Jordan Pruszenski ’16 featured by University of Alaska–Fairbanks for work with grizzly bears
Pruszenski majored in biology at Carleton.
Jordan Pruszenski ’16 was featured in a news piece from the University of Alaska–Fairbanks titled, “The scent of barren ground grizzly.”
Unlike most of us, Jordan Pruszenski has held in her arms the following wild animals: wolves, caribou, beavers, muskrats, musk oxen, emperor geese and moose.
Also, as part of her job, she a few times each year wraps one of Alaska’s farthest-north grizzlies in her arms, stretching a tape measure along its ribs, her chin sinking into its blond fur.
Pruszenski is an assistant area biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Fairbanks. She and her co-workers are responsible for monitoring a chunk of northeastern Alaska as large as some states — from the Dalton Highway and Yukon River over to the Canada border and the Arctic Ocean.
A current project is finding out more about barren ground grizzlies, the smallest of Alaska’s grizzly bears, which live north of the Brooks Range. Pruszenski works with graduate student Ellery Vincent of Washington State University placing cameras on the necks of female grizzlies to answer basic questions about the animals.