Pet arrives home, dog-tired, after Alaskan sea-ice odyssey

Author: Associated Press
Published: Updated:
In this photo provided by Mandy Iworrigan is Nanuq, in the middle with Brooklyn Faith, after the 1-year-old Australian shepherd was returned to Gambell, Alaska, on April 6, 2023, after it disappeared for a month and walked on the Bering Sea ice 150 miles to Wales, Alaska. On the left is Zoey with Starlight and on the right is Ty with Kujo. (Mandy Iworrigan via AP)

A 1-year-old Australian shepherd took an epic trek across 150 miles (241 kilometers) of frozen Bering Sea ice that included being bitten by a seal or polar bear before he was safely returned to his home in Alaska.

Mandy Iworrigan, Nanuq’s owner who lives in Gambell, Alaska, and her family were visiting Savoogna, another St. Lawrence Island community in the Bering Strait, last month when Nanuq disappeared with their other family dog, Starlight, the Anchorage Daily News reported.

Starlight turned up a few weeks later, but Nanuq, which means polar bear in Siberian Yupik, was nowhere to be found.

About a month after Nanuq disappeared, people in Wales, 150 miles (241 kilometers) northeast of Savoonga on Alaska’s western coast, began posting pictures online of what they described as a lost dog.

“My dad texted me and said, ‘There’s a dog that looks like Nanuq in Wales,’” Iworrigan said.

She reactivated her Facebook account to see if it might be her wandering hound.

“I was like, ‘No freakin’ way! That’s our dog! What is he doing in Wales?’” she said.

The events of Nanuq’s journey will likely always be a mystery.

“I have no idea why he ended up in Wales. Maybe the ice shifted while he was hunting,” Iworrigan said. “I’m pretty sure he ate leftovers of seal or caught a seal. Probably birds, too. He eats our Native foods. He’s smart.”

She used airline points to get her dog back to Gambell on a regional air carrier last week, a charter that was transporting athletes for the Bering Strait School District’s Native Youth Olympics tournament.

Iworrigan filmed the happy reunion when the plane landed at the air strip in Savoonga, with both she and her daughter Brooklyn shrieking with joy.

Except for a swollen leg, with large bite marks from an unidentified animal, Nanuq was in pretty good health.

“Wolverine, seal, small nanuq, we don’t know, because it’s like a really big bite,” she said.

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