Many people find the walrus to be one of the most fascinating animals in the world. There is no denying what it is when you see those two long tusks in front of the face.

They have long been a source of food for the people of the Arctic but these people find a use for the entire walrus so they are very respectful in the manner that they use it.

The walrus is a very large animal and one that is believed to have evolved millions of years ago from a land creature.

Walrus Feeding

The feeding habits of the walrus are very interesting. They consume foods from the bottom of the water including mollusks such as clams. They have also been known to feed on seals in the area when they need to. Due to the large size of these animals they have to consume large amounts of food each day. Generally that will be about 6% of their overall body weight.

Habitat: in coastal waters or on pack ice.

Size: length : male, 171 - 190cm.

Weight: 120 - 135kg.

Life-span: up to 30 years.

Food: various species of fish. Young eat crabs.

Number of young: 1

Sexual Maturity: females, up to 7 years; males, 4 years.

Gestation: 225 days, but twelve months in total because of delayed implantation.

Life-span: up to 30 years.

Food: various species of fish. Young eat crabs.

Harp Seal Habits

Daily life. Unlike sea lions and eared seals which use their fore flippers for propulsion, harp seals use their hind flippers in a side-to-side action to propel themselves through the water. They are born with white fur, but this darkens in adulthood, and they develop irregular black patches on their backs. These patches are often harp-shaped, which is how the seal gets its name.

Their lives are governed by the movements of pack ice throughout the year. There are three distinct populations, one in the seas around Jan Mayen, one around Novaya Zemlya and one around the coasts of Labrador and Newfoundland. All these populations migrate south before the spring breeding season.

They travel in groups of ten or more, but these groups are often parts of a much larger herd, which dives, leaps and swims in unison. In May, after breeding and moulting, they head back to their northern feeding grounds.

Food and feeding. Harp seals have good eyesight, which is very useful in the dimly lit Arctic waters. They also use their sharp ears and sensitive whiskers, which can sense vibrations in the water caused by the swimming action of their prey. Fish such as capelin, herring and cod make up most of an adult seal’s diet. They are able to dive to depths of 150-200m in search of prey. Once caught, small fish are eaten whole underwater, but for larger catches, the harp seal will swim to the surface before eating.

The snow goose is a plump, long-necked waterfowl species with a mostly white body. Adults have:

* Black wingtips.
* A pinkish, serrated bill with a black “grin patch” on the side.

In its dark phase (sometimes known as the blue goose), snow geese have a white head, dark body and pale bluish wings.

Snow geese grow to about 38 inches with a wingspan of about 59 inches.

Where does the snow goose live?

Snow geese migrate to the Bay region in late November. Flocks of hundreds or thousands of snow geese are a common sight in Eastern Shore marshes and agricultural fields. By early March they begin their migration back to their Arctic nesting grounds.

What does the snow goose eat?

Snow geese feed mostly on the rootstocks of agricultural grains and grasses, which they dig out of the ground using their serrated bills.

What does the snow goose sound like?

Snow geese have a shrill, nasally call that sounds similar to a dog’s bark. They also gabble as they feed in open fields.

Where does the snow goose nest and breed?

Snow geese do not nest or breed in the Bay region; they do so in the Arctic each summer.

Other facts about the snow goose:

* Flocks of snow geese fly in long diagonal or V-shaped formations.
* The blue goose was once thought to be a distinct species; it is now known to be a color morph of the snow goose

Overview

Snowy Owl: Large, white owl with variable black bars and spots. The head is round and lacks tufts, eyes are yellow, and the bill is black. Feathered feet and toes provide protection from the arctic cold. Direct flap-and-glide flight with powerful, deep wingbeats. North America’s only all-white owl.

Range and Habitat

Snowy Owl: Found mainly in the tundra of North America; sometimes driven by search for food as far south as Oklahoma, northern Alabama, and central California. Preferred habitats include lakeshores, marine coastlines, and marshes; may roost on buildings in cities and towns.

