I am taking a trip to Alaska and hoping to see as much wildlife as possible up there. Just curious if anyone around lives or has traveled there often and could point me in the right direction. Mostly I would be looking for mammals. For marine species, I have a 9 hour boat tour booked.
Alaska is such a big place. are you planning to visit all of it or just a small part of it? here are the top 10 observers of mammals in Alaska and roughly where their observations are centered: https://jumear.github.io/stirfry/iNat_top_observers_map?place_id=6&taxon_id=40151. that might give you an idea of folks in the community who have experience finding Alaskan mammals.
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I forgot to say I am flying in Anchorage. I have no idea where I will go from there, I suppose it will be based on where it is most probable to find wildlife.
Based on 1 visit and knowing how spread out things can be… I would focus on the Anchorage area and Kenai Peninsula. I don’t know where your boat tour is but Homer had Orcas off the ferry dock while we were there. We also went toward Denali but that was a long drive and we ran out of time before exploring much. If you really want to see musk ox, Palmer has a farm (probably the closest place with a semi-natural setting, still captive).
Have fun.
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Are you going with someone? Make sure everyone in your group has their own binoculars and cameras. You don’t want to be trying to share them (i.e.: fighting for one) when something like a whale breaches right in front of your boat.
One thing I will absolutely recommend is to take note of as many plants, fungi, and bird calls as possible. Alaska has a lot of native flora and fauna that are either extremely rare or practically nonexistent elsewhere in the world, spare northern Canada and perhaps Siberia. The amount of surprisingly unique lichens there is more than you’d think.
Another thing I’d say is to know where you’re going, and stay safe. It won’t be extremely hard to find a moose/bear/etc, but it’s also not too hard to act wrong around one. If possible, read up on how to react to certain wildlife, how to find them safely, and go to areas where there are other people so you’re not alone if something should happen.
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