Outrunning Extinction: How Caribou Battle Manmade Obstacles for Winter Survival January 11, 2026 Alaska, A-Z Animals
...One of the world’s largest caribou herds, the Western Arctic Herd, has been experiencing steep population declines, with the 2022 herd roughly a third of its peak size in 2003, according to Alaska Department of Fish and Game data. One of the causes may be the mounting barriers to migration. A study recently published in Scientific Reports found that even in remote areas like northwest Alaska, roads are altering the movements of caribou....
Mercury Rising December 12, 2025 Alaska, bioGraphic
... In the summer of 2013, two Alexander Archipelago wolves ... swam across a narrow channel to reach Pleasant Island, Alaska, a 50 square kilometer (19 square mile) rock jutting out of the stormy Gulf of Alaska. Wolves hadn’t previously lived on Pleasant Island... Within a few years, the wolves blossomed to a family of 13, and the deer, in turn, were entirely wiped out..,
Petersburg mill wins 5-year Forest Service contract to log at Thomas Bay November 28, 2025 Alaska, Chilkat Valley News
... The U.S. Forest Service has awarded an unusual timber contract to supply Petersburg’s Alaska Timber and Truss with enough logs from Thomas Bay for several years of operation, while also improving moose and deer habitat...When managed forests are harvested, the resulting low vegetation — including species like huckleberry and other forage plants — provides food for moose and deer for one to two decades ...
Sitka area tops for deer abundance in Alaska November 26, 2025 Juneau Independent
... Camera surveys in the winter of 2023-2024 resulted in an index of about 25 deer per square mile of “winter habitat,” or old growth forest habitat ... “Deer around Sitka appear to be the best in the state, the best density, and the herds are doing well,” Wayne said. “The days of hunter effort per deer is lower than elsewhere in Alaska.” ...
A lawsuit challenges an Alaska program that allows killing bears as a way to rebuild a caribou herd November 10, 2025 Alaska, Big Rapids Pioneer
... The herd, named for its traditional calving ground, peaked in number at around 190,000 in the late 1990s and had provided an important source of food for subsistence hunters from dozens of communities. But the herd's numbers began falling, down to about 13,000 caribou by 2019, and hunting has not been allowed since 2021, according to the department...
Deer released on Southern Kenai Peninsula October 29, 2025 Alaska, The Delta Discovery
... Extensive planning to capture and transplant Sitka black-tailed deer from the Kodiak Archipelago to the southern end of the Kenai Peninsula ... The goal of the translocation project is to evaluate the success of an introduced deer population ... and potentially add another big game species to the Kenai Peninsula for future harvest...
The Concerning Decline of the Reindeer Population October 19, 2025 AZ Animals on MSN
... It’s predicted that almost 2.9 million reindeer are left in the population, but that number decreases daily. In just the last 10-25 years, there was a 40% decline in population, from 4.8 million to the current 2.9 million....
Alaska’s wild caribou population fluctuates but remains around 750,000–900,000 ... Reindeer have declined in Canada by 52% over three generations ...
Captured Kodiak Sitka Blacktails Re-released In Kenai Peninsula October 7, 2025 Alaska Sporting Journal
... Extensive planning to capture and transplant Sitka black-tailed deer from the Kodiak Archipelago to the southern end of the Kenai Peninsula came to fruition at the end of September. The goal of the translocation project is to evaluate the success of an introduced deer population, track their expansion and survival in a new area, and potentially add another big game species to the Kenai Peninsula for future harvest ...
These wolves in Alaska ate all the deer. Then, they did something unexpected August 1, 2025 ZME Science on MSN
... The deer population of around 120-200 deer plummeted. But instead of moving to greener pastures, the wolves remained on an island and shifted their diet to unexpected prey: sea otters... Sea otters are themselves a top predator in the near-shore ecosystem, while wolves are an apex predator in the terrestrial area. — so it’s pretty surprising that you end up with a dynamic where one eats the other ...
Thinning restores ungulate foraging habitat in historically logged forests July, 2025 Ecological Applications
... The coastal rainforests of western North America were fundamentally transformed by commercial logging throughout the 20th century, resulting in depauperate second-growth forests that provide limited understory production and foraging habitat for herbivores. The Tongass National Forest in Alaska, USA, is the largest contiguous tract of coastal temperate rainforest in the world, but nearly 200,000 ha of second-growth forest have created a need to restore understory plant communities and foraging habitat for ungulates like Sitka black-tailed deer ... our results show that precommercial thinning is a valuable management tool that increases forage and deer habitat use in second-growth coastal rainforests...
