The shrill call of nearly a dozen eagles pierces the air at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center near Portage and beside Turnagain Arm in Southcentral Alaska. The sound is a reminder that spring is in the air and summer is approaching, according to AWCC sales and marketing director Scott Michaelis.
The eagles frequent the area in spring and summer when salmon and hooligan run up nearby streams. They sometimes make the center's longest-term resident, an eagle with an amputated left wing, sing. "Adonis has been here for 20 years," said Michaelis. "Right now, he is very vocal. Bald eagles sort of announce themselves when they arrive or are in a tree nearby, so that's kind of cool."
As eagles perch in the tree tops, the conservation center staff knows it's time to prepare for birthing season.
"Guessing exactly when the animals will be born is like taking a shot in the dark," Michaelis said. "It is really hard to say." The time a mother gives birth is decided on a variety of factors, which include the type of winter through which the mother carried the baby and the spring weather. He said mothers don't like giving birth on the snow and a spring or summer delivery makes it easier on the baby, simply because they won't have to trek through snow. It's easier to forage and keep up with their mother.
According to Michaelis, the harsh winter of 2012-13, with its record-breaking cold temperatures, caused the earliest animal births the center had ever seen. This year, following a winter of drastic temperature changes, officials are expecting somewhat-early deliveries.
Musk oxen tend to be born first -- usually two to four a year at the center.
Most exciting for the conservation center is this year's wood bison birthing season, expected to begin in early May. "This is exciting because we are hoping that by next year (the spring of 2015), the calves will be born into the wild."
Michaelis said the center expects 40 wood bison calves this spring. The animal was extinct in Alaska for more than a century, but in 2003, the first wood bison made its way to the wildlife center from Canada's Yukon Territory. A long effort to reintroduce wood bison to the Alaska wilds may culminate with a release by next year.