More Bears!



I never finished the posts about my day at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center and a lot of people enjoyed the bears, so I guess it's safe to share a few more pictures or Alaska's most intriguing residents, the Grizzly Bear.  Noteably the last post about bears was heavy on pictures and scant on words...which may have been why it was a extra enjoyable for many.  You shall not be so lucky today.  Now...about Grizzly Bears as I understand them thus far.

 

A.  Grizzly Bears are amazing.  If you see one this close without a lot of zoom and a fence...you are too close and the chances of it ending badly are ridiculously high.  For the record, this was taken on the other side of a fence and seriously cropped.  And even at that distance, it was awesome.

 



 

B.  The North American Grizzly bear is now compromised of just a few species.  Ursus arctos spp horribilis (which is just really not nice and not helping gain empathy for conservation) is the Grizzly Bear,  and then there are latin names for the peninsular grizzly and the Kodiak brown bear.  They look similar to us rookies, but any northerner will tell you they are very different.  And that's it.  The California Grizzly and the Mexican Grizzly are extinct.  California is currently trying to reintroduce the closely related mainland grizzly (as in efforts are ongoing as of 2014), but as for the native species...it's gone.  Maybe that's why I have always had such a soft spot for these giant bears.  Their safe spaces in Canada are seriously limited as well.  I have high hopes that Alaska will remain a stronghold for them.  It matters.  To me it matters a lot.

 

So, I finally saw some bear tracks, from the safety of my side of the fence. 

 



Made by the padded feet of this giant little guy padding about.  At the conservation center, there is one Grizzly (Hugo), who was rescued after she collapsed near Hugo mountain.  She had hundreds of porcupine quills in her feet and could not walk...she was malnourished and dehydrated, and this is one of those time humanity stepped up to the plate -- some snowmobilers called the Conservation Center and got her rescued.  There are also two brown bears, Joe Boxer and Patron, who arrived at the center after their mother was shot.  She followed a moose into town and killed it for food for her cubs, and was shot in someone's backyard.  I do believe this bear below is one of the Kodiak Brown bears...so Joe Boxer or Patron.

 

There are also 2 black bears at the Conservation Center...but they were still sleeping the day I took these pictures.  Alaska had a mild winter, and staff at the Conservation Center said the Grizzlies did not hibernate at all, which is unusual.

 

C.  Grizzlies have long been feared for the devastation an encounter causes.  They can weigh up to 2, 250 pounds and have 6 inch claws.  Their jaws can crush your skull.  Grizzlies do not set out to harm anyone...but if you inadvertently surprise them, or get between them and their food, or them and their offspring, their defensive aggression kicks in.  From what I have read, they do not simply stop when the threat is neutralized.  If you are deemed a threat, they will hit you with their full arsenal of strength, repeatedly. They say to never make eye contact or fight back with a grizzly.  It gave me an evolutionary epiphany...what on earth did the grizzly bears face 50,000 years ago when they came to North America and fine tuned these reactions to perception of danger.  I don't think I want to know.

 

But back to the amazing stuff about bears.  D.  Bears are highly intelligent.  They have shown creative thinking and problem solving skills (just the other day saw a video of a bear who climbed a tree and tried to shimmy the length of a wire holding a food cache to get the goodies...he fell...but it was a solid effort).  They have a life span of >20 years if all goes well...maybe that is what gives them such a presence.  Who is to say bears don't know their history.  They do observe a hierarchy.

 

One foot in front of the other lol.  Just like us.

 the back paw out

I got a kick out of this picture.  Bears have incredible smell.  Their vision is not quite so good.  But the nose or snout of a bear is quite long, and in this picture, you can almost see a twisted grin on the bears snout.

king of the hill
 

Who says a bear doesn't want a nice house to go home to at the end of the day?  Bears more typically live in dens...but in this case there happened to be a cottage available.  When in Rome...  This little bear (by little I mean 500-800 pounds) decided to cozy up and have a little nap.

 

Little closer shot of the house bear....

 

 

That's about it for bear pictures for now.  I was elated with my day at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.  I hope to get back several times this year!

 



 

Moose and More!

There was way to much going on the the Alaska Wildlife Conservations Center to cover in a blog...or two...so here comes blog 3 from that same afternoon.  Let's start with Timmy.

 

Timmy is foxy...quite literally.  Handsome indeed, and a fox.  He was moving briskly about his enclosure until I walked by.  He didn't seem so interested in the other people going by.  I suspect I smell like cats and that was interesting.  A fox will not normally eat a cat...but I do have a fat cat that is roughly the size and shape of a Thanksgiving turkey, so he may have been picking up on that.  I thought he was a beautiful little red fox though, with his little black feet.  He has a little den, and 2 great horned owls as next door neighbours.  I didn't see a sign with his full story, so maybe he will be released this year.  My friend Sharon said when she went to the Conservation Center last year, he was new, and on that day was having a great time running around with the hose from his swimming pool in his mouth...spraying everyone and getting stuff wet...he definitely had more fun with the hose than the pool.

 



This pretty girl below is either Venetie or her sister, I can't tell the difference just yet.  Back in 2004, there was a forest fire.  A fireman found 3 lynx kittens with burns on their paws, their faces, and their ears, and alone in the burned area.  The mother was not around and it is was not known if she carried as many babies to safety as she could and had to abandon the rest, or if she did not survive the fire herself.  The fireman tucked them in his backpack and carried them out...but only the two girls survived.  They were flown to the Conservation Center and given a permanent home -- the kittens normally stay with their mother for a year, so they did not have a chance to learn survival skills since they were so young at the time of the fire.  They have a very tall perch and open enclosure...I didn't realize the 2nd one was up top looking down at me until I had been standing there quite some time.  I have to say, after seeing these little lynx, who at 11 yrs old are smaller than I expected, I am pretty sure Lexi cat might have just been a midget lynx.

 

 

Every once in a while, you just have a bad day.  Happened to me just last week.  I think I caught Melvin the Moose on a bad day, and it wasn't really very nice of me to take this picture when one of his antlers had just fallen off.  I was pretty worried about the missing antler...in fact I wondered if that was why he was there.  But it turns out that moose shed their antlers every winter.  Basically when it's cold, and they need to conserve energy, the big heavy antlers fall off and make life a little easier.  They only need the antlers for showiness and battling for the sexiest girl moose in the spring. This was a mild winter in Alaska, and many moose have not yet shed their antlers and it's already March when they should be growing new ones!  Melvin is also a lot bigger than me..I mean a lot.  It doesn't look very intimidating in the picture, but the moose is way bigger than those bears.  And Melvin's moose friend snorted at me when I went to take a picture, and I will admit I jumped and backed away from the fence.  Who knew a snuffle could be so threatening.  Anyway, I learned to give moose a very wide berth should I encounter them outside of the fence.  But I am sure he is a lovely moose all the same.

 



 

There were a lot more friendly faces...a few ambivalent, nervous, or exasperated by the demands of looking so cute for so many photos...but many curious and content ones too.  Speaking of curious...isn't the muskox a curious looking thing?  I admit I am a little fascinated with the muskox after this visit.  There were also Bison and Buffalo, Deer and Caribou.

 

Here is the Moose that started me...as you can see, it's not a mean looking moose...I think that's why the loud snuffle caught me so of guard.  These are just some of the wonderful animal people you will get to meet at the Alaska Conservation Center...don't miss it if you are anywhere in the state!