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Siberian Tiger in Alaska

Dittohead not! said:
Lots of mountain lions in California, maybe because there are very few wolves in the state at all, and none in the central and southern parts.

Or maybe it's all those young men in bathing suits surfing on the coast.
Oh wait: No, that's the other kind of cougar.
Seriously, there are a lot of four legged cougars here, any place that there are deer, there are likely to be mountain lions.

The Sierra Club got hunting cougars outlawed in California some 30 or so years ago. As a result, there are more cougars. Then, they tried to re introduce mountain goats to the Eastern Sierra. Guess what ate their goats.
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You can hunt any large game animal in Alaska, except for polar bears, seals, walrus, and whale. Only Alaska natives are allowed to hunt those species, and only for subsistence purposes. Musk ox and forest buffalo are native to Alaska and not hunted by many people outside of Alaska. Most non-Alaskan big game hunters are interested in our brown bears or moose, a few come up for what they call the Alaska "Big Five" game species: Grizzly bears, moose, caribou, wolf, and Dall sheep. It is very rare to find a non-Alaskan hunter looking to bag a musk ox or forest buffalo. Fewer than 150 permits are issued each year in Alaska for buffalo. Fewer than 100 musk ox were harvested at the beginning of the century, but the number has steadily increased since.

I think all game has to be managed, and banning hunting is not management. It is simply ignoring the species, and that is never a good thing. If left to their own devices all predators will continue to increase in population as long as there is game to sustain them. Eventually, however, the population of predators will exceed the number of prey and the predators will start starving out until their population once again reaches a sustainable number for the number of prey in a given area. Without human intervention this pattern will endlessly repeat. So it is always a bad idea to prevent hunting altogether regardless of the species, and it is not proper game management.
 
Glitch said:
You can hunt any large game animal in Alaska, except for polar bears, seals, walrus, and whale. Only Alaska natives are allowed to hunt those species, and only for subsistence purposes. Musk ox and forest buffalo are native to Alaska and not hunted by many people outside of Alaska. Most non-Alaskan big game hunters are interested in our brown bears or moose, a few come up for what they call the Alaska "Big Five" game species: Grizzly bears, moose, caribou, wolf, and Dall sheep. It is very rare to find a non-Alaskan hunter looking to bag a musk ox or forest buffalo. Fewer than 150 permits are issued each year in Alaska for buffalo. Fewer than 100 musk ox were harvested at the beginning of the century, but the number has steadily increased since.

I think all game has to be managed, and banning hunting is not management. It is simply ignoring the species, and that is never a good thing. If left to their own devices all predators will continue to increase in population as long as there is game to sustain them. Eventually, however, the population of predators will exceed the number of prey and the predators will start starving out until their population once again reaches a sustainable number for the number of prey in a given area. Without human intervention this pattern will endlessly repeat. So it is always a bad idea to prevent hunting altogether regardless of the species, and it is not proper game management.
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Totally agree on the issue of hunting, but try to explain that to city folk who think of Yosemite Valley as howling wilderness and wild animals as the same as cuddles, the pet kitten. They're the same ones who feed wild bears and like to get their pictures taken with buffalo in Yellowstone, sometimes with tragic results.
 
Dittohead not! said:
Totally agree on the issue of hunting, but try to explain that to city folk who think of Yosemite Valley as howling wilderness and wild animals as the same as cuddles, the pet kitten. They're the same ones who feed wild bears and like to get their pictures taken with buffalo in Yellowstone, sometimes with tragic results.
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I'm comforted knowing the Tourons are not isolated to just Alaska. Apparently there are idiots eager to win that Darwin Award everywhere you go.

When I worked for the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company and traveled the 850 mile long trans-Alaska pipeline on a regular basis I was told that if anyone was caught feeding the wildlife they would be fired on the spot. It is illegal to feed the wildlife in Alaska. Even backyard bird-feeders are technically illegal, although I have never heard of the ADF&G enforcing the law with regard to bird-feeders. There are no exceptions in the law itself.

Nevertheless, we still have idiots who intentionally feed the wildlife. We had one women near Homer who use to feed the bald eagles, until she died. Now the eagles have become a pest for that community, even stealing small pets as prey. Everyone who intentionally feeds the wildlife should face a hefty fine.
 
