Bears, Bison, Glacier, And Sun

My daughter and granddaughter are visiting and Thursday was our day for an adventure.  We headed for Girdwood and checked out Virgin Falls, that I first learned about earlier this summer.   

Soup and sandwich at the Bake Shop, then down to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.  I'm not a zoo fan.  Well, as a kid I was a zoo fanatic.  Between the old LA zoo and the stuffed animal tableaux at the County Museum, I got to know about animals from around the world.  It was only later I became aware of how difficult it can be for the animals.  

The Center, as I understand it, only takes in orphaned, injured, or other found animals.  And for the larger animals, there's way more room than at most zoos.  Wikipedia says there are about 800 acres and these are only Alaska animals.  But the small animals - porcupine particularly - the cages are way too small and they were pacing pathologically.  There were two, in separate cages.  One only had three legs so it probably wouldn't survive on its own.  And the bald eagle was in much too small a cage.  I couldn't look.  These shouldn't be in cages, but I'm guessing it was injured as well.  

But the brown bears have a large area.  I found a 200 acre reference to the wood buffalo habitat, so I'd say the bears probably have roughly the same amount. 

  Nevertheless, Thursday they were up against the fence close to the people watching.  I suspect they find the people as interesting as we find them.  

I got a little carried away with the bear pictures.  

There were musk oxen from Northwest Alaska.  

And wood bison. Turns out, the world was down to about 300 wood bison at the turn of the 20th

Century, all in Canada.  
 

This very wildlife conservation center played a big role in bringing them back to Alaska and building up the herd before they began returning them into the wilds of Alaska.  Wikipedia says that they devoted 200 acres to their habitat.

My granddaughter's picture

There were a number of other animals as well - wolves, caribou, and smaller animals.  Also elk - which we don't see in SouthCentral Alaska, but are in other parts. 

No mountain goats or Dall sheep, 

Then off to the Byron Glacier hike at Portage Lake.

Here's a similar picture from last year.  

Needless to say, there's a lot less ice and snow here than when we were first here back in 1978.  It even seems like a lot less than there was last summer.