Gilbert and her husband Tim Bartholomaus, a glaciologist at the University of Idaho, first stumbled on a gathering of glacier mice in 2006 when hiking on Root Glacier in Alaska, Candice Wang reports for Popular Science. Then in the summers between 2009 and 2012, the two experts tracked the movement of 30 glacier mice, which were identifiable by unique beaded bands. Then, Gilbert and Bartholomaus met Washington State University glaciologist Scott Hotaling in 2018.