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	Games - Alaska Zoo

The Alaska Zoo is a zoo in Anchorage, Alaska, located on 25 acres (62 ha) of the Anchorage Hillside. It is one of the most popular attractions in Alaska, with nearly 200,000 visitors per year.

The zoo is currently home to nearly 100 birds and mammals of some 40 species. The main emphasis is on animals native to Alaska, but some "exotic" animals are featured as well, such as Amur tigers, Bactrian camels, yaks, and elephants.

In addition to viewing, the zoo specializes in education, research, wildlife conservation, and animal rehabilitation; many of the animals currently in the zoo were found orphaned or injured.

History

In 1966, Anchorage grocer Jack Snyder won a contest offering a prize of "$3,000 or a baby elephant". He chose the elephant, a female Asian named Annabelle. Annabelle was initially kept at a Hillside ranch owned by Sammye Seawell, which had the only heated stalls available.

As Annabelle's popularity grew, Seawell formed a non-profit corporation to build a place "where the public could visit animals and learn about them." This resulted in the opening of the Alaska Children's Zoo in 1969 on land adjacent to the ranch, the zoo's current site, with Annabelle and other donated animals.

The zoo attracted some attention, even outside Alaska, in 1994 when Binky, then one of the zoo's polar bears, injured several visitors who entered his enclosure, famously pacing with an Australian woman's shoe dangling from his mouth. (The current polar bear exhibit is human-proof.)

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