Alaska Dispatch is pleased to welcome a new voice to our roster of contributors: Former state wildlife biologist Rick Sinnott. Sinnott, who retired in 2010 after nearly 30 years with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, was known during his time with the state for his outspokenness on wildlife issues -- particularly the way Anchorage residents interact with urban wildlife. Here at Alaska Dispatch, he'll share his unique perspective on a variety of issues -- some biological, some not.
Have you heard the one about the dog getting caught in a wolverine trap? Here's a story with a happier ending.
On Jan. 24, Chris McKee, a biologist with Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, peered into the end of a wolverine live trap, essentially a small culvert with a trap door, set in the Chugach foothills. He had noticed the trap transmitter beeping, which indicated the trap had been sprung. McKee expected to find North America's version of the Tasmanian devil inside, but the trap was a little too heavy for a wolverine. Instead, he was being eyed by an animal that looked a lot like a wolf.
With a collar.
A German shepherd was cowering against the far end of the trap. McKee called Fish and Game.
Alaska Department of Fish and Game research biologists have been capturing wolverines on JBER for several years and equipping them with GPS collars. Research close to Anchorage, with the support and assistance of biologists and others on the military reservation, is a cost-effective way to study daily and seasonal wolverine movements. The data will be used to calibrate wolverine population estimates based on aerial track surveys throughout their range. Better data means better management of these uncommon and elusive wild animals.
When Jessy Coltrane, the acting Anchorage-area wildlife biologist, arrived with two others, the dog was still afraid to leave the trap. They lured it out with soft food, which it ate voraciously. Nothing remained of the bait in the trap -- a two-week-old chunk of beaver. The 3-year-old male shepherd was nearly dead from starvation. Reviewing a trail camera pointed at another nearby wolverine trap, McKee found that the dog had tripped that trap the day before without getting caught and had spent the next six hours trying to get back inside to the bait.
It was obvious that the dog had been lost for weeks, if not longer, during the coldest month of the winter. He weighed only 48 pounds. Hipbones and ribs jutted sharply, and two hands could gird his loins. Some of his rescuers thought that he might have been abandoned by his owner, a not uncommon occurrence in the Anchorage area, where a variety of pets are driven to the end of the road and tossed out of a vehicle to fend for themselves. However, this young dog had not been abandoned, and he was about to get lucky.
Coltrane took the dog to the Pet Stop, where Dr. Riley Wilson discovered an embedded microchip that led them to the owner. Coltrane paid the veterinary bill herself, figuring it was money well spent to save a dog's life. The dog, whose name was Hero, was extremely well-behaved, patiently allowing Dr. Wilson to explore his rectum with a finger for 20 minutes, without a sedative, to remove an impacted wad of bone fragments. "He didn't growl or anything," Wilson reported.
Hero's owner, Anthony Mayner, is a soldier stationed at Fort Wainwright, near Fairbanks. He is preparing to leave the Army and move to Anchorage. Mayner recently moved Hero to his girlfriend Zena Raven's home in Anchorage. Several weeks later Raven's roommate was playing with Hero at an unfamiliar play area. Chased, Hero kept running. He didn't return.
Raven searched for Hero in an ever-expanding gyre, in addition to frequent calls and visits to the animal shelter. A woman saw Hero near Merrill Field two days later, but was unable to catch him or contact the animal shelter. She could only leave a message on the after-hours answering machine.
Mayner had owned Hero since he was a puppy. He flew to Anchorage over the four-day Martin Luther King Day weekend and looked for Hero for six hours each day. He posted flyers. A note on craigslist.org yielded another lead. Hero had headed west, towards downtown. But without a GPS collar, no one knows how Hero eventually doubled back through the Anchorage Bowl and found his way to the wooded slopes east of Muldoon. Hero had bonded to Raven, Mayner said, "but Hero won't go to other people."
Hero had not found his way home, but he knew home when he saw it. Raven picked him up at the Fish and Game office. "When I called his name," Raven said, "he ran for the car," pulling the person holding the leash. "My Hero," she said. "He had lost a lot of weight, but he still had spirit."
Mayner estimates that Hero weighed over 70 pounds before his big adventure.
Hero's not completely out of the woods yet. He's eating well and gaining weight. He has defecated, normally a mundane function but a critical milestone in his recovery. Raven has an appointment for Hero to see Dr. Wilson next week.
After his return, Hero was given the run of the house for a few days. Raven said he seemed to be bored. "I was just letting him do whatever he wanted and he kind of made a mess," she said. For several days, Hero cooled his heels in her garage while Raven was at work. Then he learned to flip the light switch in the garage. Next to the garage door opener. Not willing to repeat Hero's odyssey, Raven is taking him to work in her car.
Rick Sinnott is a former Alaska Department of Fish and Game wildlife biologist.