CONSERVATION OF COASTAL HABITAT AND WILDLIFE

Between Ice and Sea

The sea wolves’ coastal environment is an insular wilderness sandwiched between the Aleutian Range and the Gulf of Alaska. This narrow piedmont between ice and sea extends extends 475 miles between Lake lliamna and False Pass revealing a mosaic of ice fields, rivers, forests and coastline. Wildflowers transform vast seaside meadows with kaleidoscopic effects. Each pack has a home range extending up and down the coast until it approaches the territory of neighboring wolves. These coastal ecosystems are more robust than any others grey wolves inhabit allowing greater carrying capacities. In some sections of coastline, we have observed a different pack every 10 miles.

Surf and Turf

Besides fishing for salmon, sea wolves dig sand lances and clams from the intertidal flats. On the coastal islands, they hunt for sea otters, sea lions, harbor seals and sea gull eggs. Ashore, the wolves hunt waterfowl and land mammals such as voles, beavers, foxes, porcupines and moose. Beheaded salmon along a riverbank show us where the wolves have been fishing. We’ve documented many kill sites. One revealed a pack of Alaska sea wolves is capable of killing an adult brown bear.

To determine how much of the of their diet comes from the sea and how they’re related to other wolves on the peninsula, we collect wolf scats and hair samples for lab analysis and biological studies by government scientists. Preliminary DNA results indicate 63% of their diet is from marine species (sea otters, salmon, seals) and that large game species (moose and caribou) account for only 2.5%.