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Awesome Arctic Animals

Answer: Willow Ptarmigan
 
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Aqiggiq means willow ptarmigan in Inuktitut.

Like their distant barnyard cousins, ptarmigans often find themselves on a dinner plate. If it's not a fox or an ermine's, an eagle or a falcon's, or a snowy owl's: it's a human's. After all, they taste, well, sort of like chicken. Many are eaten, but many survive, thanks to a few curious tricks. First of all, they don't fly south, while a handful of their predators do. Next, they molt three times a year to keep up with the changes in their environment. In the winter, they turn almost pure white (except for triangular patches of black on their tails), practically disappearing from predator radar. They have feathery boots that also serve as snowshoes and they dive into snow banks to take cover, sometimes remaining under a blanket of snow for more than 20 hours a day.

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