Spring

Visit Alaska’s Amazing Animals

By Jan Larraine Cox

One of the best-known animal attractions in Alaska is the dog sled competition that predates the American colonization of the state. Dog sledding was originally used as a means of transporting goods across Alaska during its harsh winters. But today, it is mostly for recreation. In fact, the renowned annual Iditarod competition pits the best sled dogs against each other in a 1,000-mile race journey from Anchorage to Nome.

The Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center in Girdwood, Alaska is a sanctuary dedicated to preserving Alaska’s wildlife through education, research and quality care. One of its goals is to rehabilitate wild animals that have been injured. Spread over 200 acres, visitors have walking access to a 1.5-mile loop where they have the opportunity to view animals like moose and brown bears during the summer months, with supervision! These other species which live there may also be visible during a visit through the Center’s Walk on the Wild Side Tours: black bear, bald eagles, lynx, moose, bison, wolves and reindeer.

The most unusual Alaskan animal is possibly the musk ox, available for visiting at a musk ox farm in Palmer. Picture a thickly hair-covered ox whose body, head and horns stay close to the earth in a lugubrious silhouette, eliciting a slightly mournful image.

Its qiviut covering is eight times warmer than sheep’s wool by weight. At 12 microns in diameter, qiviut is one of nature’s miraculous fine fibers. It has no barbs or scales, so no itchy feeling. Really a holdover from the last Ice Age, the shaggy and hearty musk ox are clearly adapted to the year-round Alaskan climate.

The last leg of the journey south to Seward stops at Resurrection Bay on the Kenai Peninsula. This picturesque seaside town lined under the horizon with ice-capped mountains was named after Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of State, William Seward. He negotiated the purchase of the Alaskan territory from Russia for $7,200,000 in 1867.

Kenai Fjords National Park is 900 square miles of wilderness, home to such diverse wildlife as humpback whales, sea lions and bald eagles.

The park’s cute small mammals such as sea otters are top fishers and speedy swimmers. Endangered in western Alaska, their tasty diet typically consists of shellfish, octopus and crab. Their fur is very dense, with up to one million hairs per square inch. They were hunted to near extinction during the maritime fur trade of the 1700s and 1800s. At that point, the sea otter population was reduced to a few remnant colonies as their pelts were considered more valuable than gold. But today, tribal and conservation leaders of the Elakha Alliance are working to restore them as part of a resilient marine ecosystem.

The largest member of the eared seal family –the Steller sea lion--lives in the park year-round. They stealthily hunt for fish at night and then haul out to rest during the day. Some lucky photographers have even captured them holding hands.

Every summer, Kenai Fjords transforms into a feeding ground for four whale species. Humpback whales spend June to September feeding in Alaska and then migrate to the appealing Hawaiian Islands or to California where they breed and give birth. They eat small schooling fish and animals by filtering them from the water.

Gray whales travel north each spring from Baja, Mexico where they calve in feeding grounds in Russia, showing up in the Kenai Fjords from late March to mid-May, completing the longest migration of any mammal. Surprisingly, they survive by filtering small organisms out of the ocean sediment.

Finally, also be on the lookout for hearty Fin whales and Orca/Killer whales while in Kenai Fjords!