Stan Boutin has climbed more than 5,000 spruce trees in the last 30 years. He has often returned to the forest floor knowing if a ball of twigs and moss within the tree contained newborn red squirrel pups. Over the years, those squirrels have taught Boutin and his colleagues many things, including an apparent ability […]
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, […]