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PHYSIOLOGYThe Arctic fox is about the size of a large domestic cat. It is part of the canid family, meaning it is related to other foxes, wolves and dogs, and it is the smallest wild canid found in Canada. It usually measures between 75 to 115 centimetres in length, and its bushy tail makes up between 30 and 35 percent of its total length. The Arctic fox has a brown or grey coat with a lighter belly in the summer, and it turns into a thick, white one during the winter season. The white coat makes it very hard for the fox’s prey to see it in the snow before it’s too late. Some have a grey to dark grey-blue coat in the winter. The Arctic fox is the only canid that changes the colour of its coat in the summer.

In addition to its thick coat, the Arctic fox is able to stay warm in the winter because it has short legs, a short muzzle and small rounded ears. These characteristics all reduce the amount of surface area it has for heat loss. Also, its feet are covered in fur, similar to the fur on a hare’s foot. HABITAT/BEHAVIOURThe Arctic fox is both a carnivore and scavenger, eating lemmings, eggs and the young of different species of bird. In the winter, it scavenges the bodies of already-dead animals, normally left behind by timber wolves or polar bears. The Arctic fox may also dig ringed seal pups out of their lairs and eat them. To find prey during the winter, the Arctic fox uses its hearing and sense of smell to detect animals travelling in tunnels underneath the snow.

The foxes begin to form mating pairs in March or April. A female’s, or vixen’s, pregnancy normally lasts 51 to 57 days, and the pair remains together throughout pregnancy and the raising of its young. The fox nurses its pups, or whelps, in dens that can be up to 300 years old, with as many as 100 entrances. The litters are born between late May and early June, with an average litter size of 11 whelps. This is the largest litter recorded for any wild mammal in the world.

RANGEThe Arctic fox lives in the circumpolar Arctic, which goes from the northern tip of Ellesmere Island to the southern tip of James Bay in Canada. They are normally found where seals and polar bears are present in and on ice floes. Each Arctic fox has its own home range, varying in size from three to 25 square kilometres. They are, however, very mobile and can travel large distances over both land and sea ice. Over 2,000 kilometres of individual fox movement has been recorded.

Hunters, diseases, and native traplines can cause the reduction of an Arctic fox population.

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Name: Arctic foxCommon name: White foxScientific name: Alopex lagopus, meaning “hare-footed fox”Inuktitut name: Tiriganiaq

Average weight: 2.5 to 9 kg Did you know? The Arctic fox has the warmest pelt of any animal found in the Arctic. It can endure temperatures as low as –50 ºC before its metabolism increases to provide warmth.

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PHYSIOLOGYBlack widow spiders are also known as “comb-footed” or “tangle-web” spiders. Both names are appropriate for the fingernail-sized black widow, which builds irregular, funnel-shaped tangle webs and traps prey using its combed hind pair of limbs.

Juvenile spiders are orange, brown and white and acquire their signature charcoal color as they age and molt. Adult females have a red hourglass mark on their abdomen and one or two red spots over the spinnerets and along the middle of the back. Males are usually about half the body size of the females, but have longer legs. Their joints are orange-brown in the center and black on the ends and they usually have four pairs of red and white stripes on the sides of their abdomen. HABITAT/BEHAVIOURSBlack widow spiders are found in the warm, dry parts of the world and prefer to spin their webs in dark, sheltered spots close to the ground. The web itself is an amazing structure, serving as a home for the spider, a defense against predators, an effective trap for prey and a means of communication between males and females.

Both predators and prey get entangled in the snare. When this happens, the spider wraps more silk around the unlucky victim and paralyzes it with venom. The spider then drags the bundle back to its home to enjoy its feast. Digestion actually takes place outside of the body: the spider pours digestive enzymes on its prey to break it down before consuming it.

During mating season, the male no longer feeds and expends most of its energy finding a mate. When he does find a female, the male vibrates the threads of her web to make sure that she is a female of the same species and to alert her of his presence.

A female lays 50-100 eggs onto a small web and covers them with silk for protection. The female then guards the egg sac for about 30 days until the spiderlings hatch.