Glitch said:
There are no elk this far north, but in the panhandle of Alaska there are Sitka blacktail deer. They are one of the smaller species of deer, with males barely reaching as much as 200 pounds and females about half that weight. They would not be difficult for a mountain lion to take down. They are also big enough to take down caribou, but then they would be competing with the wolves and I think the wolves would win in this case. Wolves are coursing predators whereas mountain lions are ambush predators.
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Caribou are small! There's a reason that there are few to no cougars in AK and you are pretty much spelling it out.
 
Glitch said:
I'm comforted knowing the Tourons are not isolated to just Alaska. Apparently there are idiots eager to win that Darwin Award everywhere you go.

When I worked for the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company and traveled the 850 mile long trans-Alaska pipeline on a regular basis I was told that if anyone was caught feeding the wildlife they would be fired on the spot. It is illegal to feed the wildlife in Alaska. Even backyard bird-feeders are technically illegal, although I have never heard of the ADF&G enforcing the law with regard to bird-feeders. There are no exceptions in the law itself.

Nevertheless, we still have idiots who intentionally feed the wildlife. We had one women near Homer who use to feed the bald eagles, until she died. Now the eagles have become a pest for that community, even stealing small pets as prey. Everyone who intentionally feeds the wildlife should face a hefty fine.
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How's this for a touron?

 
Jonsa said:
To bears you aren't really considered a food source.

To a tiger you are lunch.
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Polar bears consider people lunch. They will eat you if they can.
 
PirateMk1 said:
Polar bears consider people lunch. They will eat you if they can.
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Polar bears are a different story to Grizzlies/Kodiaks. Different behaviors and personalities.
 
Jonsa said:
Polar bears are a different story to Grizzlies/Kodiaks. Different behaviors and personalities.
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Of the bears, they are the only true carnivore.

This is the barely coherent and grammatically inept speech of a man who desperately wants to be able to claim that he "cured coronavirus."

That's it, in a nutshell. When we do get a handle on this crisis, he wants to be able to pull out footage and declare "I called it! I said use this! I said try this! I told them to do this, it was my idea!" He's just doing it with lots of stupid stuff because he doesnt want to miss an opportunity. He's afraid 'the big one' will be mentioned and he wont get credit for it.

It's all about declaring himself the savior of the cv crisis and we'll hear all about it, esp in his campaign. (Which is basically each of his press briefings these days) --- Lursa
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Lursa said:
Of the bears, they are the only true carnivore.
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Only because of their environment. Their teeth and digestive track is no different from other grizzly bears, and they have even mated with other grizzly bears. Which means they are not true carnivores, but rather omnivores forced to eat a carnivore diet. Exactly like the Inuit natives before Europeans arrived. They are resigned to eating only meat because there is nothing else for them to eat north of the Brooks Range. Their diet is also why they are the largest of the grizzly species, even bigger than the brown bears.
 
Dittohead not! said:
How's this for a touron?

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What is truly disappointing about the video is the restraint demonstrated by the buffalo, which obviously was far more intelligent than the Touron. I was hoping to see a Darwin Award being presented by the buffalo. :lamo
 
Glitch said:
I recently stumbled across this December 2019 article:


The article then posts the following photo:
View attachment 67287081

However, what the article fails to point out is the location of the Togiak National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge covers 4.7 million acres of land located in Alaska's southwestern part of the State.
View attachment 67287082

The tiger could have only come across the Bering Sea during the Winter months when the sea is frozen, but to get that far south would have taken the tiger several weeks if not months once they entered Alaska.

As if brown bears and polar bears were not a big enough concern. Now it there would appear to be tigers in Alaska.

The article does point out that wolves and tigers are natural enemies, and there are lots of wolves in my neck of the woods. So I will take it as a sign that there are no tigers in the vicinity. If Democrats ever find out about this watch how quickly the "Alaskan Tiger" gets added to the Endangered Species list. :doh
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According to great minds like Isaac Newton and others, there is more in science which is unknown than there is which is known. It seems reasonable to expect Siberian tigers to show up in Alaska if they already inhabit northeastern Russia. Alaska is a land of great unknowns and marvelous mysteries which have fascinated scientists since the invasion of Alaska by research scientists.

