300,000 Caribou Huddle Together To Avoid Insects

Humans are not the only creatures bothered by mosquitoes and flies. They harass caribou so much that earlier this month, about 300,000 of the animals huddled closely together in Northwest Alaska to avoid being bitten and parasitized.

It's one of the most spectacular gatherings of wildlife in the world, rivaling the migratory herds of Africa's Serengeti, said Kyle Joly, a wildlife biologist with the National Park Service based in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Joly took several photos of the animals while flying a Cessna 185 earlier this month, near Cape Krusenstern National Monument and Noatak National Preserve.

"The bugs on the North Slope are pretty ferocious," Joly told OurAmazingPlanet. "The mosquitoes just harass them 24 hours per day." The warble flies and nasal bots that are out now are even worse in some ways, he said; the warbles try to lay eggs on the animal's sides and the bots try to fly up caribou nostrils to deposit eggs.

Continued:  http://www.livescience.com/21718-caribou-herds-bug-protection.html