Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Wildlife in Wrangell - St. Elias Park

I haven’t updated my blog for a while… This will be the last posting from my Wrangell – St. Elias National Park project.
While I stayed in Wrangell – St. Elias National Park for 4 months, I saw a lot of wildlife and photographed as many animals as possible. Although there were many black bear sites in the area, and I personally saw some of them, I couldn’t get any good shots.
It’s the “year of rabbits” in the Kennicott and McCarthy area. I’ve saw multitudes of Snowshoe Hare every day. Some of them hung out right in front of my door. Hundreds of them were just sitting on the five-mile dirt road between Kennicott and McCarthy.

Porcupines are also very common in the area… Be careful, don’t be too close.

The Alaskan state bird, the Ptarmigan, changes its color from winter to summer. In spring, their feathers are half white and a half brown. There are Dall Sheep and grizzly bears in Wrangell – St. Elias National Park and Preserve. Dall Sheep live in high elevation and grizzlies haven’t been sighted in Kennicott during the past 10+ years.

The wildlife there was shy. Unlike in Denali or Yellowstone, animals haven’t gotten used to the presence of tourists. It requires a lot more effort and patience to photograph wildlife in Wrangell – St. Elias.

Thank you for reading my stories from Alaska. I’m in Jackson, Wyoming for next 4 months. I’ll update this pages as often as I can. Please check back!