Vitamin D deficiencies have long been a concern in high latitudes because sunlight — which stimulates its production in the body — is scarce in winter months.
The animals didn't necessarily become sick, researchers said, but were encountering the new pathogens much more frequently.
The highly pathogenic influenza that just claimed its first known polar bear victim continues to circulate in the world’s wild populations.
A parasite-riddled seal afraid of the water is the first Alaska marine mammal rescued in 2017. The seal will not be returned to the wild if it continues to survive rehabilitation at the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward.
The notoriously difficult-to-study Pacific walrus population decreased by about half between 1981 and 1999, likely due to hunting and changes to sea-ice habitat, according to a new USGS study that is considered the most up-to-date and comprehensive so far. The Pacific walrus is being considered for Endangered Species Act protections.
Sleeper sharks are already known to range as far north as the Chukchi Sea, but reports of possible shark attacks on seal and sea lions have increased — and now come from further into the Arctic.
A mysterious disease, possibly a virus, has afflicted ring seals along Alaska's coast, killing scores of them since July, local and federal agencies said on Thursday.
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