response to this article than they had ever received for any other article.

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/tall-tales/antarctic-ice.html

Thanks Harish that`s the funniest thing I`ve had the pleasure of reading in months.

I wonder if these Hotheaded Naked Ice Borers are around in southern England too. Last winter I stood on some ice that I absolutely swear should have taken my weight. Yet, all of a sudden, the ice gave way and my leg went though up to the knee. A good job I had hold of a tree and was able to withdraw my leg quickly.

It seems like the incident fitted in with the modus operandi of Hotheaded Naked Ice Borers ...especially as I was wearing a peaked cap, a white sweater and a black coat which was open at the front. From below, a similar look to a penguin?

It may have been a lucky escape!

These are Arctic voles, tellywellies, not their flesh-eating cousins to the South. If your legs are hairy, you are safe from the Northern latitude variety.
The Southern variety (Antarctic) of vole uses human leg hair for nesting material and, in it's mating frenzy, rips off bits of human flesh just to get the soft follicles that make up its nest. It's usually a benign creature, but, during mating season (November through October) it can be dangerous.