Alaska Fish & Wildlife News
October 2003

Critter Cam Reveals Bear's Eye View

By Riley Woodford

On a brushy hillside in the wilds of Chichagof Island, five excited scientists watched a brown bear cub reach out her paws and pull down a devil's club stalk. Her mouth appeared to be just inches away as she gingerly nibbled off the berries.

"She's very delicate with her lips," said state bear researcher LaVern Beier.

The bear was in a stream bottom half a mile away, but the view was up close and personal, transmitted from a tiny video camera mounted in a collar around ...   Critter Cam ArticleContinued

One Trapper's Story
Earl Callihan

By Riley Woodford

Earl Callihan and his wife live in Petersburg, but they spent decades living on Prince of Wales, Etolin and Admiralty Islands and aboard boats, trapping throughout Southeast.

Earl grew up in the forests of Northern Washington and Idaho during the Great Depression. A hand-troller-turned-logger told him stories of Southeast Alaska, and Callihan headed north shortly after finishing high school.

Callihan and his wife trapped and hunted every game and fur-bearing animal in Southeast ...   One Trapper's Story ArticleContinued

Reindeer Herders' Memories of Caribou

By Sue Steinacher

"Our ancestors always told us that one day the caribou is gonna come back again. I think that's becoming true."

Inupiat elder Dan Karmun Sr. recently shared those thoughts with UAF Curator of Oral History Bill Schneider and Rose Fosdick, Program Director for the Reindeer Herders Association. Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game biologists are listening.

Researchers, rural subsistence hunters, reindeer herders, urban hunters, conservationists and others are keeping an eye on ...   Reindeer Herders ArticleContinued

Raven Summer Lessons Learned from the Birds

By ADFG StaffAlice Sullivan, ADF&G volunteer, Nome, Alaska

"Free as a bird! I want to be free as a bird!" How often I've heard this expression when someone was fed up with the demands of job and family. Early this summer I studied nesting ravens in the Nome area for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. And guess what? Birds are definitely not free! They are as bound by biological demands and limitations as much as we are bound by our laws and rules.

In late April, May and early June the ravens' time was entirely taken up with the demands ...   Ravens ArticleContinued