Background Articles

The pack killed all the black-tailed deer on the island and another established pack back on the mainland was preventing their return. Scientists assumed they would die off from starvation.

Research shows Beavers are relatively new to the Seward Peninsula and push farther north as climate change occurs.

The nation's six million feral pigs are destroying crops and preying on endangered species. But the most serious threat they pose is to human health.

Despite the negativity toward using and selling fur, Indigenous people say fur can be a sustainable, respectful and even luxurious material for clothing, accessories and art.

Vancouver Island is known for its predatory wildlife, such as black bears, coastal wolves and cougars. Many towns and villages sit in areas with high populations of predatory wildlife, making interactions with humans often inevitable, unless effective coexistence management is in place.

A wildlife biologist at Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge presented his findings after studying the kill-rate of moose by wolves in the Yukon Flats.

Rain began to fall on the already snow-covered Yamal Peninsula, an Arctic region of northwest Siberia, in November 2013. Rain fell for the next 24 hours.  As rain saturated the snow, the temperature dropped below freezing, turning the precipitation into a thick, icy crust. 

The arctic fox population across the Nordic region has declined for decades, but recent data suggests cross-border cooperation between Finland, Norway and Sweden is helping turn things around. Arctic Fox dens and cub population is highest in all three countries.

For the first time in decades, Yukon's Finlayson caribou herd appears to be growing in number. That's according to recent population survey data from the territorial government.

Alaska’s Western Arctic Caribou Herd population is lower than at any time in over four decades. Climate change is the leading cause of the decline in the herd.

The North Slope offers a marginal place for a moose because far fewer willow shrubs grow there than in the boreal forest. Moose are recent invaders of the North Slope due to climate warming and expanding willow growth.

Alaska’s longest and most popular hunting season ended early this year. The Delta Junction bison hunt usually extends from October to March, but the state limited this year’s season to just two weeks, and only 50 animals were taken, because last winter’s heavy snow and ice buildup wiped out nearly a third of the Delta bison herd.

A study – now in its eighth year – has found a remarkably diverse diet among the region’s wolf population. Sea otter has become a primary source of food.  

Southeast Alaska’s wolves tend to favor deer and moose at mealtime, but in a pinch they won’t say no to black bear – or even sea otter.

Beavers were not previously recognized as an Arctic species, and their engineering in the tundra is considered negligible. Recent findings suggest that beavers have moved into Arctic tundra regions and are controlling surface water dynamics, which strongly influence permafrost and landscape stability. Here we use 70 years of satellite images and aerial photography to show the scale and magnitude of northwestward beaver expansion in Alaska, indicated by the construction of over 10,000 beaver ponds in the Arctic tundra. The number of beaver ponds doubled in most areas between ~ 2003 and ~ 2017. Earlier stages of beaver engineering are evident in ~ 1980 imagery, and there is no evidence of beaver engineering in ~ 1952 imagery, consistent with observations from Indigenous communities describing the influx of beavers over the period. Rapidly expanding beaver engineering has created a tundra disturbance regime that appears to be thawing permafrost and exacerbating the effects of climate change.

Ten years ago, Mike Gibeau, then the carnivore biologist for Banff National Park, identified a problem: collisions between grizzly bears and trains were increasingly prevalent. Between 2000 and 2010, ten grizzly bears there were struck and killed by trains and several more unconfirmed strikes were reported.

They have so far identified fewer than 100 hares in the Nome area, fewer than 20 in Ekuk near Bristol Bay and about 10 in the Kotzebue area. Alaska hares are distinct from snowshoe hares mainly because of their size. Jackrabbits are two to three times bigger than the snowshoe, according to Barger.

The North American beaver has expanded its range in recent years and is now colonising Arctic territory, researchers have found. More than 12,000 beaver ponds have been mapped in western Alaska – double the amount found in the region 20 years ago.

In one of the planet’s coldest places, 130 kilometers south of Russia’s Arctic coast, scientist Sergey Zimov can find no sign of permafrost as global warming permeates Siberia’s soil. As everything from mammoth bones to ancient vegetation frozen inside it for millennia thaws and decomposes, it now threatens to release vast amounts

Sebastian Jones, Wildlife Analyst