Bear Boardwalk

 Today finally felt like spring is here.  It was a warm 32 degrees.  I was even able to shed a layer of clothes because it is getting warmer.  Normally this time of year the snow would just about be gone.  Looking at these pictures you may notice that we have a bit more snow still than normal. 

I went to visit the cubs just before I fed them.  Shaggy and Taquka thought they were getting fed so they ran over to see if I had any thing for them.  Earlier, to wake them up, I gave them pop sicles with dog food in them. 

 Shaggy tends to hang around while Taquka has a short attention span and runs off to roll around in the snow. 















I was getting all the radios together to see what we have that works and doesn't work.  I headed over to Roselyn, across the street, where we cut brush in the summer.  Roselyn is a series of dry cabins where the only other residents of Portage live.  Here is the road to the cabins....

 As I was taking a nice stroll around the center I watched a bull wood bison chew on a spruce tree.  There is only one tree in the enclosure and there is always a bison chewing on the bark. 







Then I continued on my way to see the musk ox.

 This female musk ox decided to try and charge me through the fence.  I guess I wouldn't want people taking pictures of me eat either. 

 Mukluk was also eating some haylage but I couldn't get her to turn around.  She has definitely lost her friendliness that she once had when we still had her separated from the herd.  She does not want to be given attention anymore.  It is a good thing though that she will be able to hang with the adult musk ox.  She tends to hang out the most with the dominant bull named slide.   






We have started building our bear boardwalk out by our 3 resident brown bears.  The boardwalk is set to open officially on May 15th.  It is amazing how fast the work is getting done.  They have added the railings and continue to make the boardwalk longer by the day!  I cannot wait till it is officially open.  This boardwalk has been in the making for a few years and will be done very soon.  It is also just a fraction of the ultimate finished project.  We eventually want to have a bear learning center where there will also be indoor viewing for guests; along with rooms for presentations and programs.  

Well lower 48, I have the next 2 days off.  I hope this blog will get ya by for the next few days.  In the meantime....Goodnight Lower 48!     -Erin

shoveling, shoveling, and more shoveling!!!

Brrrrrr! Yesterday was a low temperature of 1 degree!  Even though it may be cold for us; it is never to cold for the Kodiak bears to get their apple pops.  I have been making popsicles for the bears as treats.  Yesterday, they each got an apple popsicle.  They ate them in about 2 minutes.... Today I gave them popsicles but instead of apples it had dog food in the pop.  hmmmmm....maybe fish pops one day?

 As I was emptying a donation bag I just had to get a photo of the bag before I tossed it out.  A month ago we received donations from the Iditarod left overs from last year.  If you know anything about the Iditarod you have definitely heard the name Lance Mackey.  He is a 4 time Iditarod Champion!  This bag had beef and chicken sticks that we fed to our bears.  Finger Lake is one of the route stops in the race.  We also found a bag of extra dog booties. 

 Jewelie, our sitka black tailed deer, had a banana and an apple added to her grain.  Jonathan and I were finally both working outside at the same time for the first time in a while.  So we decided that yesterday would be a day of getting projects done while there was 2 of us.  Jewelie was one of the first projects we covered.  We shoveled along her fence line since the snow was getting really high.  Then we also gave her some fresh straw in her house.  Now that it is getting warmer we may move her out onto display in the next month or so. 

Today was definitely an arm work out for Jonathan and I!  It warmed up to about 20 degrees and the sun was out.  Since we have had a record year for snowfall; the roofs of all the buildings are needing to get cleared off because of the weight.  I have to give more credit to Jonathan since he had a few extra hours of shoveling than I did.  I did give a tour to a board member and their visitors; while Jonathan began work on the Gift store ramp.  We have a ramp located at the back of the gift store entrance.  The ramp has been closed off for about 4 months now since the snow could slide of the roof onto the ramp.  Now, there is so much snow on the ramp that they had to clear it all off today because of the weight.  Once the ramp was cleared we headed over to our information barn to clear the roof off.  That took about another half hour or so of shoveling.  When we done we were too tired to even climb down the ladder; so we just jumped....

Now, even just typing is making my arms hurt.  If I were a cartoon character my arms would be wobbling like spaghetti.  Goodnight Lower 48,
Erin

lots O' Bananas!

.Being a non profit organization; donations are very important to us and we always appreciate them.  It is very common for people to clean out their freezers and donate last years salmon, moose, and any other type of meat they may want to get rid of.  However, the dedication that Mrs. Cyndy Lopez, in the picture to the left, has to our moose is very unique.  Mrs. Lopez has donated 40 pounds of bananas multiple times since I have been working at the AWCC.  Today, she surprised our moose with 80 pounds of bananas!  It was perfect timing since we have been doing porcupine presentations these past few days; the moose can now also get some treats as I am talking about snickers.  We may also use these to help start halter training them.  Thanks again Mrs. Lopez!!!!

