Defenders of Wildlife Blog

They may have made the trek from the North Pole this year safe and sound, but how will Santa’s reindeer fare in a warming planet? Hear about the challenges that face Rudolph and the rest of the crew as the climate continues to change from Defenders’ board member Jeff Corwin.

Sadly, climate change isn’t the only threat facing caribou today. Members of Congress are again ramping up efforts to drill for oil in the birthplace of Santa’s reindeer, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s coastal plain. Such a move would destroy the pristine nature of the coastal plain forever, and make life even harder for animals like the Porcupine caribou that are already suffering the effects of a warming world.

You can make a difference  - contact your member of Congress and tell them to keep drilling OUT of the Arctic National Wildlife refuge today.

Getting a Glimpse

It’s not every day one gets a chance to make the long trip up to the state of Alaska, so when Defenders gave me the offer, I seized it! And in my ten days there, I did my best to see as much as I could of the state. But as anyone who’s been to Alaska knows, it’s a big place! I was fortunate enough to get a taste of what natural treasures the state has to offer, and squeezed in trips to Fox Island, Denali National Park and Kenai Fjords National Park. Between those unique, breathtaking places and my experiences below, this was truly a trip to remember.

During my trip, I visited the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center (AWCC), a nonprofit that takes in displaced, injured or orphaned animals and works to return those they can to the wild. It was there that Dr. Jordan Schaul, the center’s conservation biologist and curator, gave me the offer of a lifetime: feeding some Kodiak brown bear cubs. Don’t be fooled (as I was) – these were no teddy bears. These “cubs” were 18 months old, each weighing more than 200 pounds! Discovered as orphans in the wild nine months ago, the center has been their home ever since. In addition to providing homes for bears, moose, caribou, wood bison and more, the AWCC provides education opportunities about Alaskan wildlife, and works on conservation efforts like the Wood Bison Reintroduction Project.

Our next stop was the Alaska SeaLife Center on Resurrection Bay. Alaska’s only public aquarium and ocean wildlife rescue center, it is dedicated to research, rehabilitation and education, and will be the key facility for the rescue of any marine animals and birds in the event of an oil spill in the area. While there, we were able to get a behind-the-scenes tour by center president Dr. Ian Dutton (husband to Defenders’ own Karla Dutton), who showed us a new energy system he just installed that uses sea water to heat and cool the building. When completed, the system will supply approximately 60% of the annual heating requirements of the center while reducing carbon emissions by approximately 1.3 million pounds.

Getting Some Perspective

As I said, one of the things that struck me the most about this trip was seeing firsthand just how vast Alaska is. For years, Defenders has been working to protect the Arctic Ocean from offshore drilling, and having been here I can’t imagine what anyone would do if there was an oil disaster in the state’s remote waters, particularly with the Arctic’s extreme and unpredictable weather. As of yet, the offshore drilling industry has not been able to prove they have clean-up technology should a catastrophe like the one that happened in the Gulf of Mexico last year take place. And with the nearest Coast Guard station 1,000 miles away, they won’t be able to count on the government for backup. Being here strengthened my resolve to fight risky drilling in the fragile Arctic Ocean, and protect the incredible wildlife I’d come to know.

The Alaskan Conservation Community/Rock Star Alaskan Citizen Advocates

Of course, the main purpose of my trip was work! In addition to building Defenders’ Alaska’s office outreach program with Karla Dutton and Theresa Fiorino, I conducted two outreach trainings in Anchorage and Mat Su Valley. The trainings themselves were incredible, with motivated people coming together to build their skills on strategic campaign planning, communicating with elected officials and federal agencies, working with the media and community organizing. I wasn’t the only one doing the training – one of the best parts of these two days was learning about the innovative ideas the local organizations and volunteers were already implementing to achieve their advocacy goals.

While it is apparent very quickly that Alaska is a different kind of place, it is also very clear that there are some incredibly dedicated people and organizations there working to protect all that makes it special. I came out of this experience feeling recharged and convinced now, more than ever, that by working together, we really can win the daunting conservation battles we are facing.

Learn more:

See what Defenders’ Alaska office is doing to protect the state’s unique wildlife and breathtaking natural places.

See more images from my trip below!

It’s another Red Hot and Green Friday, and this week Aimee’s carpooling for caribou!

She knows that a major way to cut back on the use of climate change-causing fossil fuels is to move differently. Every gallon of gasoline you prevent from being burned in a car keeps 20 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. In addition to hitching a ride with others, you can take public transportation, walk or ride your bike to work or to school. Even if you leaving your car home just two days a week, you can reduce your impact on emissions by 1,590 pounds of CO2 a year. Not to mention the stress, time and money you’ll save!

Like many animals in the Arctic, climate change is making life hard for caribou. Harsher winter conditions in the region bring more snow and freezing rain, which can cover the ground with a thick, icy crust. Since caribou survive the cold months by digging through the crust in search of lichens, this means more work to reach food. With less access to food and more energy spent finding it, starvation is a very real threat. And it doesn’t get any easier when the snow melts – increased droughts in the summertime lead to more forest fires (destroying that same slow-growing lichen), and rising temperatures favor insects whose harassment can interrupt caribou feeding.

Carpooling can improve your commute, fight climate change and make life easier for these Arctic animals. What are the other ways you’re working to fight the climate change that threatens our wildlife and natural places? We want to know! Read these simple instructions and tell us what YOU’RE doing to protect wildlife from the harmful effects of climate change.

In only a few more days, a small group of the world’s most famous reindeer will be doing their annual “migration.” Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder, Blitzen (and Rudolph, of course!) are the legendary reindeer that help Santa Claus deliver all those toys to kids by pulling his sleigh ’round the world on Christmas Eve. Because of the Clement Clark Moore poem and the song Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, we know a fair bit about this famous herd. But what about the rest of the world’s reindeer?

Reindeer Around the World

Reindeer live in the northernmost places in the world, such as Alaska, northern Canada and in the Nordic countries like Norway and Finland. In North America, reindeer that live in the wild are known as caribou, and only those that have been domesticated are called reindeer. Did you know that reindeer are the only members of the deer family that are widely domesticated? Reindeer are also the only the deer species in which both males and females grow antlers!

Here are some other fun facts:

• Reindeer migrate extraordinary distances, often more than 3000 miles—which must be why Santa picked them to pull his sleigh.
• While Santa’s team has only nine members, most reindeer travel in herds of hundreds or even thousands!
• Reindeer fur is something like polar bear fur: The fur is hollow, which insulates them so that they don’t emit much heat. This keeps them both warm and dry, since they don’t melt the snow that they lie on!
• Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer has a very shiny nose, but usually,  reindeer grow fur on their noses to keep warm.
• We don’t have any scientific facts that tell us how fast they fly, but they can run nearly 50 miles an hour and swim about six miles an hour.

Interesting stuff! But sadly, America’s reindeer, or caribou, are threatened by climate change. Learn more about caribou in the video below, “Feeling the Heat,” starring Jeff Corwin.

Of course, if you want to track the most famous reindeer of all on their journey this Christmas, NORAD will be tracking Santa again this year! You can follow them here.