Alaska: Dog runs 150 miles across the Arctic Ocean and suffers bite wounds

Alaska
240 kilometers across the Arctic Ocean: Hund returns home after the odyssey

The dog Nanuq was lost during a family outing – and turned up again 240 kilometers away. Even more curious: he had covered the whole distance over icy sea.

The joy was huge when the Australian shepherd Nanuq and his family finally met again. Not only because the reunion was so unlikely, but also because the one-year-old dog from Alaska had experienced a true odyssey.

It all started when owner Mandy Iworrigan and her family took their dogs to the town of Savoonga on St. Lawrence Island in Alaska in March. That’s where Nanuq and another dog got lost. The other family dog, Starlight, reappeared after two and a half weeks, but there was still no sign of Nanuq. This was particularly difficult for the three children in the family: each of them had their own dog, which they treated like another sibling.

Alaska: Dog Crosses Frozen Sea

It was only a month later that photos of a dog that looked suspiciously like Nanuq appeared on social networks. And indeed it was about the lost dog. “I thought: That’s not possible. That’s our dog. What is he doing in Wales?” Owner Mandy Iworrigan told the “Anchorage Daily News”. Because Nanuq was said to be in Wales – a small town in Alaska that was separated by the Bering Sea from St. Lawrence Island, where the family had last seen him. About 240 kilometers separate the two cities.

One can only imagine the journey the dog must have made across the frozen marginal sea that lies at the northern end of the Pacific Ocean between North America and northeast Asia. “I have no idea why he ended up in Wales. Maybe the ice shifted while he was hunting,” speculates his owner. She suspects that Nanuq fed on seals or birds on the way: “He’s clever.”

Iworrigan flew to Wales to bring the dog back to the family. The animal is doing well, but suffered two major bite wounds. It’s not entirely clear where these voices come from — possibly from a seal or a small polar bear, Iworrigan says.

Source: “Anchorage Daily News”