Alaska Fish & Wildlife News
July 2004

"Why Hunt Moose Calves?"

By Mike Taras

“Most calves and fawns will soon die. Only the luckiest and fittest will survive. Therefore either hunters or Mother Nature can take them. The logical harvesting strategy is to take calves or fawns during the fall hunting seasons, before winter can waste them.”

-Valerius Geist, Professor Emeritus of Environmental Science at the University of Calgary, Alberta, and leading authority on wild ungulates.

Some people are genuinely taken aback to realize that game managers use calf hunts ...   Moose Calf Hunt ArticleContinued

Woodpeckers: Drumming up a Mate

By Riley Woodford

Marie Kirkman feels like she's witnessing an invasion of woodpeckers this spring. She likes the striking, red-headed birds, but said the noise can be annoying – especially early in the morning.

“It sounds like they're pounding on metal,” she said.

They are. Kirkman, a student living on campus at the University of Alaska Southeast near Juneau, is witnessing the woodpecker variation of the songbird's spring courtship ritual. Many birds sing to advertise their presence and attract ...   Woodpeckers ArticleContinued

White Mountain Students Wrap Up ‘The Caribou Year’

By Sue Steinacher

White Mountain Junior High's ‘Caribou Year' ended with a huge round of applause.

Caribou biologists from Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Russia attended the Tenth North American Caribou Symposium in Girdwood, Alaska - but it was the kids from White Mountain that brought down the house.

The entire White Mountain Junior High class, together with their teacher, Chris Brown, and Jim Dau, Fish and Game's wildlife biologist in Kotzebue, recently gave a joint presentation ...   Caribou Wrap Up ArticleContinued