Wildlife Evidence

Once again, we saw almost no wildlife, as in mammals in Kobuk Valley National Park.  We saw a few birds but mostly we just saw lots of evidence that wildlife abounded in this park.  The sand dunes are surrounded by the same boreal forest that we encountered in Gates of the Arctic.  So it makes sense that an animal that was walking to or from an area and could cross the sand, it would be much easier walking and take them much less energy.  You already saw the wolf prints, which was our major sighting.

Bear scat is in the first photo.  It was not super fresh but not too old either.  We encountered this in the river area.

Moose scat is in the second photo.  We saw much more moose evidence and it too was mostly in the river areas.

We found lots of bones scattered across the dunes, like the one in the third photo.

Wolf scat is in the fourth photo.

Dall sheep is the smallish scat in the fifth photo and it was scattered all across the dunes.  By sightings and volume, Dall sheep must be here in the largest numbers.

Our lone mammal sighting is in the last photo.  Can you find it?  This was after lunch in the boreal forest during a rainstorm.  It’s a red squirrel.