The wolverine, a relative of the mink and weasel, is the largest terrestrial member of the family Mustelidae. Its scientific name is Gulo gulo, meaning “glutton.” Wolverines are a wide-ranging species that naturally at low densities and require large expanses of wilderness. Formerly distributed throughout the taiga and boreal regions of North America, wolverine range has receded substantially primarily from most of the eastern United States and Canada. In Alaska, wolverines reside throughout mainland Alaska and some of the islands of Southeast Alaska.

The wolverine is valued as a fur resource and as a symbol of wilderness. Its fur is commonly used for parka trim and hoods because of its beauty and durability and because the guard hairs of wolverine fur resist frost accumulation.

General description: Wolverines have long dense fur that is generally dark brown to black with a creamy white to gold stripe running from each shoulder along the flanks to the base of the tail. A white hair patch on the neck and chest is common. It has a thick body, short legs, short ears, and a broad flat head. Adult males are 30-40% heavier than females and generally weigh 24-40 pounds (11-18 kg) while adult females weigh 13-26 pounds (6-12 kg). Like humans and bears, wolverines walk on the soles of their feet, called semiplantigrade posture. They have curved, semi-retractile claws and can climb trees readily. They are well suited to travel through deep, soft snow.

Wolverines are found throughout Alaska but there are areas that wolverines tend to avoid or exist at lower densities because the habitat is not suitable for denning or are highly developed or used by people. They are primarily solitary creatures throughout most of the year. Wolverine spatial patterns include: intersexual overlap, with home ranges of resident males overlapping those of 2-6 resident females; familial overlap, with offspring sharing their mother’s home range; and temporal exclusive intraspecific home ranges, with resident males defending their territories during February through July which coincides with the denning and breeding periods. Wolverines are active at any time of day, year round. They have tremendous physical endurance. Movements of 40 miles in a day have been documented.

Because of their great endurance, strength, and foraging behavior, wolverines have become a center of folklore. However, its fierce reputation has often been exaggerated. They are known to steal furbearers from traps and to damage cabins but contrary to stories will not attack a larger predator, like a wolf or a bear. Instead, they avoid these animals as encounters with either of these predators may be fatal to the wolverine. Wolverines will defend a food source or its territory against other wolverines or smaller predators.

Musk oxen are large animals with long fur coats. Both the males and females have horns. A musk oxen’s coat keeps it snug and warm. For winter they grow thick undercoats of soft brown fleece, and thick overcoats of shaggy, long straight hair that hangs down to the ground. In May they shed large amounts of fur. Inuit use the soft underwool called “quiviut” for weaving shawls, sweaters, gloves, hats, scarves and other items.

ENEMIES AND PROTECTION:
Musk oxen gather in groups of 10 to 20 . They snort when annoyed. When they try to run away from enemies the musk oxen get tired and overheated. If the musk oxen sense danger they form a defensive circle around their young and face their enemies. They may even charge and try to gore the enemy with their horns. The arctic wolf is their main enemy.

FOOD
Musk oxen feed on grasses, lichens and willows. The herd keeps moving while they are eating. Their hooves spread out allowing the muskoxen to walk on snow without sinking too deep. The sharp hooves help them to get at the grasses that are buried under the snow.

Polar Bear: Lives in arctic snowy place. Lives in Alaska (U.S.), Canada, Denmark(greenland) Russia and Norway.

Penguin:    Lives in the southern Hemisphere. Smallest fairy penguins found in Australia and New zealand. Their
habitat range from frozen places to warmer water.

Musk Oxen:  Canada, Greenland, Polarland, Alaska and Ellesmere Island.

Arctic fox:  Lives in dry and cold places. Lives in Canada, Greenland and Alaska.

Arctic Hare: Lives in tundra of Canada. It is also found on Arctic Island and greenland.

Arctic Wolf: Lives primarrily in the arctic region. The land is covered with snow and ice most of the year.Alaska,
part of Canada. Their habitat ranges from frozen tundra,snow covered mountains,to the forests of the
north.

Snowshoe      Their habitat is in the forests, swamps, thickets. Never far from forest or woods. They are found

Rabbit:        in northern USA, Alaska and Canada.

