Going to the Zoo
You have to love the Anchorage Zoo. From humble beginnings, they have created a nice little space where the children of Anchorage can go to see animals. Granted, half of the animals are ones that we see on the road side, or out of our bedroom windows. But to see them close up is always a treat. And we do have a few non-Alaskan animals, like Maggie the elephant (but they have plans to move her to a more elephant friendly environment), our siberian tigers (who are WAY past their life expectancy and not much longer for this world), a cold weather camel, some yaks and a few alpaca's. I always think that most of the animals at the zoo could walk out the front door and survive just fine in our Northern climate. However, I suspect that if all of the gates were opened, the animals would say "are you crazy, I'm not leaving!" The birds, of which there are many, are all rescued from injuries that prevent them from being released. The wolves were orphaned last year and brought in... they will likely replace Maggie as "the headliner" at the zoo. I'm sure that the bears and moose were also orphan rescues, but they predate my arrival here, so I'm not sure of their stories. The polar bears might prefer being elsewhere, but as the sea ice retreats in the North, they may (unwittingly) be lucky to be in a zoo. All in all, the Alaska Zoo is a lovely afternoon's excursion.