In 1961 a geologist with an oil exploration company discovered the unfossilized bones of a duck-billed dinosaur, which took the scientific world by surprise. Actually, however, it did not really capture the interest of scientists at first because back then evolutionists had the mistaken idea that dinosaurs had never inhabited Alaska. Scientists later came to accept that millions of dinosaurs once inhabited Alaska, although most scientists still do not believe it is possible that an unfossilized carcass of a dinosaur could ever be found anywhere on earth.

Fresh dinosaur bones found - creation.com

The story was different however in north-western Alaska. In 1961 a petroleum geologist discovered a large, half-metre-thick bone bed. As the bones were fresh, not permineralized, he assumed that these were recent bison bones. It took 20 years for scientists to recognize duckbill dinosaur bones in this deposit as well as the bones of horned dinosaurs, and large and small carnivorous dinosaurs. Presently William A. Clemens and other scientists from the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Alaska are quarrying the bone bed.2

How these bones could have remained in fresh condition for 70 million years is a perplexing question. One thing is certain: they were not preserved by cold. Everyone recognizes that the climate in these regions was much warmer during the time when the dinosaurs lived. In central Alberta abundant plant remains indicate that the climate here was semi-tropical. It is standard geological interpretation that even after the dinosaurs died out, the entire planet was much warmer, perhaps as the result of high levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Why then did these bones not decay long ago?





 
marke said:
According to great minds like Isaac Newton and others, there is more in science which is unknown than there is which is known. It seems reasonable to expect Siberian tigers to show up in Alaska if they already inhabit northeastern Russia. Alaska is a land of great unknowns and marvelous mysteries which have fascinated scientists since the invasion of Alaska by research scientists.

In 1961 a geologist with an oil exploration company discovered the unfossilized bones of a duck-billed dinosaur, which took the scientific world by surprise. Actually, however, it did not really capture the interest of scientists at first because back then evolutionists had the mistaken idea that dinosaurs had never inhabited Alaska. Scientists later came to accept that millions of dinosaurs once inhabited Alaska, although most scientists still do not believe it is possible that an unfossilized carcass of a dinosaur could ever be found anywhere on earth.

Fresh dinosaur bones found - creation.com

The story was different however in north-western Alaska. In 1961 a petroleum geologist discovered a large, half-metre-thick bone bed. As the bones were fresh, not permineralized, he assumed that these were recent bison bones. It took 20 years for scientists to recognize duckbill dinosaur bones in this deposit as well as the bones of horned dinosaurs, and large and small carnivorous dinosaurs. Presently William A. Clemens and other scientists from the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Alaska are quarrying the bone bed.2

How these bones could have remained in fresh condition for 70 million years is a perplexing question. One thing is certain: they were not preserved by cold. Everyone recognizes that the climate in these regions was much warmer during the time when the dinosaurs lived. In central Alberta abundant plant remains indicate that the climate here was semi-tropical. It is standard geological interpretation that even after the dinosaurs died out, the entire planet was much warmer, perhaps as the result of high levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Why then did these bones not decay long ago?
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Alaska isn't as unknown as you might think. Don't let the lack of a road system fool you into believing we don't know every inch of this State. It is also not surprising to find 65.51 million year old bones with traits found in much more modern bones. There was a paper published last year about finding 70 million year old dinosaur fossils containing recent organic material.

Source: Cretaceous dinosaur bone contains recent organic material and provides an environment conducive to microbial communities - eLife, June 21, 2019

It is certainly true that cold had absolutely nothing to do with it, since there was no ice at either pole until ~40 million years ago. That was why so many dinosaurs are found in Alaska. It was warm with temperatures approaching the tropics today, with similar vegetation. Under 20+ hours of sunlight the vegetation would have grown particularly quickly during the Summer months. A feast for any herbivore.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were between ~2,500 ppm at the beginning of the Cretaceous and ~1,000 ppm by the end of of the Cretaceous, but that would have no effect on the surface temperatures. The planet was warmer because our orbit was different, and that changed ~40 million years ago. Our orbit changes all the time, and that has a significant effect on the climate. For example, in just 9,000 years the Sahara went from being a lush green paradise with lakes and a large mangrove forest at the delta of the Nile River, to the desolate desert it is today because our orbit changed. Today our perihelion is in early January, but 9,000 years ago it was in early July. That made all the difference, changing the monsoon season in the southern hemisphere and drying out northern Africa.
 
