Wildlife Photos

Although Wrangell-St. Elias National Park is home to millions upon millions of acres of wilderness, it’s not what most folks think of as a great place to make wildlife photos. The populations of most species aren’t high, by many standards, largely because the terrain here is relatively inhospitable. The park tends to be more about geology than ecology, so to speak. Dense populations of animals don’t fare well on piles of rock and ice. Not for long, anyway.

Much of the park is simply not great “wildlife habitat”, and the areas that are, are often areas that are either hunter or very tough to get to. Or both. As a result, we don’t see Wrangell-St. Elias National Park as a popular destination for wildlife photos. The photography is challenging; the terrain is tough to get around on, the animals are often tough to find, skittish and difficult to approach, and few and far between.

That said, the park is home to a substantial diversity of animals and birds. Caribou and moose are found here, grizzly and black bears live here, wolves, and a host of other mammals. There are dozens of species of birds that migrate to the park in the summer, and the months between March – October can be a productive time for those dedicated to making wildlife photos. But it’s a tough gig!