These ticks may have been an example of one native species in Alaska.

They're a parasite many people don't think live in Alaska, but Fish and Game says ticks are here and their numbers are on the rise.

Researchers are finding ticks in Alaska that haven't historically been here. Some hitchhiked from the Lower 48—but others seem to have settled in.

In New England where ticks have decimated moose, the average tick load is 40,000, and some have been found with 90,000.

Dr. Kimberlee Beckmen, the sole veterinarian with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, has investigated 48 tick infestations in the past three years. She’s found evidence that two exotic species are established and reproducing in Alaska.

The No. 1 problem is ticks, according to Gerlach. Different tick species have been turing up in recent years in Alaska, apparently because they now are able to live and thrive in the current warmer climate around the circumpolar north.

"Tularemia outbreaks in hares are reported every May and June in the Fairbanks North Star Borough," said Kimberlee Beckmen, an Alaska Department of Fish and Game veterinarian.

Fish and Game says tularemia is showing up early this year in snowshoe hares around the Interior and areas south of the Alaska Range. Tularemia is a bacteria that can pass to pets and people, causing serious illness.

Alaska’s warming winters and the broader habitat for ticks in the Lower 48 and Canada may provide a channel for rarer types to get to Alaska and survive there.