RANGEThe black widow spider is found in warmer regions of the world, up to southern Ontario. It inhabits various habitats, including temperate forests, temperate grasslands, tropical rainforests, chaparrals and deserts.

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NAME: Black widow spiderSCIENTIFIC NAME: Latrodectus mactansAVERAGE WEIGHT: 1 g AVERAGE LENGTH: 3-4 mm (males); 8-10mm (females)AVERAGE LIFESPAN: 1-2 months(mlales); up to 3 years (females) DID YOU KNOW? The black widow spider’s venom is 15 times more poisonous than that of a rattlesnake! But, the amount of venom a spider injects with one bite is usually not fatal for humans.

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Name: Bison (buffalo)

Scientific family name: BovidaeWood bison species name: Bison athabascaePlains bison species name: Bison bison

Average weight: 725 kilograms

Life expectancy: 20-40 years

PHYSIOLOGYBison, also known as buffalo, are very large animals with a shaggy dark brown mane. They have humped shoulders and short legs that are covered with hair. They have a long tail with a furry end, called a tuft.

Their coat is extremely thick in order to keep them warm in cooler temperatures and in the summer months they shed to keep cool. Short, black horns stick out from the bison’s massive head, just above their eyes. These horns are used to defend themselves against predators. Bison’s eyesight is poor, but their hearing and sense of smell is very good. In fact, a bison can smell an animal three kilometers away.

Male bison are called bulls and have large, square-shaped necks, while females have smaller, rounder necks and are referred to as bison cows.

HABITAT/BEHAVIOURBison feed mainly on grass, plants and sometimes berries. Finding food in the winter isn’t a problem for the bison. They swing their large heads from side to side and push the snow away in order to find grass.

Despite their size, bison are very fast creatures, able to run up to 55 kilometres per hour. They are also excellent swimmers, but are so buoyant that the head, hump and tail stay above the surface of the water.

Bison are mostly active at night time and at dusk.

RANGEBison used to roam in herds of thousands, but are now found in much smaller groups. In North America, bison are still hunted by grizzly bears, grey wolves, and cougars. In northern Canada, they roam freely in protected areas. Today, small herds are found in northeast British Columbia, northwest Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories.

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PHYSIOLOGYSea otters have small front legs and stiff toes for handling food, while strong back legs with webbed feet allow for graceful paddling through the water. Because the mismatch gives them a clumsy walk on land, sea otters rarely stray too far from the sea.

Unlike some marine mammals, sea otters rely on thick fur instead of blubber to keep warm in the icy waters of the Pacific Ocean. A thick layer of underfur covered by black, pale brown or silver guard hairs traps air for insulation.

Older sea otters sometimes get silvery heads as their guard hairs change colour. Along with its long, stiff whiskers it’s no wonder the otter has earned the nickname “Old Man of the Sea.”

HABITAT/BEHAVIOURSea otters are hungry animals. In a normal day they’ll eat one quarter of their body weight by feasting on sea urchins, crabs, clams, mussels and octopuses. To get food, a sea otter may hammer open shellfish with small rocks or dive over 100 metres into the murky ocean depths. When it has something to eat, an otter rolls onto its back in the water and places the food on its chest to savor bite by bite.

A good part of a sea otter’s day is spent cleaning itself, because matted or clogged fur doesn’t trap enough heat. Some scientists worry that a big oil spill could wipe out all of Canada’s sea otters because the oil would get stuck in their fur and cause them to freeze to death.

RANGEHundreds of thousands of sea otters used to live on the Pacific coast between northern Mexico to Alaska. But the fur trade, which began in the 1700s, almost wiped out all of them. The last sea otter in B.C. was shot near Kyuquot on the west coast of Vancouver Island in 1929.

Eighty-nine sea otters were slowly reintroduced to B.C. between 1969 and 1972 and now there are around 2500 living off Vancouver Island and off the B.C. coast near Goose Island.

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NAME: Sea otter SCIENTIFIC NAME: Enhydra lutris

AVERAGE WEIGHT: 32 to 41 kg (male), 18 to 27 kg (female) AVERAGE HEIGHT: 1.4 mAVERAGE LIFESPAN: 15 to 20 years

DID YOU KNOW? Sea otter fur has about 1.6 to 2.6 million hairs per square cm, the thickest fur of any animal in the world.