What is a Butterfly?

Butterfly anatomyButterflies are beautiful, flying insects with large scaly wings. Like all insects, they have six jointed legs, 3 body parts, a pair of antennae, compound eyes, and an exoskeleton. The three body parts are the head, thorax (the chest), and abdomen (the tail end).

The butterfly’s body is covered by tiny sensory hairs. The four wings and the six legs of the butterfly are attached to the thorax. The thorax contains the muscles that make the legs and wings move.

FLYING
Butterflies are very good fliers. They have two pairs of large wings covered with colorful, iridescent scales in overlapping rows. Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) are the only insects that have scaly wings. The wings are attached to the butterfly’s thorax (mid-section). Veins support the delicate wings and nourish them with blood.

Butterflies can only fly if their body temperature is above 86 degrees. Butterflies sun themselves to warm up in cool weather. As butterflies age, the color of the wings fades and the wings become ragged.

The speed varies among butterfly species (the poisonous varieties are slower than non-poisonous varieties). The fastest butterflies (some skippers) can fly at about 30 mile per hour or faster. Slow flying butterflies fly about 5 mph.

LIFE-CYCLE OF A BUTTERFLY
life cycle
Butterflies and moths undergo complete metamorphosis in which they go through four different life stages.

* Egg - A butterfly starts its life as an egg, often laid on a leaf.
* Larva - The larva (caterpillar) hatches from an egg and eats leaves or flowers almost constantly. The caterpillar molts (loses its old skin) many times as it grows. The caterpillar will increase up to several thousand times in size before pupating.
* Pupa - It turns into a pupa (chrysalis); this is a resting stage.
* Adult - A beautiful, flying adult emerges. This adult will continue the cycle.

DIET
Monarch larva Caterpillars spend most of their time eating leaves using strong mandibles (jaws). A caterpillar’s first meal, however, is its own eggshell. A few caterpillars are meat-eaters; the larva of the carnivorous Harvester butterfly eats woolly aphids.

Butterflies and moths can only sip liquid food using a tube-like proboscis, which is a long, flexible “tongue.” This proboscis uncoils to sip food, and coils up again into a spiral when not in use. Most butterflies live on nectar from flowers. Some butterflies sip the liquid from rotting fruits and a rare few prefer rotting animal flesh or animal fluids (the Harvester butterfly pierces the bodies of woolly aphids with its sharp proboscis and drinks the body fluids).

HABITAT
Butterflies are found all over the world and in all types of environments: hot and cold, dry and moist, at sea level and high in the mountains. Most butterfly species, however, are found in tropical areas, especially tropical rainforests.

butterflyMany butterflies migrate in order to avoid adverse environmental conditions (like cold weather). Butterfly migration is not well understood. Most migrate relatively short distances (like the Painted Lady, the Red Admiral, and the Common Buckeye), but a few (like some Monarchs) migrate thousands of miles.

CLASSIFICATION
Butterflies and moth belong to the order Lepidoptera. Lepidos is Greek for “scales” and ptera means “wing”. These scaled wings are different from the wings of any other insects. Lepidoptera is a very large group; there are more types of butterflies and moths than there are of any other type of insects except beetles. It is estimated that there are about 150,000 different species of butterflies and moths (there may be many more). There are about 28,000 butterfly species worldwide, the rest are moths.

BUTTERFLY FOSSILS
Butterfly fossils are rare. The earliest butterfly fossils are from the early Cretaceous period, about 130 million years ago. Their development is closely linked to the evolution of flowering plants (angiosperms) since both adult butterflies and caterpillars feed on flowering plants, and the adults are important pollinators of many flowering plants. Flowering plants also evolved during the Cretaceous period.

Many birds come to the Arctic in the summer to live and breed but not all of them live here year round. Ptarmigan, snow bunting, and snowy owls are some of the Arctic birds that live here year round. Snowy owls live on the tundra.

They stay in the Arctic during the winter unless their food sources are scarce. If they leave the arctic in the winter they overwinter in northern Greenland, the Canadian islands, northern Eurasia, Wrangel Island as well as North America.
They are called snowy owls because their coloring is almost pure white when they are full grown. The feet of snowy owls are covered with feathers and have extra thick pads.

