June 21, 2001  -  The Four-Legged Advantage  - 
Drain Creek on the Kongakut River, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Walking in the arctic, one learns fast that four legs are better than two. The mammals here make us look like clods. I watched four Dall sheep, including a spring lamb, scale a sloughed granite wall in minutes -- putting the best mountaineers to shame. Groups of caribou seem to float above the uneven tussocky tundra with more grace and unison than the finest ballet troupes. Wolves can lope 50 or so miles in a day, making Olympic long distance runners look wimpy. Arctic ground squirrels bound over the ground as if they're spring-loaded. Even Old Griz lumbers up and down steep valleys for the better part of the 24 hours of arctic daylight.

We need special footwear to travel in the arctic, and even then we're clumsy at best. It hardly seems fair that while the four-legged ones are best-suited to this environment, it's the two-legged creature -- man -- who will decide their fate.


photo... wolf tracks in sand

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