If you are in the Anchorage area and your looking for something family friendly to do, or if you are an animal lover, look no further than The Alaska Zoo. This beautiful little zoo is full of a wonderful range of animals. I have visited this zoo during all times of the year and though it is beautiful in the summer, my absolute favorite time of year to visit is in the winter. Most to all of the animals presented in the zoo are animals that are native to colder climates. Which means that even if you visit in the dead of winter the animals are out and active and usually have this beautiful snow white backdrop. They have everything from polar bears, seals and otters to wolves, siberian tigers, musk ox and reindeer, with many other animals included.

This last visit I was particularly enamored with a fox that had its own enclosure. She was absolutely stunning in her bright red coat with just hints of black on her paws and she caught my attention well before we were even at her enclosure. When we got to her enclosure she immediately dove into this hollowed out log and preceded to peep at us from within the log. When she didn't come out right away my son suggested we move out of her view and see what she would do and sure enough she would come out and check to see where we were. My son and I spent quite a bit of time trying to coax her out of the log and we were eventually rewarded with her coming out and running around her pen for a bit, that is until by 6ft tall son went from kneeling to standing that was a bit much for her and back in the log she went. So here are a few shots I was able to capture of our time spent with this beauty.

A149This is Kit, she is a red fox at the Alaska Zoo in Anchorage, AK.

This was when she was deep in her hole and unsure of us.

A151Kit from the Alaska Zoo checking me out.

She finally started easing out but she kept a tight eye on us.

I fell in love with this little fox so much that I didn't really photograph many of the other animals in the zoo but every time I have visited The Alaska Zoo there has been at least one animal that has stolen the show and this time it was this beautiful, shy little fox. For me, as a photographer, the zoo provides an opportunity to practice my skills with 1-the certainty that animals will be present and 2-that I don't have to worry about being mauled or eaten, which is something I am very aware of when shooting out in the wild.