How About Wildlife

Mission Statement

Domestic Oil

How does this
affect the ocean

how does this
affect the animals

How Can I Help

who do I talk to

Contact us to
volunteer

Caribou

The environmentalist would have you believe that the Caribou migration routes will be disrupted by roads and by the pipeline itself. The simple fact is the pipeline is built to allow migration.

In the 1970's, production wells on drill pads in Prudhoe Bay were spaced 100 feet or more apart. New directional drilling techniques and drill equipment allow wells to be spaced 25 to 15 feet apart, and in some cases 10 feet apart.

A drill pad that would have been 65 acres in 1977 can be less than 9 acres today. Instead of building a gravel pad for exploration drilling, companies are now building temporary pads of ice, which disappear after the exploration well has been drilled. Temporary ice roads have long been used to support winter exploration drilling on the North Slope.

The heated tube allows food to grow in the winter where none existed before. Both the Porcupine and 'Central Arctic Herds are biologically healthy. After a long period of stability at around 100 ,000 animals , the Porcupine Herd began to grow steadily during the late 1970s and 1980s and reached 180 ,000 animals by 1989. The herd then decreased during a series of severe winters , and was down to 160,000 in 1992. In 2002, the Porcupine Herd numbered 123,000, but the caribou were in excellent physiological condition.

The major changes in population were caused by the severe cold winters, mother nature is the culprit, not man, not oil exploration and not GLOBAL WARMING.

Other Wildlife

The following information is being posted from ANWR.org a link will follow this posting. This is only a small part of the things you can learn from the people that live there-- Americans who are in favor of providing more energy to all of us in the United States

Wildlife other than caribou, such as bears, wolves , and moose , use the Coastal Plain area infrequently and would be unaffected by development. Populations of these animals and others that live on the Coastal Plain such as muskoxen, are healthy and increasing despite three decades of development at Prudhoe Bay. Oil and gas development on the Coastal Plain would be temporary, and the long term ability of the habitat to support wildlife would not be affected.

Grizzly bears
Grizzly bears enter their dens sometime during the first two weeks of October and remain there until mid-April in the case of most adults or mid-May in the case of sows with newborn cubs. The bears spend about half of the year avoiding the environmentally stressful winter period. Within ANWR, most dens are located on south-facing slopes in the mountains south of the Coastal Plain , where prevailing winds favor the accumulation of an insulating layer of snow. In contrast with den sites in more southerly areas , bear dens in ANWR are not surrounded by shrubby vegetation with roots that stabilize the soil. Because the soils tend to be coarse textured and poorly bonded, dens cannot be dug until the ground has frozen to a depth of about four inches. Dens in ANWR usually collapse with the spring thaw and cannot be reused in subsequent years.

Polar Bears

Alaska polar bears spend little time on land. Throughout most of the year, most Beaufort Sea polar bears are closely associated with sea ice. Sea ice is the habitat of ringed seals which are the predominant prey of polar bears. Polar bears also prey on bearded seals and occasionally belugas and walrus. While some bears become stranded onshore during summer when the shore ice melts and pack ice blows far offshore, the bears generally stay with the ice when it retreats in the summer. In the fall, some bears move near shore to feed on remains of beached carcasses, especially of bowhead whales taken by whalers.

In late October or November, some of the pregnant females move near shore to dig dens in deep snow drifts on the fast ice, or on barrier islands and land, while the majority den on the drifting pack ice. The pregnant females give birth to one to occasionally three cubs in December or January, and remain in the dens until April. Mothers with new cubs remain near the dens for up to a couple of weeks, before venturing onto the sea ice to hunt seals. Cubs remain with their mothers for 28 months.

Wolves

Wolves are widely distributed throughout Alaska and much of Canada. They are the largest wild members of the dog family, and adult males often weigh more than 100 pounds. They have a highly developed social structure which is manifested in the pack which is made up largely of family members. Within the pack, breeding is confined to the dominant male and the dominant female.

Wolves obtain most of their food by preying on large ungulates (caribou, Dall sheep, moose), particularly caribou. In some instances it is thought that wolf predation, particularly on calves, has been sufficient to cause caribou populations to decline. Part of the explanation for rapid growth of the Central Arctic Herd and high early calf survival of the Porcupine Herd may be the relative scarcity of wolves on their calving grounds.

Musk Oxen

With their squat silhouette and shaggy pelage, musk oxen look like a relic from the Ice Age. Their habit of forming a defensive circle in the face of danger resulted in near extinction of the species by hunters with guns; the animal's instinctive defense mechanism protects them from wolves, but not from bullets. Musk oxen formerly were found throughout arctic Alaska, but they were wiped out after firearms were introduced into ANWR during the mid-1800s.

In 1930, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service purchased 34 musk oxen from Greenland and transported them to Nunivak Island just off the west coast of Alaska in the Bering Sea. The animals prospered there in the absence of predators or competitors for forage. In 1969 and 1970, musk oxen were transplanted onto the Coastal Plain. Since that time they have established themselves and the population has grown rapidly. In 1972, there were about 40 musk oxen and in 1985 there were nearly 400, divided among three herds.

In recent years musk oxen numbers on the Coastal Plain appear to have stabilized, but the population continues to expand to the east and west. At least 150 musk oxen now live in the northern Yukon Territory and approximately 200 between the Canning River and Prudhoe Bay. Musk oxen are also spreading to the west of Prudhoe Bay and even to the south side of the Brooks Range.

Moose

Although moose are commonly associated with the boreal forests, they range as far north as the Beaufort Sea, making them one of the most widely distributed large mammals in Alaska. Willow is a preferred food plant, and consequently moose are most common along the major river systems where willows are abundant. However, moose are rarely found in the foothills and on the Coastal Plain of ANWR.

ANWR.ORG Jobs and Energy for America

Mission Statement - Domestic Oil - How does this affect the ocean - how does this affect the animals
How Can I Help - who do I talk to - Contact us to volunteer