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• 11/9/23 Thursday, November 9, 7pm
  Virtual Winter Wildlife Series: Wildlife detection dogs help researchers find ringed seals in winter
  Join presenter Anna Bryan for the first talk of the ADF&G Virtual Winter Wildlife Series of 2023-24. In Alaska, ringed seals are an important subsistence resource to coastal Alaska Natives and an important prey for polar bears. During winter and spring, ringed seals create and maintain breathing holes through solid landfast sea ice up to 2 meters thick, allowing them to use habitat on ice (to rest, bask, and molt) and under ice (to feed on fish and invertebrates). Ringed seals also use lairs built in snow drifts on top of ice for resting and pupping. These structures are generally not visible from the ice surface. So, we used trained wildlife-detection dogs to survey an 88.2 square kilometer area of sea ice in Prudhoe Bay (near Northstar Island) to find seal breathing holes and lairs. We then documented seal behavior at these structures.
  
  Registration is required to attend. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.