Patrick Jones, wildlife biologist for the state Department of Fish and Game, said he has heard of dogs killing moose, caribou and a days-old musk ox calf, but nothing like this attack.
“If black bears are starting to stir, brown bears could be, too,” a state Fish and Game official said.
Black bears have taken over a Juneau arboretum, shut down a fish-cleaning facility in Cordova and added to an unusually high year of bear kills in Anchorage, prompting one wildlife authority to call this summer the "craziest" year of bear encounters he's seen.
The dog’s owner waded waist-deep into Taku Lake and was bitten on his hand while pulling the husky-mix away from the river otters,.
Winter rain makes it more difficult for the animals to feed, particularly pregnant females, researchers found.
A Fish and Game biologist urges people to give the animals space.
“The fact that an otter attacked a person was certainly surprising,” said a wildlife biologist with Fish and Game, who added that it’s hard to know what the motivation behind the otter’s “unusual behavior” was.
Department biologists do not keep track of coyote numbers, but Fairbanks-area trapper Randy Zarnke said coyotes began showing up on his trapline trails three or four years ago.
Residents speculate the black bears are venturing into town because they're hungry, after a poor run of pink salmon and rainy weather that hurt the abundance of berries, limiting food for the animals.
The National Park Service said a 22-year-old Ohio man was salvaging moose meat when he was killed in the national park’s first recorded fatal bear mauling.
Michael Soltis’ death is the second fatal bear attack in the Anchorage municipality in two summers.
Adding to the concerns are stories of increasingly aggressive foxes in Marshall and other villages. It appears to be a strong year for the fox population, a state biologist said. Marshall is shooting stray dogs to protect village residents.
Coyotes have killed at least three dogs in Seward, and police are trying to trap the predators before they get more.
An enzyme protects squirrels during and after hibernation, and something similar could help people whose hearts shut down, a new study finds.
Biologists say they’ve been unable to confirm several reported sightings, including one from a resident who’s sure a cougar showed up in his yard.
The man was walking his dogs on a well-used trail when he came across a sow with two cubs, a Fish and Game assistant area wildlife biologist said.
If high temperatures melt snow and that leads to a bear’s den getting flooded, that’s another reason the bear might head outside. It’ll likely try to find another den, Farley said.
The Far North's iconic polar bear appears to have joined the list of Arctic species afflicted with a mystery illness that causes hair loss, lesions and oozing sores. Six in Barrow and three in Kaktovik.
Thirty-two musk oxen carcasses were found March 15 by scientists who had been studying them. The animals were dead and entombed in ice. The belief is that the musk oxen either drowned during a February thaw or became trapped in water and died after it froze.
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