ADF&G plans to increase food security by relocating deer to Kenai Peninsula June 10, 2025 Alaska's News Source
... plan to bring Sitka black-tailed deer back to the southern Kenai Peninsula ... The goal of the project is to evaluate how well an introduced deer population in a new area ...
Ninth Circuit affirms pandemic-induced emergency moose hunt for Alaskan tribe June 3, 2025 Courthouse News Service
... A Ninth Circuit panel on Monday upheld a federal board’s emergency decision to let a Native American tribe hunt moose and deer amid foot shortages during the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic... the Federal Subsistence Board authorized the Organized Village of Kake ... to hunt two bull moose and five male deer on federal land....
Coastal Alaska wolves exposed to high mercury concentrations from eating sea otters: research May 28, 2025 EurekAlert!
... research in the journal Science of The Total Environment that shows wolves eating sea otters have much higher concentrations of mercury than those eating other prey such as deer and moose... “We know that glaciers can release a tremendous amount of mercury ... In coastal Alaska, glaciers are retreating at some of the most rapid rates in the world...
Using public participation and genetic mark‐recapture data to estimate urban moose population demographics 2025 - The Journal of Wildlife Management
... we developed a methodology for estimating demographics of an urban moose (Alces alces) population by combining reports from the public and genetic mark-recapture data. From 2018–2021, we elicited the public's help during a 3-day period in late February to locate moose for biopsy sampling in Anchorage, Alaska ... This study showed that by eliciting public participation in an urban environment, genetic mark-recapture was a feasible alternative to traditional aerial surveys to estimate moose population demographics, a technique that could easily be adapted to other urban areas and wildlife species...
Thermal drones help biologists dart deer March 24, 2025 Alaska, The Wildlife Society
... . “As soon as we started doing that, our whole operation changed,” Finnegan said. Suddenly, they could see that deer were all around them—the thick vegetation found on much of the island just hid them. “There were a lot more animals near us than we realized,” ...
Wolf Management Report and Plan, Game
Management Unit 1B 2025 Alaska Department of Fish and Game
... Because of the relatively short water crossing involved, population interchange between wolves on portions of the Unit 1B mainland and the adjacent Unit 3 islands probably occurs on a regular basis. In an effort to reduce wolf populations and increase deer numbers, government wolf control programs and bounties were implemented until the 1970s. Conversations with trappers, hunters, pilots, and other biologists, along with information from trapper questionnaires, indicated the wolf population increased during the 1990s in response to increases in deer numbers...
Iconic pet reindeer in Alaska falls mysteriously ill after someone tampers in his pen March 13, 2025 ABC News
... In early January, someone cut a huge hole in the fencing to gain entrance, spending about five minutes inside with Star before taking off... The next night ... a man wearing a scarf over his face sprayed something from two different cans into Star’s pen and twice hit the reindeer in the face with an unknown substance...
New shelters for Sitka Black-Tailed Deer underway at Alaska Wildlife Conservation February 14, 2025 Alaska, Your Alaska Link
... following the destruction of the original shelter during a wild windstorm last month... keeping the deer dry and shaded in Alaska's harsh weather...
Migration memory: How caribou adapt to changing winter conditions February 6, 2025 Alaska Native News
... research shows that caribou will optimize their migration path based on their collective memories... When they wintered north of the same river, they were more likely to survive when there was more snow and less wind. The caribou decided whether to cross the river each year as an adaptive measure to maximize their chances of survival...
Wildlife Conservation Center raises 30,000 bucks to rebuild deer shelter January 10, 2025 Alaska Public Media
... The Sitka black-tailed deer shelter was demolished by a windstorm that swept through much of Southcentral Alaska Monday ... There are five deer at the center, and they’re known as the friendliest animals at the facility...
“They're built to handle sleighs:” A scientific look at Santa's reindeer December 24, 2024 Alaska, KTUU
... Reindeer stand out from other deer species: They have the largest and heaviest antlers of all deer species and have hair completely covering their nose... “That’s really beneficial for when they’re out there in the cold, especially when they’re in high altitudes, flying through the air,” ...
The Restoration of Sitka Blacktail Deer Habitat: Part 1 December 4, 2024 Alaska, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership
... On Prince of Wales Island, the deer population has dropped significantly during the last few decades. The population is predicted to continue on a negative trend ... Much of the best winter habitat for deer, the large old growth that protect animals from deep snows, has been clear-cut..
The Restoration of Sitka Blacktail Deer Habitat in Southeast Alaska: Part 2 December 10, 2024 Alaska, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership
... “The past 40 years of slash has not been treated. There’s slash that’s 12 feet deep and it’s a huge barrier to wildlife movement and forage. Wildlife treatment’s emphasis is to get slash as close as possible to the ground so it deteriorates faster and grows forage. You have to go slower and you end up cutting corridors for wildlife. It’s all about enhancing habitat...
