Animal Stories (Encounters with Alaska's Wildlife)

These timeless, beautifully written essays share encounters and observations on a variety of Alaskan wildlife and include natural history information. They have a wide reach, in a number of ways. Besides essays about Alaska’s best-known and most charismatic animals—for instance grizzlies and wolves, moose and Dall sheep, bald eagles and beluga whales—Sherwonit introduces readers to many of Alaska’s largely overlooked species, from wood frogs to redpolls and shrews to lynx and wolverines. The stories are also geographically diverse, with stories that stretch across the state, from the Panhandle to the Arctic, and also from Alaska’s urban center, Anchorage, to its most remote backcountry. The essays also examine the complicated relationships humans have with other animals, and consider different ways of knowing, and relating to, these critters. They are intended to be thought-provoking as well as entertaining: to increase readers’ awareness and get people thinking about their own relationships with wild neighbors, wild relatives, and the inherent value that these animals have, irrespective of what they give to us.