Dog reunites with family after walking 150 miles in Alaska
Nanuq, a yearold Australian Shepherd, has been reunited with his family after spending more than a month roaming the ice in the Bering Sea, Alaska, USA. The dog walked at least 150 miles during the trip and was even bitten by another animal, likely a seal or polar bear.
In February, Nanuq’s owner, Mandy Iworrigan, who lives in Gambell, Alaska, and her family were visiting Savoogna, another community on St. Lawrence across the Bering Strait, when Nanuq was with Starlight, the other dog of the family, disappeared.
Starlight reappeared a few days later, but her companion remained missing.
About a month after the little dog went missing, people in the town of Wales, 150 miles northeast of Savoonga, began posting pictures of the animal on social media, saying it appeared to be lost.
“My dad texted me and said, ‘There’s a dog in Wales that looks like Nanuq,'” Iworrigan said.
She reactivated her Facebook account to check it out and there was nothing else: the lost dog really was Nanuq. “I thought, ‘This can’t be! This is our dog! What is he doing in Wales?” he said.
Iworrigan used airline points to bring the pup home and in early April, Nanuq was reunited with his family. Apart from a swollen leg with large bite marks from an unknown animal, Nanuq was in good health.
“Wolverine, seal, little polar bear, we don’t know [o que o mordeu]because it’s a very big bite,” she said.
The details of Nanuq’s journey will likely remain a mystery.
“I have no idea why he ended up in Wales. Maybe the ice shifted during the hunt,” Iworrigan said. “I’m sure he ate seal scraps or caught a seal. Birds probably too. He eats our native foods. He is smart.”
1 of 1 Dog reunited with family after long walk — Photo: Mandy Iworrigan/AP Dog reunited with family after long walk — Photo: Mandy Iworrigan/AP