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Name: Walrus

Species name: Odobenus rosmarus

Average weight: 1,400 kilograms (males) 900 kilograms (females)

Life expectancy: up to 40 years (in the wild)

PHYSIOLOGYThe species name, Odobenus rosmarus, is Latin for "tooth walking sea-horse." While there is only one walrus species, there are two subspecies: O. rosmarus rosmarus is the Atlantic walrus, found in eastern Canada and the high Arctic, and O. rosmarus divergens, the Pacific walrus, which occasionally wanders into the western Canadian Arctic from Alaska.

Resembling a large seal, the walrus has dark brown skin that is covered with a thin layer of tiny brown hairs, covering a generous layer of fat to help it withstand the cold. They are known for their long tusks, which can reach a length of 40 centimeters. The tusks, which grow continuously, help to create breathing holes in the ice and the walrus uses them to pull themselves out of the water. The walrus has whiskers on either side of its face that act as a food detector, locating clams and shellfish on the ocean floor.

HABITAT/BEHAVIOURWalruses spend most of their time on land. Because of their size, they appear to move slowly and sluggishly. However, unlike seals, walruses can move on all fours, allowing them to run as fast as humans in short spurts. Also, they are quite graceful in water.

They live in shallow water, but search for food in deeper areas. A walrus can dive up to 90 metres and can stay under for up to 30 minutes.

Walruses are very sensitive to approaching planes and boats, sometimes causes the walrus herd to stampede back into the water.

RANGEThe world walrus population is estimated at 300,000 individuals, of which only 20,000 are thought to be the Atlantic subspecies. At 5,000 individuals, the largest walrus herd in Canada occurs in Foxe Basin, where numerous polynyas (areas of open water surrounded by pack ice) create a desirable habitat.

During the winter months, the walrus lives on ice floes and in the summer, they spend their time on rocky beaches.

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PHYSIOLOGYRedheaded woodpeckers have a bright, distinct hood that sticks out in flight or at rest. Their wings are black with large white patches and dark eyes. They have a white chest, black and white tail feathers. Its bill is bluish gray with a black tip. Young woodpeckers have gray heads with some white or red. In September, young woodpeckers start to molt allowing the new adult feathers to grow in. Both male and female woodpeckers look alike.

Chirps are short, one second bursts repeated two or three times. Usually the sound of their regular calls is a CHURR, but when the Redheaded woodpecker senses danger, the call sounds like KRIT-tar-rar or even QUARR QUARR QUARR.

HABITAT/BEHAVIOURThis type of woodpecker is the more aggressive and omnivorous of its kind, and is the best at catching flying insects. They eat bark, seeds, nuts, berries, fruit, insects, bird eggs, nestlings and mice. It hides insects and seeds under bark, fence posts and under roof shingles. These woodpeckers prefer to nest in holes in tall or dead trees or branches. During the winter, woodpeckers fly down to the southwestern part of Texas in the United States of America. This means, they migrate during the colder months. During the spring or summer, a female woodpecker usually lays between five to seven white eggs. They breed in oak or beech trees, river bottoms, orchards and open wooded swamps. It lives in parts of Manitoba, southern Ontario and Nova Scotia during the warmer months.

There have been some sightings in Quebec, but the number of birds has been declined. This means, the species is at risk.

RANGEThe redheaded woodpecker is found seasonally in southern Ontario and in the eastern US, but sightings of the bird in other Canadian provinces have declined over the years.

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NAME: Redheaded woodpeckerSCIENTIFIC NAME: Melanerpes erythrocephalus (Linnaeus)

AVERAGE WEIGHT: 56-91 g AVERAGE HEIGHT: 19-23 cm

AVERAGE LIFESPAN: 10 years

DID YOU KNOW? This redheaded bird is one of only four woodpeckers known to store food in wood, like trees or fallen logs.

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PHYSIOLOGYA rainbow trout has a long, skinny body and can come in a variety of colours from brown and black to olive and blue-green. No matter the colour, the rainbow trout always has a reddish stripe length-wise down both sides of its body. The fish’s underbelly is white and tiny black spots cover its back, sides and fins.

