I photographed this herd of Muskox resting on a river island in the Alaskan Arctic. Despite being nearly 100 miles north of the Arctic Circle, it was over 85 F that say, and the Muskox were resting on patches of river mud struggling to stay cool.
The Dietrich River winding through the Alaskan Arctic marks one side of the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve. It’s a really pretty place. It is wild and remote.
We were listening to an ecology audiobook recently that was talking about the “S-Curve” of biological population growth. It reminded me of a few years ago when many of the tide pools along the California coast were filled with purple sea urchins. It’s interesting how animal populations can get out of balance (sadly, often from human influence), overpopulate, and then sometimes rebalance. I wonder what the population of purple sea urchins is like in this same spot now.