To get home safely, a lost pet dog travels 241 km and crosses frozen sea ice

 

A one-year-old Australian shepherd went missing from its owners' home in Gambell, Alaska, before coming back after more than a month, but with bite marks from seal or polar bear bites. 

The beloved dog, Nanuq, traveled across 241 kilometers of solid Bering Sea ice before returning to his Alaskan home. Social media was used to help find the lost pet dog when residents of Savoonga, Alaska's western shore, started posting images of it online.

According to reports, Nanuq and their other beloved dog, Starlight, vanished in March while the canine's owners were visiting Savoonga in the Bering Strait. After a few weeks, Starlight reappeared, but Nanuq was nowhere to be found.

Although its owners made educated estimates as to how it would have survived the trip, they didn't fail to describe it as a "smart" dog.

"I'm fairly certain he caught a seal or ate a leftover seal. Possibly birds as well. He's smart," the dog's owner was reported by the news agency AP as saying.

The owners described how they discovered Nanuq on Facebook after the dog's owner, Iworrigan's father, showed him a photo on the website.

"I thought, 'No friggin way!' Our dog is that. How is he getting around Wales? Iworrigan spoke with AP.

"I don't know how he got to Wales. Iworrigan speculated that the ice may have moved while he was out hunting. She added that Nanuq was flown back to Gambell by a regional airline that was also bringing competitors to the Native Youth Olympics competition for the Bering Strait School District.

The owners were forced to deduce that Nanuq would be "hunting" despite the fact that the nature of his mission will always remain a mystery due to the marks and wounds on its body. Nanuq's health was fine, save for a swollen leg and a few bite marks.