Sea mammals — harbor seals, sea otters, possibly Steller sea lions — would have been present in the waters around the island.

The forest above the cave was also developing, though the specific composition of the early Holocene forest differed from the mature climax forest of today.

The post-glacial forest succession in the Alexander Archipelago moved from initial colonizers — shore pine, alder — toward the Sitka spruce and western hemlock forest that now dominates.

At 10,300 years, the forest would have been less mature than the towering giants of the modern old-growth stands, but it would have been present and functional as an ecosystem.

The shoreline of the island 10,300 years ago was different from the present shoreline in ways that matter for understanding Shuká Káa’s world.