Cool Facts

**Caribou and Moose shed their antlers every year. Caribou are the only animals in the deer family that both male and female have antlers. Antlers are rich in calcium and phosphorous and are the only source of these minerals for many arctic creatures.

**Salmon return to their birthplace to spawn. Once they leave the salt water they don’t eat anything; their changing color is explained by the literal rotting of their flesh. During the spawning, many creatures catch them (bears, gulls). Their remains are picked over by detritivores (things that eat dead things, eg: ravens, fungi) and provide nitrogen for the soil.

**The richest and largest copper mine in the world was in Kennicott. It is located in the nation’s largest national park: Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve (which is bigger than Switzerland).

**Wormwood was used by indigenous to repel mosquitoes. Uncle Rick says that the camphor is useful for deterring ground hogs as well.

**Glacial Ice is created as tons of snow accumulates, compressing the ice into super-dense particles or “firns.” The reason glaciers look blue is that the ice is so dense, it absorbs the other colors of the light spectrum, reflecting only the blue light.