After we left Girdwood, we stopped at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center as we made our way into the Kenai Peninsula.
Mixed Feelings
Initially, we were going to wait in the parking lot at the center. It seemed a little zoo-like for us. Especially the hoopla around the animal feedings. But you had to pay to even get to the parking lot, so we ended up going in.
It wasn’t too bad. Most animals are only there because they can’t be released back into the wild. You will see the animals’ stories next to their enclosures.
And they also are working to reintroduce wood bison to Alaska. They’ve already released a herd that’s doing well.
A Fed Bear is a Dead Bear
We saw bears at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center that would have been killed if they hadn’t been brought there. Remember, if you feed bears and they start coming close to people looking for food, they will likely be killed.
This happened at Centennial Campground before we got there. They had to kill a mama and her cubs. There aren’t enough wildlife centers to take them all in.
The center had just recently received a baby moose when we toured. A vehicle hit and killed his mom.
This porcupine only had three legs.
Many of the other animals had similar stories.
Someone kept one of these foxes as an illegal pet which is how he ended up at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. Fun fact: they’re both red foxes. But not all red foxes are necessarily red. Kind of like how some black bears are brown.
The moose in the barn at the center is probably the closest we’ll ever get to one of these majestic creatures. We’d still much prefer to see them in the wild at a distance though.
The wolves were sacked out during our entire visit.
And we loved seeing musk ox again. I’m not sure if the center was harvesting qiviut from these guys. They had a severe case of dingleberry dreads, for sure.
If you’d like to experience Alaska’s wildlife, we think the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center is a much better option than a zoo. What do you think?
Next post: Taking the RV through the Whittier Tunnel