The rainbow trout actually has seven fins in total: a pair of pectoral fins, a pair of pelvic fins, an anal fin, a dorsal fin and an adipose fin. To distinguish wild rainbow trout from the hatchery kind, fish hatched and raised in captivity and then released into the wild, oftentimes the adipose fin will be clipped in the hatchery variety.

The fish has sharp teeth on the roof of its mouth but has no lower teeth at all.

HABITAT/BEHAVIOURRainbow trout are carnivores that won’t eat any vegetation growing in the water. Insects, leeches, small fish, crayfish and mussels are just a few delicious treats a rainbow trout likes to munch on.

This fish likes to live in cool freshwater but some of them migrate into saltwater and become steelhead trout. Steelheads are the same as rainbow trout except in saltwater, the fish gets bigger, eats larger prey and has to return to its birthplace to spawn, much like a salmon. However, the freshwater rainbow trout does not have to migrate back to its birthplace to lay its eggs.

To lay her eggs, a female rainbow trout must dig a nest in the gravel at the bottom of the body of water. To build this nest, called a redd, the female turns her body to the side and flaps her tail, creating a depression in the gravel. She then lays up to thousands of eggs in multiple redds. As she is doing this, one or more male rainbow trout fertilize the eggs with something called milt.

RANGEThe rainbow trout is native to lakes and rivers in North America west of the Rocky Mountains. However, it has been introduced to bodies of water all over the world because of its popularity as a sporting fish.

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NAME: Rainbow trout SCIENTIFIC NAME: Oncorhynchus mykissAVERAGE WEIGHT: 1 to 7 kg but can reach up to 9 kg AVERAGE LENGTH: 30 to 75 cm but can reach up to 90 cm AVERAGE LIFESPAN: 4 to 6 years (in the wild)

DID YOU KNOW? The rainbow trout is a member of the salmon family and can get quite hefty. The largest recorded rainbow trout was 25.8 kilograms!

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PHYSIOLOGYThe prairie rattlesnake is the only venomous snake in the Canadian prairies. It is best known for the unique rings on the end of its tail that knock together and make a rattling sound. The flat, diamond-shaped head hides a pair of the longest fangs of any snake species. The body ranges from greenish gray to greenish brown in colour, with dark blotches on the back and a greyish white underbelly.

A rattle is added to the string each time the rattlesnake sheds its skin, which happens three to five times in its first summer and one to three times after that. Males tend to have more rings than females.

HABITAT/BEHAVIOURBecause it is cold blooded, the prairie rattlesnake’s body temperature is affected by its surroundings. During the winter it hibernates in caves and in the burrows of other animals. In the cool spring and fall weather the rattlesnake hunts in the daytime, while the hotter summer days force it to hunt at night.

The prairie rattlesnake is not aggressive and will usually flee if given the chance. But as a predator it has unique assets. It uses its tongue as part of its smell- and heat-sensing membranes, allowing it to detect something from as far as 30 metres away.

The prairie rattlesnake hunts by striking rapidly at its prey and immobilizing them with the poisonous venom in its fangs. Its normal striking distance is half of the snake’s body length (40 to 50 centimetres, on average). The snake selects its prey by size according to what it can easily swallow. The rattlesnake preys upon small mammals, amphibians, reptiles and ground nesting birds.

RANGEThe prairie rattlesnake can be found in southwestern Saskatchewan, southeastern Alberta and south-central British Columbia. Its range extends through the United States in western Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas, and the northern region of Baja California and northern Mexico.

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Name: Prairie rattlesnake

Species name: Crotalus viridis viridis

Average length: 89 cm to 114 cm

Life expectancy: 16-20 years

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PHYSIOLOGYThe killer whale is the largest member of the dolphin family. It has a distinctive black and white pattern, with a blunt head and tall dorsal fin that is triangular in shape and in the middle of its back. The maximum recorded length for a male is 9.0 metres, and for a female it’s 7.7 metres. However, whales in the British Columbia population tend to be much smaller. HABITAT/BEHAVIOURKiller whales live in any ocean between 0 degrees Celsius and tropical water temperature. The depth of the ocean doesn’t affect them—they have even been known to enter rivers. Killer whales travel in pods, which normally consist of a mother and her offspring. Resident pods can have up to three or four generations in one pod. Male calves born into a resident pod do not leave their mother’s pod. Females, on the other hand, may form sub-pods with their own offspring later on in life. Transient whales don’t always stay with a group for life. Either sex may leave their mother to travel, either alone or with another transient group. There are normally only two to six whales in a transient group, but it can reach up to 20.

