Counting Sheep in Alaska

Counting Sheep in Alaska takes viewers on a flight with scientists as they survey Dall's sheep populations in remote locations of the Brooks mountain range. The video highlights the challenges associated with studying the sheep, which live as real-world cliff hangers on rocky, exposed areas high in alpine mountain locations. It also documents the importance of monitoring this species. Because they live in a specific habitat year-round, Dall's sheep can serve as an indicator of large-scale change to mountain ecosystems. National Park Service scientists involved with Dall's sheep monitoring efforts recently developed a state-of-the-art approach to study them that decreases the costs associated with monitoring while increasing the scientists' ability to accurately predict trends in the population.

For more information about Dall's sheep monitoring in Alaska's national parks and to download a copy, visit the Arctic Inventory and Monitoring Network's website. http://science.nature.nps.gov/im/unit... For more information or to get a copy of the video, contact Stacia Backensto at 907-455-0669 or [email protected].