Posts Near Anchorage Map Timeline

Anchorage residents have reported more wolf sightings since late summer, including a six-wolf pack seen near Far North Bicentennial Park, but biologists say negative encounters are rare and urge calm. Fish and Game is collaring wolves to better understand their movements after an October incident where wolves injured a pet dog.

Officials have indefinitely closed about 2.5 miles of popular biking, running and hiking trails in Far North Bicentennial Park and the Campbell Tract in East Anchorage due to heightened brown bear activity around salmon streams.

A hiker near the South Fork of Eagle River was mauled by a bear feeding on salmon and sustained non-life-threatening injuries; it's the second attack in the Anchorage area in under a week.

Photos of the animal recently circulated widely online, prompting a flurry of debate about whether the animal was a wolf or just a dog.

A Houston man was injured by a moose near his home, an unusual event linked to increased moose aggression due to harsh winter conditions.

A moose caused a stir in an Anchorage Costco parking lot, interacting with shoppers and snacking on the landscaping, reflecting increased human-moose encounters in the area.

Anchorage police killed a black bear that was charging people in neighborhoods near Northern Lights Boulevard and Baxter Road on Sunday night.

Bohemian waxwings are a wintertime fixture in Anchorage, darting in large flocks from one berry-filled tree to another.

Because of the risk to public safety, efforts will be made to locate this group of river otters and remove them, Fish and Game said.

“The fact that an otter attacked a person was certainly surprising,” said a wildlife biologist with Fish and Game, who added that it’s hard to know what the motivation behind the otter’s “unusual behavior” was.

Costco customers in Anchorage have recently started sharing online reports of ravens stealing groceries from their carts and the back of their pickup trucks, and biologists say the behavior could spread around town quickly.

A wildlife biologist believes a lynx that recently approached a young girl may have been a juvenile. The girl’s father said he’s now on higher alert after the encounter.

The repeated run-ins with the bear were part of the reason that one children's camp decided to move out of Russian Jack to another park.

The bear tunneled under the zoo’s perimeter fence and broke through the cedar split rail fence around the alpaca enclosure before killing Caesar, according to the zoo’s executive director, Pat Lampi. Another alpaca -- Fuzzy Charlie -- was found unhurt though wide-eyed and skittish.

The dog’s owner waded waist-deep into Taku Lake and was bitten on his hand while pulling the husky-mix away from the river otters,.

River otters (Lutra canadensis) observed in a lake that typically is home to beavers.

River otters observed within Anchorage city limits.

Hikers in the Anchorage area are advised to use caution on the Turnagain Arm Trail, following multiple reports of a black bear displaying unusual behavior.

A second whale has been found dead floating in the middle of Turnagain Arm, just two weeks after a juvenile humpback whale was found dead on the Arm after stranding itself twice.

If high temperatures melt snow and that leads to a bear’s den getting flooded, that’s another reason the bear might head outside. It’ll likely try to find another den, Farley said.

Half the bears were killed by people who said they were defending their lives or property. The other half were killed by police, park rangers or wildlife biologists.