Snickers has also been very excited since he has been getting lots of attention during the presentations.   Tomorrow, I may even try to use a banana to stick on a branch for him to climb to.  It will give him something to do tomorrow as well as exercise!  In the mean time, I have carved out more trails in his snow bank so he can get to higher places and viewpoints in his enclosure. 

 You can also see the fresh cottonwood that he received yesterday.  His incisors are getting a little long so we are making sure that he is getting plenty of browse to chew on. 

The moose weren't the only ones to get special treats today.  Mike, the executive director, dropped off some moose bones for me to throw in for the kodiak cubs.  Shaggy immeiately grabbed hers and headed for the cabin. 

Taquka grabbed his and headed for the back of the enclosure.  These two year old kodiak bears will be leaving the center at the end of May for their new home at the Orsa Bear Park in Sweden.  It will be sad to see them leave.  However, they will be provided a permanent home together, and we will be available to take in future orphans. 

A day off tomorrow.....wonder what adventure I will go on?

Goodnight Lower 48,

EriN

PLayFuL BEaRs and a climbing porcupine

 annnnnnnnd que song "Such a Beautiful morning....."

 spotted a pair of bald eagles hanging around the center on my way to work.

With all the snow we have recently had the trees looked especially stunning today.  Remnants, like these trees, are a continual reminder of the earthquake that happened in 1964.  The earthquake caused the ground to sink 10 feet.   

Snickers was sunbathing from a very scenic spot in his tree.  Tomorrow I will be remodeling his enclosure so he has fresh browse to chew on.  His incisors are getting a little too long.  He just needs more things to chew on to help file them back down. 

He may even need to go on a diet.  However, with the nice weather we have been getting he has become much more active.  I imagine he will shed a few pounds before summer arrives.  He will also be shedding a lot of his winter layer of fur. 

You can even see hair on Jack's back that he has shed in this warmer weather.

 As I was visiting with Jack I wondered where Gilly and Nelson were.  They were laying in the farthest corner possible.  I wondered if they would come when I called their name.

I yelled their names from the observation and they looked up.  Then I called again....they started running over to the observation deck!

 Gilly was the goofy one in the front running as fast as he could. 

Good thing Matt, an employee, had just cut them fresh browse.  I am out of bananas at the moment.  They were very excited to see that they had some fresh cottonwood to chew on. 

The bears were especially playful today.  They kept pulling branches off of a spruce in their enclosure.  Taquka was rolling around with his piece; while Shaggy was playing in the snow.

 Taquka just enjoying the sunny weather....

 The bears are still not eating as much so I just gave them a snack today.  They would just rather have fun and roll around with the spruce limbs anyway.

It's supposed to be another nice tomorrow...Can't wait!

Goodnight Lower 48,
ErIn

Picture with Mr. Doug

The past 2 days I have had days off.  I have been meaning to get a snapshot of Doug Lindstrand and I holding our copies of the Anchorage Daily Newspaper with our pictures on the front page.  Last week, one of my bear photos made the front page; as I mentioned before.  The next day Doug Lindstrand had his photo of a Great Grey Horned Owl on the front page.  I immediately got copies of each paper.  Doug even autographed his picture for me!  One day I plan on framing these newspapers together. 

 Unfortunately, I was not lucky enough to have sunny days off....but I am not complaining.  After Doug and I got the picture; he was back to work on taking photos around the center.  I went to visit snickers.  It's not the best picture of him, but I wasn't about to get smelly from getting to close to him.  You can see how high the snow around him is.  Since then we have had about another foot of snow added to that just over night!




Today, I was walking to the gift store to get some internet time.  This picture definitely do it justice but we have some much darn snow at the center!  We were actually closed today.  In about 24 hours we have had almost 2 feet of snow!  Good thing it was my day off.  The boys were out shoveling all day long.  When we get this much snow we have to make sure that snickers is unburied, the animals can't walk over the fence (Bison), and just plowing the roads to get ready for tomorrow.  Everyone that owned a car was shoveling around their cars so that it doesn't turn to ice and become even harder to shovel. 

 As I was almost to the gift store Jonathan had just fed Taquka and Shaguyik.  We are now feeding them consistantly everyday now.  They are officially done hibernating.  They are still a bit slower, but hey, I guess I would be in that much snow.  It was hard enough for me to make it out of the bunkhouse and down to the giftstore. 



Shaguyik is enjoying her pile of food.  I tried to get them to look up, but they were more interested in their food.  I don't think I would want someone taking a picture of me as I was eating...who can blame them. 

 Shaggy was just making sure Taquka's food was the same as hers.  I have noticed that we now have to give the male, Taquka, his food first.  He is definitely the more dominant one now.  About a year ago when I arrived Shaggy was in charge.  However, Taquka has learned that he is now the bigger bear. 

