Meet the National Park Service’s new canine rangers

Sled dogs have worked alongside humans for thousands of years. During the harsh Alaskan winter, they remain the best option for traversing snowy landscapes.

By KR Callaway edited by Claire Cameron

Each winter, deep snow covers the boreal forests and scrubby tundra of Alaska’s Denali National Park and Preserve. When it gets so cold that engine oil thickens and snowmobiles can’t start, rangers turn to an age-old solution for getting around: sled dogs.

Sled dogs have been a vital part of Denali’s daily operations for over 100 years. Dogs provide rangers with a reliable way to blaze trails, transport supplies, and even help park scientists with snow-dependent searches. The Rangers train a new scope for these tasks almost every year, strengthening the team of more than 30 sled dogs serving the Denali area. The new litter of sled dog puppies has just arrived, and you can track their progress toward becoming full-fledged canine rangers via a website. live puppy webcam.

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Born March 30, the five puppies – Sequoia, Mammoth, Rainier, Teton and Mesa – are housed at Denali Kennels and named after U.S. national parks in honor of the 250th anniversary of the country’s independence. The puppies have grown more than a pound per week since birth and, at just six weeks old, they are already very vocal, full of personality and well on their way to perfecting the innate abilities that make them excellent canine rangers.

“It’s ingrained in this breed of dog to want to pull, run and explore,” says David Tomeo, the park’s kennel manager. “We have a whole training program for our dogs to help them gain confidence. [in those skills] Also.”

Arctic dogs have evolved alongside humans for millennia. The first direct evidence of humans using dogs to pull sleds comes from 9,000 year old remains of two dogs found in the Eastern Siberian Arctic. Genetic evidence suggests that the lineages of these dogs could go back even further, at least to the end of the Late Pleistocene period. about 12,000 years ago.

Today’s sled dogs are genetically very similar to ancient dogs that helped guide Ice Age humans through the snow. This means that the DNA of modern sled dogs “provides a window into the history of not just dogs, but human history,” says evolutionary geneticist Tracy Smith, who directs the Dog Diversity, Origins, and Genomic Studies (DOGS) Lab at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. “This may tell us about how these dogs migrated with humans across the Arctic landscape.”

The dogs’ largely unchanged genetic profile also means they have retained several key traits through the ages. Sled dog breeds, like huskies and malamutes, have oval-shaped feet that double as snowshoes, durable joints, a thick double coat, and a digestive system that can easily metabolize fatty Arctic meats like seal or walrus. These physical characteristics, combined with an innate love for running and pulling, make these dogs ideal for this job.

“From the moment they are born, they have a very strong desire to move forward,” says Sean Williams, founder of the Alaska Mushing School, which trains sled dogs. “You just have to prepare them for what you want them to do and give them positive reinforcement when it happens. So you pet all the younger dogs that are just learning and tell them they did a great job.”

Unlike other dog breeds specialized for companionship or domestic tasks, working sled dogs “were shaped by nature in one of the harshest environments on the planet,” Smith says. By continuing to give dogs the sled tasks they are suited to, she says, mushers – people who operate dog-pulled sleds – are helping to preserve the animals’ work ethic and their place in the Arctic’s cultural heritage.

The new batch of Denali puppies won’t be big enough to learn to pull a sled anytime soon, but rangers are already exposing them to the sights, sounds and obstacles they might encounter throughout their career in their snowy country.

“We tickle their toes, we hold them on their backs, we might blow lightly in their faces – we get them used to these strange new things,” says Tomeo. “Now our puppies go on short walks. They don’t go very far yet, but it helps them gain confidence.”