Cathy Goes to Alaska!

I've returned from my trip! Alaska was actually really pretty, even during the ugly "breakup" season that the locals kept apologizing for. It was sunny and clear, with temps in the low 40's some days even! I brought tons of warm clothes and didn't really even need them, which was great. I started off my trip with a few hours in Anchorage during a layover on our way to Fairbanks. I did a lot of research the days before, and found a bunch of possibilities of things to do in Anchorage, but the story of the Anchorage zoo was pretty cute and I'm a sucker for animals of all kinds, so even though it was fairly far from the airport and it wasn't too warm out, it was worth my efforts to get there. I knew it would be fairly cold and wore long underwear on the plane in preparation, which actually worked out well because as most of you know, I'm ALWAYS cold, and planes are one of the worst places for me because it's always so drafty!

History of the Alaska Zoo:
In 1966, the Crown Zellerbach paper company held a contest. The grand prize was "win $3,000 or a baby elephant." The contest winner, a grocer from the Fairbanks area, surprised everyone when he chose the elephant! So a two-year-old female Asian elephant was brought to Alaska. Eventually the grocer offered the elephant to Mrs. Sammye Seawell, who owned the Diamond H horse ranch in Anchorage (they had the only heated stalls available).
As the local community became interested in visiting the elephant (named Annabelle), Sammye Seawell began to realize that Anchorage needed a place where people could visit animals and learn about them. In 1968, she led a small group of supporters in forming a non-profit corporation. In 1969 the Alaska Children's Zoo opened, taking in orphaned and injured animals that needed homes. Over 30 years later, we are still committed to this mission

You can see how this cute story would draw me in. I was, however, a little worried when my cab arrived at the zoo and there were literally 2 cars in the parking lot and the cabbie voiced his concerns about it being open, but I knew my iPhone wouldn't have led me astray and it had led me to their website which said they were definitely open. I paid him and ambled up to begin my explorations!

I've been to a lot of zoos, and their signs tell you a lot about them. Are they big? Fancy? Have been updated since the 70's? This sign answers all of these questions. :)

Another criteria to judge zoos by is how comfortable the animals seem in their habitats. Some zoos do TOO good of a job of this and the animals are impossible to see in their vast habitats, but no concerns about that here. Most of the habitats were simple chain link fences where I could easily see the occupants. If you follow the logic that you'll only sleep somewhere you're REALLY comfortable, we can assume that these animals are all pretty comfy, because most of them were sleeping!

Somebody did NOT get the update that he should be done hibernating by now...

So cute!

This moose was getting ready for her nap--it was a busy morning for the moose! When I first walked by the moose habitat I was shocked to see a tough-looking woman with a rifle aimed at the bull moose! At first I thought things might be a little different here in Alaska, and maybe zoos were not just for conservation? Then I realized her ammo had feathers on it. I can only assume that she was trying to tranquilize him for something. I saw her miss 3 times, and the moose was too far away and the fence made my shot not so clear, so I apologize that you don't have the opportunity to observe this in action. :) Also creating extra entertainment were a man ( I assumed was her boyfriend/husband/fellow zookeeper) who entered the habitat right after her with a 2yo boy hot on his heels who was shut out of the area and she promptly yelled at him to stay right there where she could see him. If my mom had a tranq gun when we were misbehaving she'd NEVER have had to yell at us!

Likewise, this coyote is ready to enjoy a nice nap in the sun

Are you tired of sleepy/sleeping animals yet? Here's a lady caribou (Yes, that's how they prefer to be addressed---doe is SO last year) also getting her beauty rest.

This wolf was also resting up--maybe a big night of howling the night before?

Another sleeper, but at least this one's more creative! (And out of the snow) He was in the petting zoo, but no petting was happening as it's the off season and there aren't enough volunteers to watch the petting zoo and apparently we can't be trusted to pet nicely without supervision. :(

The bigger they are, the harder they sleep

The red fox is also sleepy. We saw a much more awake one running across the road in front of us at the Hill Cumorah in Palmyra, and I think that may be one of only 2 sightings I've ever had of these guys in the wild... Maybe because they're always sleeping?

Ok, now here's some animals NOT catching their z's! This polar bear was way more playful than his buddy, who was still sprawled out while this guy swam all around.

Outside of X-Men, who really knows what a wolverine is? Here's one in most of its glory... sorry, but he was FAST so it was hard to get a good shot. You can imagine what his head looks like. I'm sure it will be more entertaining that way anyway. :)

This goat was only rocking one horn. I'll bet he tells a great story about how he lost it, but I'll bet it's something lame like a staph infection.

These musk ox were HUGE! But they really looked warm compared to the rest of the animals. -50 probably isn't SO bad if you're a musk ox

Proof that all babies start off so cute. Who'd believe this cute little kiddo will turn into a musk ox?

That's right. 2 humps. Impressive.

These tigers were pretty cool. They were slipping on the ice though, which was interesting, because you'd think their massive claws would help. I could get really close to them too, unlike most zoos. At one point they were both only about 4 feet away from me. Whoah. Not QUITE as awesome as when we were at Marine World in Vallejo, CA back in med school and they had tiger cubs born and we got to PET 3 white tiger cubs. That was pretty awesome. That also reminds me of one of the first times Bob and I went to Vegas and they had lion cubs at the MGM outside the lion exhibit and you could pay a good chunk of change to hold one and have your pic taken with it, but we were in a hurry, it seemed too expensive, the line was long, I was NOT having a good hair day or at all feeling like having my pic taken, and we knew we'd be back soon (we were house-hunting there still) so we didn't do it, and despite many more visits to the MGM's lion habitat, they were never doing it again. BLAST! Reinforced why carpe diem is kind of an oft-repeated phrase....

This wolf was way more responsible than his sleeping buddy--he was on constant patrol. The tigers were next door and he was constantly watching them to make sure they weren't planning a sneak attack.

Makes you feel a little patriotic, right?

Owls are awesome, and here's a demonstration of his rotational capacity. Here he is checking me out...

And then noticing something 180 degrees behind him! Whoah.

Otters are awesome. This doesn't do them justice, but they were sliding down this hill. The front one just finished and the back one is about to go!

Ok, I have a few more pics, but I'll do a separate post of my non-zoo activities now that I've spent forever on this. Hopefully you all enjoyed your trip to the Alaska Zoo in Anchorage with me! You've pretty much seen it all now, although I was constantly reassured that it's way better in the summer. :) My first taste of Alaska really made me excited to head back there in a month for our cruise with Bob's folks!

~Cathy