Alaska state Info on Birding
Alaska state Info on Bear viewing

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Bear Viewing in Alaska Bear Viewing in Alaska by Steve Stringham

 

Where to See Wildlife in Alaska

View Animal Tourism AK in a larger map

 

bear
McNeil River State Game Sanctuary Bear - AK
The McNeil River State Game  Sanctuary has the world's largest concentration of wild brown bears. As many as 72 have been seen at once. To prevent overcrowding only 10 visitors are allowed at a time during peak season, June 7 and August 25. You must apply for a permit by lottery. Only one in 10 wins.The Friends of McNeil River Bear fought successfully to close the area to hunting and continually fights to keep it and adjacent lands closed to hunting the bears, which are not afraid of people.
(907) 267-2182

bear

wolf

Katmai National Park Brooks Falls Wolves - AK
Katmai National Park has a platform at Brooks Falls to view the 100-some grizzly bears that fish for salmon here. The wolves also fish here.
Brooks Camp, about 30 miles from King Salmon, is where most visitors go and it's only accessible by boat or plane.
(907) 246-3305.
The Bear Viewing Association offers tours to the nearby Katmai Coast.
(907) 260-9059.
bear

Denali National Park - AK

Denali National Park has both black bears and grizzlies. Many driving visitors can see the "Big Five" charismatic megafauna: grizzlies, wolf, Dall sheep, moose and caribou. Black bear live in the south side of the park and are harder to see.
907-683-2294

puffin

orca

whale

Juneau

Many whale-watching boats paired with cruise ships take off from Juneau's Auke Bay in search of humpback whales and orcas. You may also see bald eagles, seals, sea lion, dall's porpoise and the harbor porpoise.
Gastineau Guiding offers land and shore wildlife trips
Dolphin Jet Boat Tours goes out a few times a day
Allen Marine Tours offers boats in Juneau, Ketchikan and Sitka, working with the big cruise lines. They sometimes see bear and say they've always seen whales for 10 years.


Anchorage

Anchorage is right in the middle of several great ports that go out to look for humpback, killer and gray whales. Along the way, animal tourists may see bald eagles, seals, porpoises and puffins.

The tours leave from different cities (Seward, Valdez, Whittier) and scope out various bodies of water (Prince William Sound, Resurrection Bay, Kenai Fjords National Park) but they usually have convenient transportation from Anchorage. And they're are all looking for the same animals from May to Sept. The exception are the gray whales, which can only be found in April and May.
Prince William Sound Glacier Cruises Seek otter and bear and have overnight glacier trips.
Renown Tours gray whales in early summer.

walrus

Icy Cape Walrus

As more arctic ice melted in 2009, a huge herd of 3,500 Pacific seals beached itself near Icy Cape on the Chukchi Sea. Normally the walruses rest on ice floes, but with those melting they've been forced to sleep on land. The huge numbers have lead to stampedes--sometimes caused by small planes flying overhead--that trample many young seals to death. In 2007 7,000 walruses landed, surprsing biologists. An even bigger herd of 200,000-some walruses lives on the other side of the Chukchi Sea, including 40,000 on Point Shmidt.

moose

Anchorage Moose

Anchorage, Alaska has up to 1,000 moose roaming around town. According to AlaskaTrekker.com, Earthquake Park and Kincaid, both near the airport, are likely spots to see them.

bear

Wolverine Creek - Lake Clark National Park and Preserve - AK

Wolverine Creek near Lake Clark National Park and Preserve is one of the prime bear-viewing spots on Alaksa's Cook Inlet. Both black and brown bear hunt salmon here. In the park bear graze on coastal salt marshes in the summer. You must fly in, then get a guide to take you to see the bear by boat. Most fly in from the Kenai Peninsula, usually from Soldotna. 
(907) 235-7903
bear

Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge - AK

Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge on Kodiak Island is home to the enormous subspecies, Ursus arctos middendorffi,  or Kodiak Bear. You probably won't see bear just from your car here. There's a lottery to use the park's remote cabins. The bears turn out for salmon fishing in the summer. In spring and fall there is both sport and substinence hunting.
1390 Buskin River Rd, Kodiak, AK (907) 487-2600
Seahawk Air (800) 770-4295
bison

