MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1073533.TIF
Researchers who study brown bears navigate by boat through driving rain on the Unuk River in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. This is the "dry season," and the region receives more than two hundred inches of rain each year.
Brown bears or grizzlies are prevalent in the Tongass, so there is interest in study of their behavior and range. A decline in the lower 48 states has heightened management concern and an increased interest in habitat-related studies in Alaska.
Results show brown bears avoid clearcuts and are more often found in riparian old growth, wetland, and alpine/subalpine habitat because of more nutritious foraging and better cover.
The Unuk Study Area is part of Misty Fiords National Monument and classified as wilderness. Because of this, no helicopters are allowed, making primary access by boat since no roads exist. Located 100 km northeast of Ketchikan, the Unuk River, which means “Dream River” in the native Tlingit language, flows from the Canadian border to salt water. Although much of the main river channel is too deep and glacial for bears to fish, the river contains several clear tributaries with spawning salmon.
- Copyright
- MELISSA FARLOW
- Image Size
- 6000x4000 / 137.4MB
- Keywords
-
alaska, bearded and moustached people, beards, biological research, biologists, boats, caucasian, caucasian ethnicity, clothing, color image, conservation, day, gender, geography, getty, image type, informal portraits, mature men, men only, national forests (alaska), natural forces and phenomena, north america, number of people, one person, outdoor, people, photography, portraits, precipitation, rain, raincoat, rainwear, research, rivers, scientists and technicians, scientists in the field, tongass national forest, tracking, types of clothing, united states, unuk river, weather, wildlife conservation, wildlife tagging and tracking
- Contained in galleries
- Tongass_National Geographic magazine_7/2007
