Mountain goats are not avalanche-proof
Mountain goats are high-elevation daredevils, learning to balance upon the steepest of rocky edifices soon after they are born. Nannies lead their kids up gnarly slopes, seeking places that predators fear to tread. While the precarious perches help goats avoid being eaten, there is an obvious downside to these sanctuaries: avalanches.
While scientists have long suspected that this life on the edge was risky, they have not really understood the extent to which avalanches affect mountain goats, and whether they instinctively shun, or can learn to avoid, avalanche-prone conditions.
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Alaska Native languages are at a crucial juncture, council’s report says
Before Monday evening’s advanced Tlingít language class, Raven Svenson and her classmate discussed how to conjugate the verb “boil” in the context of cooking. The University of Alaska Southeast class in Juneau is headed into finals week and students are preparing for dialogues that will test their conversational skills.
Professor X̱'unei Lance Twitchell walked in and suggested the specific verb for cooking meat by boiling.
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Local partnerships build understanding of ocean dynamics in Southeast Alaska
With over 30,000 km of shoreline, Alaska is home to some of the world’s richest fisheries. In Southeast Alaska, like much of the state, coastal communities depend on commercial and subsistence fisheries for their livelihood. With such a vast and varied environment, obtaining long-term oceanographic data is challenging, limiting understanding of patterns and the ability to predict long-term change in habitat and distribution of vital Alaskan fish populations.
As a part of the Southeast Alaska Ocean Trolling Vessel Measurement Program facilitated by Alaska Sea Grant, University of Alaska Fairbanks graduate student Dana Bloch has been working to overcome this challenge.
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