Farewell Lake Bison

About 200 plains bison (Bison bison bison) live near Farewell Lake and Egypt Mountain. Alaksa originally had the huskier wood bison (Bison bison athabascae), but they were hunted to extinction. Alaska reintroduced bison from Montana, then spread them around. Iditarod blogs says that dog racers may see them here, but they don't cause trouble. In fact one came up and licked a musher's face.

bison

Delta Junction Bison Range

The Delta Junction Bison Range got 23 bison in 1929 to replace the bison hunted to extinction in Alaska. Hunting began in 1947 and now keeps the population at about 250-300. 6,000-11,000 people pay $10 to apply each year for an average of 40 permits to hunt Delta bison.
Alaska officials say the best time to see the bison is mid-July to mid-September. Bonus species: moose, black bears

bear

Tongass National Forest - AK

Tongass National Forest has a bear viewing area at Pack Creek on Admiralty Island. You need a permit July 5 to August 25 and they don't give out more than 24 a day. Salmon spawn in early July. Access is by floatplane, boat, kayak, or canoe. (907) 586-8800
eagle

Chaklit Eagle Preserve

The Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve near Haines, Alaska, has the biggest concentration of bald eagles in the world--about 4,000 over four miles of river. Every year thousands of eagles catch salmon from fall to February on the Chilkat River "flats" about 20 miles north of Haines on Route 7. The American Bald Eagle Foundation holds the Alaska Bald Eagle Festival in early November with lots of photography seminars, wildlife demonstrations and tours and art events.
The foundation suggests that while you give the eagles and fish plenty of space. Local etiquette: Stay off the flats and watch the eagles from the area between the highway and river. Use public or group transportation. Only use turn-outs to stop.
Haines Visitors Bureau (907) 766-2234
Alaska Bald Eagle Festival  (907) 766-3094

raptors

Juneau Raptor Center

The Juneau Raptor Center is a volunteer rehab group. There is no facility to visit, but they do educational programs with non-releasable birds.
2
Marine Way # 206, Juneau, AK (907) 586-8393

eagle

raptors

Bird Treatment & Learning Center / Alaksa Public Lands Info Center

The Bird Treatment and Learning Center takes in 800 birds a year, including 50 eagles. Director of Avian Care Cindy Palmatier says the eagles fall into three categories: those hurt by toxins, especially when they hang out at the garbage dump; trauma, mainly car collisions and fighting with each other; and starvation. Ironically, the birds can starve after a mild winter because there will be fewer carcasses around.
On summer Saturdays at 2, the birds do an educational program at the Alaska Public Lands Information Center, which is at 605 West 4th Avenue (in the old federal building), Anchorage. (907) 644-3661
The rehab center is at  6132 Nielson Way, Anchorage

reindeer

Nome Caribou

The Bering  Straits Native Corporation (BSNC) offers tours into the mountains 20 miles north of Nome, where caribou either go out with them in snow cat or they can drop you off in the wilderness where musk ox, caribou, moose, bears live. The nearby Bearing Land Bridge National Preserve also has the same creatures.

Just over the border
moose

Yukon Wildlife Preserve

Yukon Wildlife Preserve started as a family operation in the 1960s and in 2000 became a non-profit 700-acre, educational wildlife reserve with caribou, elk, Alaska Yukon Moose, ground squirrel, lynx, mule deer, musk ox, wood bison and thinhorn sheep.
Open only weekends in the winter and every day in the summer. Tour by bus ($22) or foot ($15). They're also a wildlife rehabilitation center.
Plenty of guides lead tours by canoe, foot or 4x4 nearby.

walrus

Cape Schmidt, Russia

As walruses start spending more time on land because the arctic ice is melting, they are turning up in huge numbers on Cape Schmidt, Cape Shmidt, on the mainland south of Wrangel Island. 
 40,000 were reported in 2007. About 2,000 of the larger Russian population of 200,000 died in stampedes in the crowding.
Мыс Шмидта, Russian Federation

 

 

PARTICIPANTS

Fishing % Hunting % Wildlife Watching %
TOTAL U.S. 29,962,000 13 12,534,000 5 71,0068,000 31
AK 139,000 28 56,000 11 208,000 42

 

 

Source: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service The National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation, 2006

 

 

 

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