QUESTION:
Have animals fallen into crevasses?  What happens to them?  Have 
scientists ever done a crevasse rescue of an animal?

                Thank you for helping us learn.
        
                Vicki Heisler
                Fourth grade teacher
                Greeley, CO, USA

ANSWER from Polly Penhale, Program Manager
            Office of Polar Programs,National Science Foundation
            Tue, 25 Feb 97 09:22:06 EST

Dear Ms. Heisler and Students,

There are few animals, except humans, which travel
over glacial fields. Seals tend to live on sea ice, or breed along the 
coasts at sea level, so wouldn't tend to come near crevasses. This 
means that the likelihood of animals falling into crevasses are 
extremely small. Explorers, and sometimes their dog teams, have indeed 
fallen into crevasses. Sometimes they were rescued and sometimes they
were killed. It depended on how deep the crevass was, on whether the
person or dog team was roped to others and could be pulled up, and on
whether the person or dog was injured in the fall.

Thanks for your question!

Polly P.