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In a place where wildlife is perhaps the most abundant in the U.S., it's a challenge to keep track of all the different creatures and critters you will encounter on your voyage.
Gray Wolf
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Wolves are highly social animals, which live in packs and include parents and yearling pups. You've heard of the term "Alpha Male". Well, dominance of the wolf pack is a hierarchy with separate rank order among males and females, and the alpha male is number one among the males. It is also a little known fact that the alpha female, who is the lead female, is jut as in control as the male. In Alaska, the territory of a pack average 600 square miles of habitat.
Gray wolves communicate to each other through howling, body language and scent.
Howling is used to assemble the pack, talk to other packs, assert territorial
claims or as a source of pleasure. On a calm night, howls can be heard from as
far as 120 miles away. Wolves use their faces and tails to indicate their
emotion and status in the pack.
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Wolverine
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Wolverine. The name alone stirs up visions of northern wilderness. Wolverines belong to the mustelidae family along with weasels, mink, marten, and otters. The family mustelidae makes up most of the order Carnivora (carnivores). Wolverines are the largest terrestrial members of the this family in Denali. They have many physical characteristics typical of other mustelids: short legs, short ears, and well-developed anal glands. But wolverines more closely resemble small bears than martens or weasels.
Wolverines are powerful, aggressive, territorial, and tenacious. They make their living by being very efficient scavengers. Wolverines are built to rip into and feed on frozen flesh and bone. They have strong teeth and well-developed muscles it their head, neck, and shoulders. Wolverines rely on a diversity of prey and they will eat just about any type of meat that they can find or kill. They eat smaller mammals such as ground squirrels and rodents when they can capture them and are capable of capturing and killing prey that is much larger than themselves such as a moose or caribou. However, more often than killing, wolverines will scavenge carcasses of animals killed by other predators, drag them away from the kill sites, and cache them for later use.
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Musk Oxen
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The muskox (Ovibos moschatus) is called omingmak meaning “the
animal with skin like a beard” by Inupiaq-speaking Eskimos, a reference to the
long guard hair that hangs nearly to the ground. Taxonomists now classify
muskoxen with the sheep and goats. The closest living relative of the muskox is
the takin, a large goat-like animal which is found in the Himalayas. Muskoxen as
a species have changed little since the ice age and are perfectly adapted to
live in their harsh arctic environment.
The return of muskoxen to Alaska is an important success story in wildlife
conservation. The original Alaska muskoxen disappeared in the mid- or late 1800s
as they had much earlier in Europe and Asia. Overhunting likely contributed to
their demise, at least in some areas. By the 1920s, muskox distribution was
reduced to arctic Canada and East Greenland where a high take by whalers, hide
hunters, and natives continued. Concern over the impending extinction of the
species worldwide led to a move to restore a protected population to Alaska. In
1930, 34 muskoxen captured in East Greenland were brought to Fairbanks. In 1935
and 1936, all survivors and their calves were transported from Fairbanks to
Nunivak Island and released. Muskoxen thrived on Nunivak Island and increased
from 31 in 1936 to an estimated 750 by 1968.
Muskoxen from Nunivak Island were intended to provide stock for
relocating animals to formerly occupied ranges. Nunivak Island muskoxen have
been transplanted to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Cape Thompson, the
Seward Peninsula, Nelson Island, and to Wrangel Island and the Taimyr Peninsula
in Russia. Additional animals have been donated to zoos and other institutions.
Most of the transplanted animals quickly adapted to their new
surroundings and increased. Further transplants may be considered in the future.
However, dispersal from previously translocated herds will be the primary method
by which future range expansion occurs.
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Red Fox
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The red fox is abundant, widely distributed over the Denali National Park, and
frequently seen. Color phases other than red occur, sometimes even in the same
litters. While the most common color is red, red fox can be black, silver or a
cross between red and silver, known as "cross fox". A prominent white-tipped
tail is a distinguishing feature for all color phases.<
Underground dens are used for the rearing of pups. Dens may be
found in the open, in forest, on slopes, or on flat terrain. Most are dug into
the soil and may have several entrances. Red fox pups are born in the early part
of May. They spend most of the summer in or near the den where they are provided
food by the parents.
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Mountain Goat
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Goats are
common on the Kenai Peninsula and can be viewed from the Seward and
Sterling Highways in a number of locations. One viewing area is at the Cooper
Landing Boat Launch, where you can watch goats on the mountains south of the
highway, while viewing Dall Sheep on the north side of the highway. To tell
sheep and goats apart, notice that goats tend to appear much larger on the front
half of their bodies due to the massive chests and heavy coats, while sheep tend
to have more evenly shaped bodies. Like sheep, both male and female goats grow
horns, but goats have black horns while sheep horns are a medium brown color.
Mountain Goats are more common along the wetter coastal areas, while Dall Sheep
are more common in the drier inland mountain areas of the Peninsula.
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Lynx
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The lynx is the only cat native to Alaska. Lynx
occur over most of northern North America and throughout Alaska except the
Aleutian islands, Kodiak archipelago, the islands of the Bering Sea and
some islands of Prince William Sound and Southeast Alaska. Because they
are shy and unobtrusive animals, people think that lynx are scarce. In
Alaska, however, they are commonly seen during long periods of summer
daylight. "Link" is a common local name for lynx in Alaska and the Yukon.
The lynx is a large, short-tailed cat, similar to the bobcat, but
distinguished by its long legs, furry feet, the long tufts on the tip of
each ear, and a completely black-tipped tail. The large broad feet
function as snowshoes to aid the lynx in winter hunting and traveling. The
dense soft fur is buffy grey with indistinct spotting.
Most adults weigh from 18 to 30 pounds. Male lynx are generally larger than females and occasionally weigh 40 pounds or more.
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