Alaska state Info on Birding |
Alaska state Info on Bear viewing |
LAND ANIMALS |
BIRDS & BATS |
WATER CREATURES |
DOMESTIC ANIMALS |
Bear Viewing in Alaska by Steve Stringham |
Alaska state Info on Birding |
Alaska state Info on Bear viewing |
LAND ANIMALS |
BIRDS & BATS |
WATER CREATURES |
DOMESTIC ANIMALS |
Bear Viewing in Alaska by Steve Stringham |
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 |
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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. |
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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 |
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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.
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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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 |
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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 |
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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. |
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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. |
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Tongass National Forest - AK |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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Just over the border | ||
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. |
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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
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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