Bears and wolves, Oh my

In a land known to be wild and full of wild life, the battle between wild animals and humans invading their habitat is no more evident than this year. During the summer of 2007, Alaskan wildlife made news headlines for venturing into human habitation. Of course humans are the ones who have continued to venture further into animal habitats. In sparsely populated Alaska though, the lines of wild habitat and human habitat are consistently blurred.

Even though humans and wild animals live in somewhat close proximity throughout much of the state, it is still somewhat uncommon to see bears and wolves in so many encounters with humans in the major population centers of the state. In the cities of Fairbanks and Anchorage, bears were the big story makers this summer. Grizzlies roamed near the edges of Fairbanks and black bears were encountered numerous times in the city of Anchorage. In one incident in Anchorage, a black bear was shot and killed in the Mountain View area after roaming through the West side and downtown, both urban human habitats, not bear habitats. In the Midtown section of the city we had an encounter just outside of my house with a young black bear. Bears in the outskirts of the cities are not abnormal, but having bears inside the city and so often is somewhat unusual.

Now comes several stories of recent encounters with wolves just outside Fairbanks and Anchorage. Wolves have killed several pets in the Two Rivers area of Fairbanks and areas around Anchorage. As it was this summer, residents are on heightened alert for these dangerous animals. I guess this is what life on the Last Frontier is like. All I know is that if another deadly woodland creature comes on my porch, I'm either runnin' or gunnin'. Dorothy, who's from Kansas, said "There's no place like home", and I have to agree. In the Midwest, you'd never see a story like this. Maybe it's time to head back down south... well someday anyways.