Last week, as most of Alaska joined the cryosphere and became snow-covered, one area again stood out as one of the snowiest places on the planet. Twenty-one highway miles northeast of Thompson Pass, Alaska Department of Transportation workers noted that snow started falling just after midnight on Nov. 8, 2023. By 7 a.m., they measured […]
While we were sleeping, they were out there. Two red foxes, a male and female, pawing into spring snow on a hillside. The foxes had found the entrance to a tunnel dug many years ago. It might have been the den in which one of them was born. The fox den — in November 2023 […]
A few weeks ago, Sarah Gravem lowered a “ravenous, terrifying predator” from her boat down to the ocean floor off Sitka. Then she released it. In a slow-motion drama, sea urchins fled as a pizza-size sunflower sea star oozed toward them. Gravem explained: “I release one right in the middle and watch everybody freak out. […]
A dog can tell you a lot about the outdoors. When a Lab vacuums the ground with her nose and her tail spins like a helicopter blade, you know a grouse is about to fly. When the dog stops like a dragonfly, then runs off sniffing an invisible path, a snowshoe hare has crossed your […]