Snowy owls have incredible vision. They can see from high up in the sky and swoop down silently to capture their prey. Like all owls they have good night vision. They are nocturnal and diurnal hunt at night but in the Arctic it doesn’t get dark in the summer so the owls hunt in the daylight too. When the owl gets food it swallows it whole or tears it into large pieces to swallow.

The mother stays on the nest and the father brings her food and protects her. After the owlets are born both parents work to feed the owlets. In eight weeks the owlets are ready to leave the nest. This is important because the summers are so short in Arctic regions. If the owlets weren’t ready to take care of themselves they would not survive the cold winter.

Characteristics and Physical Features of the Snowy Owl
Identification:

Height: Up to 27 in. - it is one of the biggest owls.
Wingspan: 45-60 in.
Color: In the summer, snowy owls are brownish with dark spots and stripes. In the winter, they are completely white.

Distinguishing Characteristics: All white color, ability to hunt silently, hunts during the day unlike most owls.

Breeding: 8-10 eggs, eggs are laid on the ground or on hummocks because there aren’t trees in the Arctic.
Habitat:

Range: Northern most Canada, Alaska, also circumpolar - prefers open spaces; tundra, grasslands, or frozen lakes.

Diet: Lemmings, hare, vole, and shrews. It also sometimes will eat hare or small birds. During the spring breeding season, owls will also eat eggs of waterfowl like swans.

Why are snowy owls white?

The feathers of the snowy owl have no pigment. This leaves more space for air which helps to keep the owl warmer because air is such a good insulator and it also makes the owl white.
Can you find a snowy owl in Oregon?

When food supplies become scarce in Arctic regions around the world the snowy owls that live in those regions migrate to other area to find more food. In the areas of Canada and Alaska this would mean that they would migrate to the northern states which would include Oregon.
Why are the snowy owl’s feet furry?

The Arctic regions are very cold. Sometimes the temperatures can reach -155ºF in the winter. Even the average would be well below 0ºF. Having well insulated feet is important in the region where they live because it is so cold and also because there are not many trees so the owls have to nest and live on the ground a lot.
How can an owl find its food in the dark?

Owls have keen hearing. The ears of an owl are positioned in different locations on either side of its head. The sound of its prey reaches the ears at two different times. The different times help him pinpoint the exact distance away from the lemming or other prey.
Can an owl digest all of the animal it eats?

It is able to digest its prey whole because it has strong acid in its stomach. Hair, bones and feathers are things that it can’t digest so after the food is digested the owl spits the undigested food back out as a “pellet”.
What’s a snowy owl’s favorite food?

Owls live mostly off lemmings. If there are a lot of lemmings the owl population increases. But if the lemming population is down during the winter the owls leave the Arctic are in search of food. Some people think that the owls die if there is only a little food but really a lot of them fly south searching for food. They come back when the food becomes more abundant.
Why do owls like airports?

When snowy owls fly south looking for more food they will often land at airports. We think that they do this because the wide-open space of the airports reminds them of the tundra.
What makes an owl able to fly silently?

They way that an owls feather fit together make them able to fly without making any sound. The front edge of the owls wing feathers breaks up the air as it goes over it. This breaks up the sound level so that the flapping of the wings is almost silent. It does this because the leading edge of the wing is frayed and can break up the air.
How much does an snowy owl eat every day?

Owls help control the rodents population. They are able to eat about a dozen rodents each day. If they have owlets they catch even more to feed them.

The muskox, known as the Oomingmak  to the Alaskan natives, are huge. The word Oomingmak means “the animal with skin like a beard” to the Inupiaq speaking Eskimos. Their extraordinary fur coat covers their whole body even the udder. The Muskox is closely related to the Takin, found in the Himalayas. It is classified by Taxonomists with sheep and goats.

