#lagopus

Willow Ptarmigan (Lagopus lagopus), in transitional plumage, family Phasianidae, Alaska

A group of willow ptarmigans (Lagopus lagopus) in winter plumage in Lapland, Finland

Nalla told me to clean up my workspace the other day and as I was I ran into an old doll. I had to look through some of my papers to remember where it came from but with just a few small reminders I remembered. The Lagopus (Artic Fox) have an event every year where they will put one of these dolls in the window with a few sides inside of it. In the morning the sides are replaced with candy. This is of course done by the parents for their kids, but the idea behind it is that the Lagopus ghost is passing by that night and by putting the doll in the window you are telling it that you are its friend and it will give you a treat before leaving you be. If the doll isn’t there the ghost supposedly will curse your family with bad luck for the year. When I was studying this I found that it was mostly Blue morph Lagopus that took part in this tradition, although there were a small handful of White morphs that did as well. One of the kids on that trip ended up giving me their doll because they were worried that I wouldn’t be safe without it. More information can be found in the Animalia Almanac.

artists: https://toyhou.se/Amybun https://toyhou.se/lattskull_archived