Video: On the Way to Anchorage

Wednesday, 25 August

AWCC: Not So Wild

Wednesday, 25 August: Part II

The moose encounter on Portage Highway helped us decide instantly what to do next on our way to Anchorage — see more animals. Since wildlife sightings are a matter of being in the right place at the right time, we stacked the deck in our favor by visiting the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center (AWCC), located not far from the intersection of the Portage and Seward highways.

Google Maps image showing the location of the AWCC (red marker).
(note location in relation to portage Lake and byron glacier trail)

On our way to the AWCC we stopped to check out an area studded with dead trees. I mentioned the 1964 megathrust earthquake, commonly known as the Good Friday Earthquake, in a previous post, but I didn’t say much about it. The magnitude 9.2 temblor lasted 5 minutes. (Take it from someone who’s experienced lesser magnitude earthquakes; it must have felt like an eternity.) 128 people were killed in the earthquake; most from the tsunami that reached as far as the west coast of the US and Hawaii. In fact, 15 of the tsunami deaths were in California.

The earthquake was, and still is, the strongest recorded in the US, and the second most powerful one in the recorded history of the world.

The 1964 earthquake resulted in a vertical displacement of land ranging from
38 feet (11½ m) of uplift to 10 feet (3 m) of Subsidence Relative to sea level.

The AWCC is a nonprofit organization that was established in 1988 by a man named Mike Miller. What started out as a project to save Alaska’s wood bison from extinction has now become a wildlife care center for orphaned, injured, and abandoned animals. Those that are rehabilitated are released back into the wild; others are given a permanent home at the center and become ambassadors for their species.

This was not our first visit to the AWCC; we spent an afternoon there in 2001. That was before I was a camera-carrying traveler, so I was happy to make a return visit to not just photograph the animals, but also to support a worthwhile cause. (Admission $10/adult.)

[map scanned from the AWCC brochure]

Most of the animals were out and about in their spacious enclosures, but with few exceptions, they weren’t very active — to be expected on a warm summer day. For one frisky musk ox bull, though, the mid-day temps weren’t much of a deterrence. He seemed to take delight in charging every male visitor that approached the enclosure, giving them a healthy adrenaline rush. The keeper I spoke to was surprised when I told her that the bull seemed to be singling out male visitors. Perhaps he saw them as competition for the cow whose favors he was trying to curry!

Musk Oxen
the bull is sniffing around the much smaller female, but despite his
attempts to mate, she’s not giving him the time of day.

Musk Ox Calf
(orphaned; rescued from deadhorse IN June 2010; NAMED MUKLUK FOR THE
BP DRILLING PAD WHERE HE WAS FOUND; CLICK HERE FOR THE STORY)

Is Mr Elk trying to tell me something?

young female elk

homer is the dominant male in this small elk herd.

Left: mum patiently waits for her two-month old calf to finish nursing.
right: necking is allowed!

Homer bathes his antlers in the cool creek water.
getting ready for date night maybe?!?

Elk Love? Alas, she doesn’t reciprocate his affections.

One of two brown bears brought to the AWCC as cubs after the
mother was shot by a resident of willow.
(the sow apparently killed a moose in the man’s backyard and he was
afraid that it would attack his dogs next)

AAH! the sweet smell of grass.

Caribou stag
Caribou antlers grow through spring and summer and start to harden around
the end of august when the animals start rubbing the velvet off the bone.

Caribou shed their antlers every year; that’s an impressive one-year rack.

Snickers is a 5-year old porcupine that was once someone’s pet.

Hugo, the female grizzly, was nowhere to be found on this visit. In June 2001, having been rescued as a cub from the Hugo Mountains just six months before, she was a relative newcomer to the AWCC. She had delighted us with her antics as she tried to claw her way to a piece of salmon encased in a thick chunk of ice. We’d been looking forward to seeing how she had grown, but it wasn’t to be. Maybe next time!