Wildlife experts looks for new ways to count wolves in Alaska November 10, 2024 KMUW
... This spring, on the outskirts of the main town on Prince of Wales Island, a dog named Barley was sniffing for wolf poop. He wore a bell, and when he found some, he lay down...By collecting wolf scat, managers hope to get more DNA samples and a better sense of where the wolves spend time ...
The impact of seasonal cattle grazing on ungulate spatiotemporal behavior in a multiuse recreational area in central Alberta - PloS one, 2024
... we examined Roosevelt elk (Cervus canadensis roosevelti) spatiotemporal behavior responses to brown bear (Ursus arctos) habitat use on Afognak and Raspberry islands, Alaska ... Elk behavioral response to risk of brown bear predation could increase energy expenditure and decrease their ability to acquire forage, therefore negatively impacting survival and reproduction with spatiotemporal variation in risk response potentially amplifying these impacts...
ADFG On Hunters Preventing Spread Of Chronic Wasting Disease September 18, 2024 Alaska Sporting Journal
... “CWD has not been detected in Alaska, but our caribou, moose, deer, elk and reindeer are at risk. Proper carcass transport and disposal will keep infectious prions out of our state and help to keep our herds healthy, as well as those in other states.” Regulations prohibit the transport of “at risk” materials through Canada and into Alaska. No whole carcasses ...
Moose Management Report and Plan, Game Management Unit 20A 2024 Alaska Department of Fish and Game
... The 2019 Unit 20A population estimate of 11,770 (after applying a SCF) moose falls within the IM population objective of 10,000–15,000 moose. All completed surveys in the past 10 years (RY10–RY19) have also been within the IM population objective. Similarly, the bull-to-cow ratio has also been above the current management objective of 25 bulls:100 cows over that same period...
The US is killing bears in Alaska to save the rare species of deer June 27, 2025 Alaska, KOHA.net
... it is said that the killing of the bears that feed on the newborn deer is the last attempt to support the caribou species. Once the presence of this type of deer was 200.000, today it is estimated to be around 13.000.. in Southwest Alaska ....
Watch: Baby moose trapped in Alaska lake saved by man and police as worried mom June 20, 2024 WTAJ Altoona on MSN
... An Alaska man and two police officers rescued a baby moose from what police described as “a sure demise” after it fell into a lake and got stuck in a narrow space between a floatplane and a dock...
Alaska moose kills man trying to photograph its newborn calves May 21, 2024 BBC
... His son said he realised the moose was protecting its offspring and did not want the animal killed...
Moose attack in Alaska kills man, prompting investigation May 20, 2024 Alaska, USA Today on MSN
... A cow moose ... charged two men, kicking one of them ... The animals generally do not attack people unless they feel threatened ...
Hunters and states snubbed: Peltola sides with feds by voting against bill to delist gray wolf May 14, 2024 Alaska, Must Read Alaska
... House Resolution 764 ...gives individual states and their wildlife management agencies the right to manage gray wolf populations within their borders... Alaska is home to an estimated 7,000-11,000 wolves and is the only state in which wolves were never included on the Endangered Species List...
Federal Subsistence Board approves changes to subsistence hunting and trapping regulations April 11, 2024 Alaska, DOI.gov
... They delegated additional authority to the Togiak National Wildlife Refuge Manager to set the number of permits available by community for the Nushagak Peninsula caribou hunt in Units 17A and 17C...
Question on protecting or not protecting Kodiak Island's antlerless deer to be decided by Federal Subsistence Board March 20, 2024 Alaska, KMXT
... During this month’s Kodiak/Aleutians Subsistence Regional Advisory Council meeting on March 8, the ten-member group reiterated its position from last year that antlerless deer, like a doe or fawns, should not be hunted. As member Patrick Holmes summed up, the council says the Sitka Black-tailed deer population on the island needs certain protections...
Alaska Fish & Game to Reduce Caribou Tags Amid Continued Herd Decline February 22, 2024 Field & Stream
... The latest estimates, based on photographic aerial surveys, put the herd at approximately 152,000 animals. At its 2003 peak, it was nearly 500,000 caribou strong. Herd numbers have swung widely over the last 50 years, hitting a low of 75,000 caribou in 1976, then rebounding after hunting restrictions were put in place ...
In an era of climate change, Alaska's predators fall prey to politics January 10, 2024 Alaska, Grist
... Looking at data collected since 2003, he [Tom Paragi, a wildlife biologist for the state Department of Fish and Game] notes that when Alaska culled wolves in four areas in a bid to bolster moose, caribou, and deer populations, their numbers increased. They also remained low in those areas where wolves were left alone..,