Characteristics and Physical Features of the Muskox
Identification:

    Height: 3-5 ft.
Weight: 500-900 lb.
Color: Brown shaggy, silky fur

Distinguishing Characteristics: Horns - broad and flat and plastered close to skull. Record distance between tips of horns is 29.74 in.

Breeding: 1 calf every other year.
Habitat:

Range: Northern tundra areas and Nunivak Island in Alaska. This includes northern Alaska, Canada, Ellesmere Island and Greenland.

Diet: Wide variety of plants, including grasses, sedges, forbs, and woody plants. One of their favorite foods is willow.

What is a boss?

Boss is the name of the muskox horn. Their skulls are like heavy armor to protect them from being hurt when they fight. It is estimated that when muskox bulls hit head-on its equivalent to a car driving into a concrete wall at 17 mph (27km/h). The boss is four inches of horn and three inches of bone that lies directly over the brain with no other skull in between.
How can a muskox calf stand -30ºF weather?

The muskox coat and hooves keep them warm in the cold arctic weather which can reach –70ºF. If their fur were not like it is they would die. The muskox has two kinds of fur. The outer fur is coarse and stiff. The under fur is soft and able to keep the muskox very warm. The fur of the muskox is 3-4 inches thick. Even the young calves are able to survive by themselves when the temperatures get down to -30ºF.
Will a muskox attack another muskox?

The only time that muskox fight among themselves is during breeding season. Then they fight just like a lot of other animals do. But they don’t fight for dominance in the herd. They just fight for the right to breed. The rest of the time the whole herd lives together and dominance within the herd isn’t a big part of their life. The older bulls are the leaders of the group.
Can a muskox kill a grizzly bear?

When muskoxen are attacked by a grizzly the first thing that the herd does is get into a circle, facing outward. They place the calves inside the circle to keep them safe. This circle is almost impossible for a predator tomuskox herd penetrate. Sometimes one of the bulls will break out of the circle to go fight the animal that is attacking. When he does this the rest of the circle quickly closes so that other attackers can’t get in. When a grizzly attacks the muskox will always win because of its powerful charge. It uses its boss like a battering ram against predators or like a spear it picks up smaller animals like a wolf, and throws them so high that the leg of the  attackers will break when it falls. Sometimes the defending muskox will throw the predator back into the herd and the rest of the herd will trample the attacker.
How do you know when a muskox is going to charge?

Before charging they always do one thing that alerts you. They tip their head down and press their nose against their knee. This releases a musky smelling liquid from a gland near their nose.
Why do muskoxen like to live near rivers?

Even though muskox live on the tundra if there is a river nearby they will try to stay near it. They do this because their favorite food grows there. The willow plant is this favorite food.
What poses the most danger to a muskox?

You might not think it but the little mosquito is very dangerous to the muskox. It is actually a danger to most animals living in the Arctic. The reason it is dangerous is because the mosquito carries a lot of diseases and when it bites the muskox it can cause a lot of infection. There aren’t a lot of areas that a mosquito can bite on a muskox so it will usually go after its nose.
Do muskoxen really stink?

Muskoxen are really pretty clean animals in the wild. They only look like they would stink because of how shaggy their coat looks. Sometimes when muskox are in captivity they do smell.
Why is a muskoxen’s best defense also its worst?

Although their protective ring is very effective against animal predators it makes them like “sitting ducks” to men. Since men hunt with guns the muskox is very vulnerable to being killed by man in their protective ring. After firearms came to the arctic in the mid-1800s the muskoxen were wiped out.
How did muskoxen get back in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge?

After the muskoxen were all killed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service purchased 34 muskoxen from Greenland and brought them to Alaska in 1930. They put them on Nunivak Island. It is off the west coast of Alaska. After the herd had gotten large enough they took 40 of them and moved them to ANWR. In 1980 there were nearly 400. They had divided themselves into three separate herds.
How do arctic people benefit from the muskoxen?

The soft underfur of the Oomingmak is used by native people to create many knitted items. They use the fur of them muskox because it is one of the warmest furs known to man. Native people call this underfur “Qiviut”. It is eight times warmer than wool and it is much lighter too. It is even lighter than cashmere.