Squirrels are arboreal acrobats that spread tree-generating seeds, mushrooms and fungi spores and serve as food for predators. As important as squirrels are to ecosystems, their exact habitat needs and ranges are not widely known. In a recent study published in Scientific Reports, a team of University of Alaska Fairbanks researchers used novel artificial intelligence and […]
Here in middle Alaska north of Fairbanks, a trapper wearing a flannel shirt, leather gloves, and a bushy beard tromps through the forest. He spreads his arms wide to part wild rose bushes as he steps toward his traps. On this crisp, cool fall day in 2021, this trapper — who lives in Atlanta and […]
After reading my column about biologists who once stocked a Southeast Alaska island with wolves, a reader mailed me a book. In it, the author detailed people’s attempts to import raccoons, wild pigs and other creatures to Alaska. In addition to well-known events like the recent introduction of wood bison to the Innoko River country, […]
Maybe she has the right idea, the arctic ground squirrel. Sniffing the chilly air, looking up to see the first stars of the season, she has decided to check out. A few weeks shy of fall equinox, the squirrel is now bunkered up for winter, three feet beneath the tundra of the North Slope. “There’s […]