Fairbanks' Babies

It didn't take us long to get to Fairbanks. We drove up through a canyon, along wide valleys, and also along high ridges where you could see for miles on both sides. We stayed out of the main downtown area, so we could bicycle to where we wanted to go and stay out of traffic. It finally got warm enough that we wore shorts! First time this year.

There were a couple of places in Fairbanks we wanted to see, but number one was the Large Animal Research Station. My granddaughter was disappointed that I didn't post the picture of the swans with chicks last post, so today I will post all the baby animal pictures.

This was the swan and chick that we paddled right by on Byer's Creek the time we saw the red salmon. Both parental swans stayed close by.

A baby muskox. The mother is beside it, but I couldn't get both in the picture. The males are kept in a separate enclosure with three (3!) fences around it. The inside fence is made of 9"X9" posts with a thick cable strung through them. About 3 feet away from the cable fence, the next fence is about 6' high, has steel posts and is what you see in the pictures. The last fence is smaller and mostly to keep the people from getting up close enough to the big steel fence that they get "butted" when the muskox get irate. There is a big tractor tire inside the compound for the males, and they "play" with it by head butting it. I understand that one male actually moved that tire about 20 meters, pushed it through the cable fence post and broke the post.

This is a mommy and baby caribou. They had both caribou and reindeer in the station. The males were allowed to mingle with the families, as caribou are very social and protect their young.



It rained on our second day in Fairbanks, so we did the "museum day" thing. We had picked up fresh salmon, so when we got home we did B's version of the "salmon bake" that's so popular in Alaska. As usual, it turned out fabulous!

We planned on leaving early this morning, but my eyeglasses seem to have lost a piece from the arm, so we will be stopping at an opticians before we move on the the next place: Chicken, Alaska!

W