Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center

This was a great place to visit. The center provides rehabilitation of orphaned and injured animals. It works with state and federal agencies providing wildlife emergency treatment, rescue and care. We saw the bear cubs which the center has raised after their mother had been shot. They are called Joe Boxer and Hugo. Joe Boxer is pictured below.

The first wood bison in Alaska for more than 100 years was born at this center in 2005. Also at this center are Sitka black-tailed deer, moose, elk, and caribou. I am still trying to learn the differentiation between the last three. Pictured below is a moose.

And the other picture is that of a caribou. What a big difference in the antlers!

Caribou are also reindeer. The male of that species looses his antlers in the fall and the female looses hers in the spring. I guess that makes Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer a female! That was a little nugget of information I picked up at the center. The town of Portage, now no longer in existence, use to lie on the grounds of the center. A lot of the town slid into the waters of Turnagain Arm during the earthquake of 1964.
One of the cabins is still lying at the water's edge, we saw it while touring the grounds of the center.

From the center we drove on to the Whittier Harbor, which is the gateway to Prince William Sound. More on that in my next posting.