There are three distinct types of killer whales: resident, transient and offshore. Resident killer whales travel in relatively stable groups called pods. They were coined as “resident” because they are seen each summer. There are about 600 whales in the resident population between Washington and Alaska, and they all feed on fish. Transient whales are those who travel in small groups and who are normally in transit. They eat mainly mammals, differing from the resident whales. There are about 400 transient whales that range from southern California to the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. Offshore whales are a bit more mysterious than the previous two types. They are rarely seen in British Columbia and could possibly be distant relatives of the resident killer whales. Offshore killer whales seem to feed on fish and squid. There are about 200 off-shore killer whales catalogued thus far.

There are three types of sounds that all killer whales produce: clicks, whistles and pulses. Clicks are used to detect and pursue prey, while whistles and pulses are how they communicate amongst themselves. Residents have seven to 17 calls that very between pods. Transients only have four to six, none of them used by residents.

RANGEKiller whales are found in all three of Canada’s oceans, and have even been known to enter Hudson Bay and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. They are, however, uncommon in the Atlantic and Arctic oceans. They are most often seen off the southern coast of British Columbia.

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Name: Killer whaleScientific name: Orcinus orca

Height (dorsal fin): Male: 1.8 m; Female: 0.9 m Average weight: Male: 9,000 to 10,000 kg Female: 7,000 to 8,000 kg Did you know? The southern British Columbia resident population of the killer whale is endangered.

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PHYSIOLOGYThe Greenland shark is one of the largest sharks in the world and is the largest arctic fish. Despite its large size it has many small features, such as a small head, short snout and small eyes. Its dorsal and pectoral fins are also quite small, as are the shark’s five gill slits in relation to its body.

The Greenland shark is brown, gray and black in colour and may have dark lines or white spots along its flanks or on the dorsal side. Its upper teeth are long while its lower teeth are flatter and more closely set—although all of the teeth are razor sharp. It also has an acute sense of smell. An interesting companion to its physiology is the bioluminescent, or glowing, copepods attached to the shark’s eyes. A copepod is a whitish-yellow creature, approximately three millimetres to seven centimetres in size. The resulting glow-in-the-dark appearance of the shark’s eyes is thought to attract curious prey.

HABITAT/BEHAVIOURThe Greenland shark is a slow swimming shark and is sometimes called the sleeper shark for its lethargic behaviour. It is commonly considered to be more sluggish than other large sharks, but using its short, broad tail, the Greenland shark can achieve short bursts of acceleration.

Known for eating just about anything, the Greenland shark feeds on fish, other sharks, skates, eels, seals, small crustaceans, jellyfish, sea urchins, crabs and squids. It is also known to eat carrion, the flesh of dead whales and reindeer and caribou that stand close to open holes in the ice.

The Greenland shark is a deep-water species that inhabits cold waters, between 1 and 12 degrees Celsius, near the shelves and slopes at least 1,200 metres underwater. They tend to inhabit shallower waters in the colder months.

RANGEThe Greenland shark lives in the cold waters of the Artic and the North Atlantic. It has been found as far southwest as the Gulf of St. Lawrence and as far south as Cape Cod.

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Name: Greenland shark

Species name: Somniosus microcephalus

Average length: 6.5 metres Average weight: 900 kg

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PHYSIOLOGYContrary to what its name suggests, the flying squirrel cannot fly. Instead, it glides with two furry membranes, called patagia, loosely stretched between its wrists and ankles. The membranes act as a parachute to support the squirrel while jumping from tree to tree. The flying squirrel normally glides diagonally downward from one branch, scurries to the top of the tree and jumps on a downward slant to the next one. The flying squirrel also has a flat, furry tail that it uses as a rudder while gliding. The squirrel uses both its tail and membrane to steer left and right, and even to make 180-degree turns.

