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Horses under the Whispering Stars

It's mid-winter in the Siberian taiga just north of the Arctic circle, and in a forest clearing a group of horses clear away snow with their hooves to feed on the grasses buried beneath. The temperature is minus 53° Celsius and their breath freezes instantly in the cold air and a thick layer of ice has formed in the hair around their nostrils and mouth. Somehow horses are not an animal one would normally associate with this arctic environment, but these seemed in good condition, short stocky and fat. This hardy breed of horse known as the "Yakut" thrives in the Siberian Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) despite the fact that this region has the coldest climate of anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere. A record-breaking low temperature of minus -67.8° Celsius (-90.4°F) was measured there in January 1885. What seems really remarkable is that during the long and extremely cold winters, these horses are able to fend for themselves and require no shelter or supplementary feeding. Not only do they survive in the cold, but they are also able to endure the sweltering heat of summer when temperatures can rise to plus forty degrees Celsius, giving the region the greatest temperature range of anywhere on Earth. During the winter much of Yakutia experiences a temperature inversion which results in an unusual phenomena. When the temperature dips below minus 53° Celsius, you can often hear a soft whooshing noise like the sound of grain being poured. It is caused by vapour in one's own breath turning to ice crystals in the cold, dry air. Because sound travels much further in extreme cold, It can be particularly noticeable if you a close to a group of horses in the taiga on a cold, still night. The local Yakut people call this sound "The Whisper of the Stars."