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Glitch said:
Alaska isn't as unknown as you might think. Don't let the lack of a road system fool you into believing we don't know every inch of this State. It is also not surprising to find 65.51 million year old bones with traits found in much more modern bones. There was a paper published last year about finding 70 million year old dinosaur fossils containing recent organic material.

Source: Cretaceous dinosaur bone contains recent organic material and provides an environment conducive to microbial communities - eLife, June 21, 2019

It is certainly true that cold had absolutely nothing to do with it, since there was no ice at either pole until ~40 million years ago. That was why so many dinosaurs are found in Alaska. It was warm with temperatures approaching the tropics today, with similar vegetation. Under 20+ hours of sunlight the vegetation would have grown particularly quickly during the Summer months. A feast for any herbivore.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were between ~2,500 ppm at the beginning of the Cretaceous and ~1,000 ppm by the end of of the Cretaceous, but that would have no effect on the surface temperatures. The planet was warmer because our orbit was different, and that changed ~40 million years ago. Our orbit changes all the time, and that has a significant effect on the climate. For example, in just 9,000 years the Sahara went from being a lush green paradise with lakes and a large mangrove forest at the delta of the Nile River, to the desolate desert it is today because our orbit changed. Today our perihelion is in early January, but 9,000 years ago it was in early July. That made all the difference, changing the monsoon season in the southern hemisphere and drying out northern Africa.
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Researchers know what they know or think they know, but what they don't know is monumental. For example, how could a 2,000 feet deep frozen muck mixed throughout with broken branches and trunks of tropical trees have formed over a flattened tropical forest in Alaska? There is only one possibility. A massive crashing down flood followed simultaneously by a massive sudden climate change.
 
The Amur Tiger is the coolest predator on the planet. If they are in Alaska, that is wonderful news. I am with the other poster that said to tag it and track it. If a female shows up, that is really going to be something else.
 
It's the Russians, I tell ya! They're taking over Alaska as we speak!
 
Dittohead not! said:
Were I walking through the bush in Alaska, I'd much rather come across such a church than I would a tiger.
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The Ninilchick River is where I go to catch King salmon on opening day. They are not as big as they are on other rivers, only weighing between 20 and 30 pounds, but the tourists don't know about this river so there are hardly anyone who fishes it other than local Alaskans. The lack of tourists this Summer, due to COVID-19, has made the bears bolder than in prior Summers. I've already had three brown bear encounters since the beginning of June. Nothing aggressive. They are just showing up hoping they can steal some salmon.

Most Alaskans fillet their salmon as soon as it is caught. Keeping the fillets on ice, and tossing the head and bones back into the river or just left on the bank for the seagulls and others critters to consume. Often bears will show up for these scraps. I can deal with bears. I know how they will behave. I don't know diddly-squat about tigers, other than wolves are their natural enemy. So I'm glad it was an April Fool's joke. If it had been real I may have become concerned.
 
Glitch said:
The Ninilchick River is where I go to catch King salmon on opening day. They are not as big as they are on other rivers, only weighing between 20 and 30 pounds, but the tourists don't know about this river so there are hardly anyone who fishes it other than local Alaskans. The lack of tourists this Summer, due to COVID-19, has made the bears bolder than in prior Summers. I've already had three brown bear encounters since the beginning of June. Nothing aggressive. They are just showing up hoping they can steal some salmon.

Most Alaskans fillet their salmon as soon as it is caught. Keeping the fillets on ice, and tossing the head and bones back into the river or just left on the bank for the seagulls and others critters to consume. Often bears will show up for these scraps. I can deal with bears. I know how they will behave. I don't know diddly-squat about tigers, other than wolves are their natural enemy. So I'm glad it was an April Fool's joke. If it had been real I may have become concerned.
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I'm thinking I should have moved to Alaska in my youth. I have to go a long way to catch a salmon from where I live. There once were lots of salmon in our rivers, but now there are 40 million people living in this state instead.

But, I'm not so sure about those long winter nights there.
 
