A bull moose walks across a small pond between the Seward Highway and the Alaska Railroad tracks at Potter Marsh in Anchorage. PHOTO BY BOB HALLINEN
HERE’S HOW TO SEE MUSK OXEN, EAGLES, BEARS AND OTHER ALASKA WILDLIFE UP CLOSE — SAFELY By B A I L E Y B E R G
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DALL SHEEP
he 49th state is home to an astounding variety of wildlife: Some species are present at the highest density anywhere in the world. These animals have the power to captivate locals and visitors alike; you’ll often see cars pulling over to get a closer look. Here are just a few for your bucket list and tips on where to scope them out.
MOOSE Locals will joke that moose are to Alaska what squirrels are to the Lower 48. While they’re not quite that ubiquitous, they do often show up where you’d least expect them — perusing a backyard garden, browsing shrubs in a grocery store parking lot or enjoying the long grass on the side of the highway. They’re hard to miss: Adult females weigh between 800 to 1,300 pounds and males tip the scales at 1,200 to 1,600 pounds.
BEARS Of the species of bear found in Alaska, the two you’re most likely to see are brown bears and black bears. Black bears, the smallest of the bunch, usually dwell in forested areas, but are also more likely to wander into town or pick through garbage cans. Brown bears, also called grizzlies, are spread throughout much of the state. A subspecies of brown bear, the Kodiak bear, is one of the largest kinds of bears and 22
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found exclusively in the Kodiak Archipelago. Then there’s the Arcticdwelling polar bear, found in coastal areas above the Arctic Circle and on the North Slope.
VISITORS’ GUIDE • 2021
Snow white with small, curved, golden-brown horns, this nimble subspecies of sheep thrives in mountainous terrain, where predators can’t reach and humans don’t bother them. You might see them high up on the near-vertical rock face of the Seward Highway — where they can sometimes distract drivers and present a traffic hazard. They’re also found throughout Chugach State Park and scattered around Denali National Park and Preserve.
SALMON Five kinds of salmon can be found in the rivers and streams of Alaska: sockeye (also called red), pink (aka humpy), king (or chinook), coho (silver) and chum (dog). During the summer months, salmon return from the sea to the waters where they were hatched. Their internal homing devices bring them remarkably close to where they entered the world, and that’s where they mate, spawn and die. You can watch their epic homecoming journeys throughout the state, though one of the easiest viewing areas, Ship Creek, runs through the heart of downtown Anchorage. There you can watch kings, coho and pink salmon charging upstream and eager anglers standing shoulder-toshoulder, trying to fi ll their freezers. Kings start running in late May through July and cohos claim the river from August through midSeptember.
