Kodiak Island Wildlife: Bears, Deer, Seaducks & Sea Life

Updated July 2026 · Kodiak Island, Alaska

Kodiak's wildlife list is short compared to mainland Alaska — but what the island does have, it has in extraordinary abundance. That's what makes it Kodiak.

Kodiak brown bears

Roughly 3,500 Kodiak brown bears live in the archipelago — one of the densest brown bear populations on Earth. They are the largest brown bears in the world, sustained by mild coastal winters and unlimited salmon. Read our full Kodiak bear vs grizzly guide.

Sitka blacktail deer

Introduced from Southeast Alaska in the 1920s–30s, Sitka blacktail expanded across an island with no wolves and no other major deer predators. Kodiak now supports one of the healthiest, most-hunted deer populations in Alaska. See our Sitka blacktail hunting guide.

What's not on Kodiak

The absences are as striking as the presences:

• No wolves.
• No native moose (a few transplants have shown up on Afognak).
• No caribou.
• No mountain goats on Kodiak Island proper.
• No porcupines, no coyotes.

Other land mammals

• Red fox — common across the island.
• Snowshoe hare — introduced, widespread.
• River otter, land otter, ermine, short-tailed weasel.
• Roosevelt elk — not on Kodiak, but on nearby Afognak Island, introduced in the 1920s.

Birds

Bald eagles are everywhere — Kodiak has one of the densest eagle populations in the country. Seabird colonies of puffins, murres, and kittiwakes nest on offshore rocks. And Kodiak is a seaduck destination — harlequin, long-tailed, scoters, and eiders fill the protected bays in winter. See our seaducks & fishing page.

Sea life

• Sea otters: abundant, protected, often the first wildlife visitors notice from the boat.
• Harbor seals and Steller sea lions: throughout the archipelago.
• Whales: humpback, gray, orca, and fin — summer is peak.
• Salmon: all five Pacific species. See our Kodiak fishing guide.
• Halibut, rockfish, lingcod, Dungeness and tanner crab.

Almost every trip on the water surfaces something on this list. That's the point of coming here.