Dittohead not! said:
I'm thinking I should have moved to Alaska in my youth. I have to go a long way to catch a salmon from where I live. There once were lots of salmon in our rivers, but now there are 40 million people living in this state instead.

But, I'm not so sure about those long winter nights there.
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You should watch the cheesy movie 40 days of Night
 
Dittohead not! said:
I'm thinking I should have moved to Alaska in my youth. I have to go a long way to catch a salmon from where I live. There once were lots of salmon in our rivers, but now there are 40 million people living in this state instead.

But, I'm not so sure about those long winter nights there.
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I was born and raised in southern California. I didn't move to Alaska until age 37. I still have to drive a fair distance to get to the Ninilchik River, it is ~220 miles from where I live north of Anchorage. So it is a solid 5 hour drive each way, and you have to be on time. The salmon only return to the rivers during high tide. So if you are an hour late, you will be waiting another 11 hours before the next wave of salmon begin returning.

Due to the lack of tourists this Summer, they significantly increased the bag limits of the salmon we can catch. Normally we're limited to one or two Kings, but this year the limit is five. On the Russian River I was catching Reds as fast as I could bait a line. I have already caught well over 300 pounds of salmon this season.

The long Winter nights in Alaska are countered by the long Summer days. Summers are full of activity, including hunting, fishing, and foraging. Winters tend to be more sedentary. Enjoying the northern lights from the comfort of your centralized-heated home. Unless you are interested in Winter activities like skiing, snowboarding, or skating. Personally, I do a little bird hunting during November and December, but otherwise spend the bulk of my Winters indoors.

Because I'm so close to the coast my Summer and Winter temperatures tend to be very mild. Unfortunately, it also means that about two-thirds of my days every year are also covered in clouds. So I don't get to see the northern lights as often as I would like. For mostly cloud-free days and nights, you need to be somewhere in the interior of Alaska, like Fairbanks, Delta Junction, or Tok. It is the interior of Alaska where the temperature differences become extreme.
 
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Glitch said:
I was born and raised in southern California. I didn't move to Alaska until age 37. I still have to drive a fair distance to get to the Ninilchik River, it is ~220 miles from where I live north of Anchorage. So it is a solid 5 hour drive each way, and you have to be on time. The salmon only return to the rivers during high tide. So if you are an hour late, you will be waiting another 11 hours before the next wave of salmon begin returning.

Due to the lack of tourists this Summer, they significantly increased the bag limits of the salmon we can catch. Normally we're limited to one or two Kings, but this year the limit is five. On the Russian River I was catching Reds as fast as I could bait a line. I have already caught well over 300 pounds of salmon this season.

The long Winter nights in Alaska are countered by the long Summer days. Summers are full of activity, including hunting, fishing, and foraging. Winters tend to be more sedentary. Enjoying the northern lights from the comfort of your centralized-heated home. Unless you are interested in Winter activities like skiing, snowboarding, or skating. Personally, I do a little bird hunting during November and December, but otherwise spend the bulk of my Winters indoors.

Because I'm so close to the coast my Summer and Winter temperatures tend to be very mild. Unfortunately, it also means that about two-thirds of my days every year are also covered in clouds. So I don't get to see the northern lights as often as I would like. For mostly cloud-free days and nights, you need to be somewhere in the interior of Alaska, like Fairbanks, Delta Junction, or Tok. It is the interior of Alaska where the temperature differences become extreme.
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I've decided that no place is perfect. Here, winters are mild and pleasant, a great time to be outdoors. Summers are hot, a good time to be in an air conditioned house.

The fishing is a lot better in Alaska, though.
 
Dittohead not! said:
I've decided that no place is perfect. Here, winters are mild and pleasant, a great time to be outdoors. Summers are hot, a good time to be in an air conditioned house.

The fishing is a lot better in Alaska, though.
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So are the earthquakes. We just had another magnitude 7.8 quake a couple days ago. I've experienced two quakes that were even larger, and one that lasted for more than 2 minutes before it stopped shaking. Having grown up in southern California I quite like earthquakes when they are under magnitude 5.0, but they are not for everyone. I have also been covered with volcanic ash on two separate occasions by Mount Redoubt and Mount Spurr.

The problem with living in geographically beautiful areas is they tend to be very young, geologically speaking, and that tends to make them dangerous places to live.
 
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