Well I have off for Alaska Day and decided to add a bit about one of my favorite places. The Kenai Moose Research Center on the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. I applied for a volunteer internship there and live onsite in a remote cabin about 40 miles down dirt roads from the nearest town. The facility has approximately 20 captive moose at any given time. Many of these were bottled fed in order to have them become highly habituated to humans. This allows scientists to approach close up and study moose without them becoming fearful and running away. I was overwhelmed by the hospitality of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game staff at the MRC(Moose Research Center). I learned more about wildlife science from these folks than from any college course I have taken and just being able to spend time in a wilderness setting with these great people aiding in the study of one of my favorit mammals was the experience of a lifetime. I took many photos there and thought I'd share some with you. This first one is me and a moose named Peanut. She's a big cow moose that is the dominant one in her pen. When we weighed her in the spring she was about 430KG. As you can see her shoulder is almost at my head level and I'm 5' 10". If she hadn't been habituated I'd never get this close.lol
2 comments:
I'm volunteering at the MRC for 3 weeks this summer and after reading your post am even more excited to go! Thanks for the pics and stories!
Glad you liked the blog. You're going to love the MRC. Tom, Stacy and John are some of the best people I ever worked with. Be sure to bring a camera, binoculars and maybe a good book.
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