Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center

The Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center is located about an hour south of Anchorage off the Seward Highway at mile 79, across from the Portage Highway. This can be combined with a trip through Portage Valley. This is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving Alaska’s wildlife through conservation, education and quality animal care. They take in injured and orphaned animals. Animals that cannot be released are given a permanent home at the center. They have a 140 acres with large enclosures for the animals. The current cost is $12.50/adult as of 2016. All proceeds go towards caring for the wildlife.

Male moose

The center gives you a chance to view Alaskan wildlife up close. While we’ve been out hiking the trails, as we are in bear country we have been making noise to prevent surprise encounters, which are one of the main reasons for attacks. Unfortunately, while good for preventing bear encounters, it’s not so great for seeing lots of other wildlife. This gave us a chance to check out some of Alaska’s natives. You can drive or walk the loops. We chose to walk, which gets you closer to the enclosures and allows you to take your time at each enclosure. They have moose, elk, musk ox, sitka deer, wood bison, brown and black bears, a wolf pup, reindeer (domesticated caribou), owls, eagle, a lynx and porcupine.

Wolf pup (L) arrived much younger. The dog (R) has been used as a surrogate “pack”. The dog now visits about 3 or 4 days per week.

A reindeer is a domesticated caribou

Female elk and her young

The center was integral to the reintroduction of wood bison to Alaska. They had been extinct, but some were brought here from Canada and they were kept here until being released into the wild. Some remain here for education, research and monitoring purposes. There is a difference between wood bison and plains bison, as this handy information board shares:

Information on the differences between a wood vs plains bison

Male wood bison

The center provides programs, such as feedings throughout the day with a schedule posted in several places throughout the center. We saw them feeding the elk and getting one of the reindeer out to meet people. The animals have stories, many posted about the reason they ended up at the center. For instance, the eagle has a wing shot by a hunter and cannot fly. A porcupine lost a leg that was in a trap. A brown bear cub was found alone, malnourished and dehydrated and couldn’t walk due to porcupine quills in its paws. Their animals have also been used in movies. The live moose in the hunting scene of “Into the Wild” was a center resident, a roadkill moose was used for the following processing/butchering scenes.