The flying squirrel is normally brown on its back, and white on both its belly and the bottom side of its furry membrane. The northern flying squirrel equals in size to a red squirrel, and the southern species is comparable to a chipmunk. Nocturnal mammals, they have large, dark, bulging eyes that are well adapted for night vision. They also has something called “feelers,” which are sensitive whiskers used to make nocturnal travel easier. To mark forest routes, the squirrel uses scent glands in its cheeks. HABITAT/BEHAVIOURThe squirrels are most active between dusk and dawn. Omnivorous, it eats nuts, seeds, berries, insects, tree buds and sometimes eggs or nestlings. Although the northern and southern flying squirrels are mainly found in trees, they forage the forest ground for food. They run slowly and clumsily on the ground and, if startled far from a tree, will try to hide.

The northern species lives in mixed or coniferous forests, while its southern counterpart occupies hardwood forests of oak, maple, beech and hickory.

RANGEThe southern flying squirrel is found throughout eastern parts of North America and the southeastern parts of Canada. It is found mostly in the Carolinian deciduous forests of southern Ontario, but can also be seen north to Muskoka and the Ottawa Valley, as well as in parts of Quebec and Nova Scotia. Its range partly overlaps that of the northern flying squirrel, which can generally be found from the U.S.-Canada border north to the tree line. The two species, however, do not interbreed.

The population of the northern species is unknown as there is very little monitoring data available. The southern species, however, is listed as vulnerable in Canada. The southern flying squirrel was once common in Point Pelee National Park in Ontario, but it slowly disappeared as its forest habitat was changed to farms, cottages, and heavily used campgrounds. In the past few decades, however, most of these invasions have been stemmed, making it possible for the squirrel to return.

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Name: Northern and southern flying squirrel

Common name: Flying squirrel

Northern flying squirrel scientific name: Glaucomys sabrinusSouthern flying squirrel scientific name: Glaucomys volans

Did you know? Depending on the wind and takeoff height, the flying squirrel can glide for 50 metres or more.

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PHYSIOLOGYThe Eastern chipmunk looks a lot like a small, striped, reddish-brown squirrel with a white belly. Some squirrels do have stripes, but chipmunks have five dark stripes and several white ones, some of which stretch onto the head. Male and female chipmunks look alike.

These rodents’ front feet have four toes. The back ones have five.

Chipmunk cheek pouches are made of stretchy skin so the animal can stuff them with food – an handy way to carry lots of goodies off to its burrow. The pouches get larger as the chipmunk gets older.

HABITAT/BEHAVIOUREastern chipmunks are at home in forests where there are plenty of hiding spots, such as under rocks or in fallen trees. This cover helps the critter escape its predators.

These animals will eat fruits, nuts, seeds and mushrooms – sometimes even bird eggs and earthworms.

Each chipmunk builds a burrow where it may live for up to several years. Chipmunks mostly stay away from each other’s homes. Its tiny burrow is also a place to hide from predators.

To make its burrow, the chipmunk digs a tunnel and fills the space with fluffy seeds, leaves and grasses. Underneath this bedding, it hides nuts and seeds for winter. That can help the nuts and seeds it does not eat grow into plants.

During winter, chipmunks mostly stay in their burrows. They wake up every few days or weeks to snack from their stored food. That means they don’t hibernate.

In spring or summer, a female chipmunk gives birth to an average of three to five babies, which have no fur, are blind and weigh only about three grams! They will venture out of the burrow after about six weeks.

RANGEThe Eastern chipmunk is common in southeastern Canada and the northeastern United States. They reach as far north as the treeline, where it is too cold and dark for forests to grow.

Each critter also has its own range. When in another’s territory, a chipmunk will be wary. Chipmunks don’t always get along when vying for the nuts humans are passing out!

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NAME: Eastern chipmunkSCIENTIFIC NAME: Tamius striatus AVERAGE WEIGHT: 130 gAVERAGE LENGTH: 20-30 cm, about one third of which is tail

LIFESPAN: Often less than 1 year, but can reach 5 years DID YOU KNOW? Chipmunks may have to dig through a metre of snow to leave their burrows in spring.