A small cluster of caribou rest and stand along a snow-covered riverbank, their bodies illuminated by soft backlight as mist and steam rise around them near the dark, rippling water.

A migratory herd of Caribou (Rangifer tarandus)

Embers in the Frost

Along the frigid margins of Alaska’s Kobuk River, a fragment of the Northwest Arctic caribou herd pauses against the biting polar wind.

David S. McMeans · Canon EOS R3 · Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1L IS USM

Kobuk Valley National Park, Northwest Arctic Borough, Alaska, USA

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Embers in the Frost

Along the frigid margins of Alaska’s Kobuk River, a fragment of the Northwest Arctic caribou herd pauses against the biting polar wind. Thick, specialized double-coats—packed with hollow guard hairs that trap life-saving pockets of air—insulate the animals as they press southward toward their wintering grounds. Bathed in the low-slung, golden glare of a northern sun, the herd seems to glow from within, enveloped in a haze of ambient river mist and their own condensing breath. It is a fleeting moment of repose in a grueling 600-mile annual migration, a quiet testament to the enduring resilience of one of the Arctic’s most iconic wanderers.

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