If chilled tree cambium titillates your taste buds, it would look like a hearty feast. And for one family of beavers, that was the point. A beaver's supply of winter food lies near Campbell Creek where the creek crosses the Seward Highway. Usually we get a lot of calls this time of year. They're going to put away about six months of willow bushes to eat, or ornamental trees.
Most wild animals solve the problem of winter survival in Anchorage by avoidance.
They migrate out or they snooze. But the hardy and the shrewd have developed effective food- gathering strategies that carry them until spring. Wily ravens work the trash bins and parking lots for scraps, while small birds search frantically for seeds. Moose convert summer bingeing into fat, then browse groves of dwarfish trees in the parks. Squirrels stash bushels of cones.