Well, tomorow I am working in the ticket booth.....that is if we aren't buried in snow.  We are almost at a record breaking snowfall this year.  Hopefully, we get internet at the bunkhouse tomorrow.  It would make blogging so much easier and I would be able to post more often.  Well, readers, please keep your fingers crossed for me that internet finally arrives!  I have about runout of movies and television shows on dvds to watch!

Good night Lower 48,
ErIn

Man! today was a gorgeous day.  I was actually working outside and not in the ticket booth as well.  Sometimes it's hard to look out the ticket and see how sunny and gorgeous alaska can be.
After I got some chores done I ran back to the bunkhouse and grabbed my camera.

Before I get ahead of myself let me tell you how my day started....

Do do de do...I'm just walking to the giftstore....oh hey bison....oh wait bison shouldn't you be behind a fence?  Oh wait you should be in the enclosure with all of your friends!  Not chewing on the trees OUTSIDE of your enclosure!!!

I quickly called Mike and hopped in the yukon to block off the road.  We waited in the yukon and watched as another bison simply hopped the fence; because the snowbank was so high on their side.  Mike went and hopped in his tractor to go and get haylage to feed the bison.  As soon as Kat, the assistant manager in the gift store, hooted and hollared at the bison they turned and hopped back into the enclosure and all was well.  I did have to add some extra height to the spot in the fence where they escaped....but I guess it could have been a much harder task to complete if say 10 or 20 bison escaped right?

 So I went along with the rest of the day.

I did place some orders for de-wormer for our animals that we give them annually to just keep them healthy.  I only had to do a little bit of math to figure how much medicine to order for 125,000 pounds of wood bison.  Just when I thought I was done with Math.  I also ordered more de-wormer for 50,000 pounds of deer.  Well my brain was done for the day!

I was desperate to get back outside and get some fresh air!

This first picture is the pasture with the female bison and their offspring from last summer. 

 I drove around the corner to see our big brown bears.  This is Hugo just laying outside her den.  She actually hibernated on her own this past winter.  For some reason JB and Patron didn't let her join them.  My guess is Patron, the other female, had something to do with this.  They don't get along as well...typical. 

Patron also headed over to see if I had anything to give her.  She quickly learned I didn't and went back inside her den.

 Even though the fence level is really low becaus eof the snow we still have 3 hot wire fences running across.

 Jordan, our curator, was also outside checking on the bears.  This kiosk that he is standing by was placed there last summer.  It explains the future plans of our bear boardwalk. 








Speaking of future plans; the bear boardwalk has begun phase 1!  These pipes that are sticking out of the ground was the first step to building the boardwalk.  I believe they start the next step on wednesday of adding levels to the boardwalk. 

It is exciting to see how much the center has changed just in the past year since I arrived.  Mukluk, the orphaned musk ox is getting so big, Gilly and Nelson, the moose calves, are now living with Jack, and soon Taquka and Shaggy will be moving to Sweden! (Tear)  But with changes come new beginnings...is that how the saying goes?  Well anyways, you catch my drift...
Time for dinner!
Goodnight Lower 48,
ErIn

Don't worry I'm still here...

 Ok, so I think it is safe to say that our bears have officially come out of hibernation.  Well, all of our brown bears at least.  Kuma and Uli, the 2 black bears, still have a few weeks till they usually wake up.  Today I actually got the go ahead to start feeding them every day again.  We have a fridge stocked full of moose that I know our bears are gonna love! 

I t was a road kill moose that someone donated to us so that it didn't go to waste. 

 Taquka is usually the first between these 2 yearlings to wander out of the cabin daily.  Shaggy, the female takes a little bit longer to wake up.  These past week or so things have really picked up their pace.  By the end of the day I am usually too exhausted to blog.  I apologize for the long absence.  Even on my days off I manage to get a project going that takes all day.  We have also begun to get things ready for this summer.  I have begun ordering formulas for any possible moose calves or musk ox calves that we may be raising. 

I am also very excited for the fact that there will be a few people returning from last year.  It will be a fun filled summer with old friends, and I am excited to make new friends as well. 

On my day off last week I walked around to get some photos with the animals.  Jewelie is always ready for her fruit mixed in with her grain. 

 Yesterday, it was such a gorgeous day that I had to stop and visit the calves with some treats.  A member donated about 40 pounds of bananas 2 weeks ago for the moose.  I finally gave them the last few bananas as well as some oranges.  Jack is on the far left, then Gilly, and finally Nelson on the far right.

Gilly is always interested in my camera.  











Even though Jack is cut off in this photo I still wanted to post it because you can sort of see from his view. 

 This is the wood bison pasture located just on the other side of the road.  You can see the sun is setting behind the mountain. 

Last night the aurora lights where out so well!  It was an amazing sight.  Unfortunately, I didn't get photos with my camera.  However, I am going to get some photos from my roommates for the next blog.  I better go wash some dishes from feeding animals today.  Next blog be ready to see some aurora pics!

Goodnight Lower 48,
ErIn