We spent almost four days in the Nome, Alaska area searching for birds (which I’ll start featuring next week) but today I want to share some pics of the mammals we saw while we were out and about in the tundra.
Remember that cliffhanger picture last week – what kind of fur was hanging from the bush out in the tundra?
That fur came from a Muskox. These huge, shaggy creatures were often found grazing just outside of Nome. You can see how thick their fur is and how this can help protect them from the frigid winters of the north. Once summer hits they shed some of the fur to keep a little cooler in the sun.
Below is a young Muskox nursing.
Here’s a large Muskox on the ground with the Bering Sea in the background.
You would think we would see a lot of Moose up there but I believe we only saw this one female. Perhaps not enough of the food they prefer there.
We saw Arctic Fox several times around Nome, which were my favorites. About the size of a dog, the Arctic Fox had a reddish color and was always alert.
We watched these two foxes walk away from us and then turned off the path. Then they came running back toward us as fast as they could – I don’t know what they saw there, but they didn’t want anything to do with it.
Perhaps it was a Grizzly Bear that scared them. Alaska is known for its Grizzlies but we only saw two of them the entire time we were there. The two were a couple hundred yards away (a comfortable distance) and walking together. Here’s the best shot I could get – note the large “hump” above the front shoulder, which is indicative of a Grizzly instead of a brown bear.
I hope you’ve enjoyed these non-bird posts about our trip to Alaska. Back to birds next Monday and the “Birds of Prey with Prey” contest winner later this week.
This is the fifth post about my Alaskan bird tour. It started in Anchorage, then went to Seward, Nome, and Barrow; additional posts will be shared each Monday. CLICK HERE to see all the posts about our Alaskan Bird Tour.
Karen and I have had the opportunity to travel to many interesting places in search of birds. If you would like read about some of our other Bird Tours CLICK HERE.
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