© Associated Press / National Park ServiceIn this March 15, 2011 photo provided by the National Park Service, the carcass of a musk ox is shown frozen in ice at Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Alaska. The frozen musk oxen were found on Tuesday, March 15, 2011, during a routine flight to track at least four musk oxen that had been fitted with collars to conduct research.
Anchorage, Alaska - At least 32 musk oxen were found frozen in the ice on the northern coast of Alaska's Seward Peninsula, killed in the aftermath of a tidal surge and flooding from a winter storm blowing in off the Chukchi Sea, the National Park Service said Tuesday.
Researchers found the frozen animals March 15 while flying over the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve to track at least four of the animals, which had been outfitted with radio collars.
"Basically, the radio collars led us to the dead animals," National Park Service spokesman John Quinley said.
Officials planned to fly over the area again Tuesday to determine the fate of another 23 animals in the herd. It wasn't immediately clear if any of those were fitted with collars.
"We didn't see any carcasses, but we didn't see them walking around," he said.
The remainder of the herd could be buried deeper in the snow. If so, the bodies wouldn't be visible until spring.