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.

Dall sheep have a broad habitat. They are a subarctic as well as arctic animal. The most northern group of these animals live in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The alpine ridges, meadows, and steep, rocky slopes that have “escape terrain” are where the dall sheep live. The flock likes to rest and feed on these slopes. They are also there to keep away from predators because they can flee to the rocks easier than their predators. Some of these predators would include bear, golden eagles, wolves, and humans.

Characteristics and Physical Features of the Dall Sheep
Identification:

Height: Rams and Ewes 35 in. to shoulder
Weight: Rams 200-250 lb., Ewes 110-150 lb.
Color: White usually, may vary from yellowish white to snow white. It is the only wild white sheep in the world.

Distinguishing Characteristics: Known for their magnificent curling horns. The horns of the dall sheep take eight years to reach full size. Ewes have shorter, more slender horns. The horns are made out of keratin, which is the same substance as human fingernails are.

Breeding: The lambs are born in late May or early June. Near the time for lambing the ewes seek a protected spot that is quiet to birth her lambs. They usually choose the most rugged cliffs available.

After the lambs are born they are strong enough to leave the birthing areas in as little as a week. By the time they have left the birthing area they are also eating vegetation and the ewes wean them in October.
Habitat:

Range: Northern regions of the globe both Arctic and Subarctic. In Alaska, except in the Southeast, the Yukon and Northwest Territories and a few in northwestern British Columbia. Sheep like where they live. After they have chosen a group to join (which young rams sometimes do) they never leave it. Because they stay up on the steep slopes in remote places the dall sheep are pretty health and don’t get diseases from domestic livestock.

  Diet: Grasses, sedges, lichens, moss and willow make up their diet.

How do dall sheep survive in the cold weather?

Dall sheep have hollow hair which insulates their body. They also like the south-facing slopes because they get more sun.
Do male dall sheep actually fight for their mate?

Males only fight before breeding season to gain dominance over all the males. They begin fighting when they reach maturity at about seven to nine years. The size of his horns determine his place in the ram hierarchy.
What is annuli?

Annuli is the pattern of growth on the rings of the dall sheep. These horns are made of keratin like your fingernails. Even though the horns are made out of the same stuff as fingernails they are very heavy.
Can you tell how old a dall sheep is by looking at it?

The bigger the horns the older the sheep is. The horns stop growing in the winter. Because of this stoppage of growing “growth rings” occur. You can identify how old a sheep is by the number of “growth rings” that his horns have. Ram horns reach half a circle in about three years, 3/4 of a circle in about five years, and a full circle or “curl” in seven to eight years. To tell how old a sheep is just count the growth rings.
Do dall sheep eat dirt?

They like to visit mineral licks during the spring and will travel many miles to reach a mineral lick to eat the soil there. Eating soil may sound different but it helps the sheep with any mineral deficiencies it may have. Mineral licks are great places to see dall sheep for longer periods because they ignore people when they are there.
How many are there in the Alaskan Arctic?

Current population numbers for the dall sheep in the Brooks Range is 30,000. There are other dall sheep in Alaska but this number is for the sheep living in the Arctic area.
Why do some people say dall sheep and some say Dall’s sheep?

The proper name is Dall’s sheep however, most often it is referred to as dall sheep. The species is named for scientist, William H. Dall even though he may not have had anything to do with them. E.W. Nelson gave the sheep their first scientific name, Ovis montana, with a sub name of dalli. Later J.A. Allen changed the name from montana to dalli. So their Latin name is now Ovis dalli dalli.
Can you tell how old this dall sheep is?

.zoo_sheephead1.jpg (5598 bytes)

This sheep is approximately 7 years old.
How do arctic people benefit from the dall sheep?

Subsistence hunters hunt dall sheep because they have good meat. They aren’t as popular as caribou because they are harder get to when hunting. They are also a lot smaller than other animals that the native people hunt.

The collared lemming is one of the most interesting Arctic animals because of how it has adapted to the cold Arctic temperatures. It is not a “true” lemming although it is closely related to the lemming. It is a small rodent that burrows under the snow or ground making extensive runways and nesting areas. The collared lemming grows enlarged claws on the third and fourth ‘fingers’ of its front feet.

Characteristics and Physical Features of the Collared Lemming
Identification:

Length: 4 and three-quarters inches or 120 mm.
Weight: 14 oz. or 40 grams.
  Color: Buff gray with black stripes down back and on sides of head.

Distinguishing Characteristics: The lemming has smaller ears and tails than other rodents. The collared lemming is the only true rodent that turns white in the winter.

     Breeding: Mating may occur as early as January, but usually takes place from March to September. During the height of the summer breeding season all females are pregnant. Each female may have up to 3 litters a year with an average of 4 and one half young per litter. Baby lemmings are born under the snow and drink their mother’s milk to survive. Few lemmings live over a year.
Habitat:

Range: Only in the Arctic tundra. During the summer collared lemmings live on the high, dry areas of the tundra. They burrow under the rocks. During the winter the collared lemmings move to lower meadows where there is more snow.

Diet: In summer their main foods are tender shoots of grasses and shrubs. During the winter they eat bark and twigs off willow and dwarf birch.

What do lemmings use to make their nests?

They line their nests with dry grasses, feathers, and muskox fur. In winter the collared lemming builds its nest on the tundra surface, or under the snow, and sometimes even in the middle of snow-banks.

What do the collared lemmings use their enlarged front claws for?

The claws are used to dig through the arctic wind packed snow. The claws are slowly worn away, and by spring all their claws have the same shape.

Why do collared lemmings have small ears and tails?

Less surface area reduces heat loss. That means there is less skin area for heat to escape from. Rodents in desert areas have larger ears for more surface area in order to keep cool.

How does the amount of plants affect the lemmings?

The number of lemmings shrinks and grows depending on how much food (plants) is available.

How quickly do lemmings multiply?

A pair of lemmings can have 10 babies in a litter. A month after the young are born they are ready to mate. They can have up to 3 litters a year. If all the young live and breed then there may be 10 times 10 by the next month! This is why the collared lemming is so important as a food source in the Arctic.

What keeps the lemmings from taking over the world?

Predators, diseases and lack of plant food all work to keep the lemming population in check.
How do the arctic people benefit from the collared lemming?

The winter fur of the collared lemming is used by Eskimos to trim garments and to make doll clothing.

Caribou (Rangifer tarandus)
The caribou is in the order of Artioldactyl and is a member of the deer family. It looks like a large mule deer or small elk with soft hollow hair, long legs, large hooves and large antlers. In Alaska, 97 to 99 percent of the females have antlers as well as the males. Both male and female caribou have blunt muzzles with hair all the way down to the muzzle.Although the caribou looks like a deer, they are different from other members of their family in many ways. They are not too shy (unless in common hunting area), they are capable of sleeping in water, and are herd animals that are always on the move. This tamable animal likes to eat moss and lay in the shade, but they hate the nasty flies that bite them, and lay their eggs in their back. The flies are one reason the caribou is always on the move, the other reason is that caribou eat moss called lichen (lie-Ken) that takes years to grow back.

Characteristics and Physical Features of the Caribou
Identification:

Size: 4-5 ft.
Weight: 500+ lb.
Color: Greyish, and brown with white on the neck and back areas.

Distinguishing Characteristics: 3 ft. antlers.

Breeding: They breed in the fall.
Habitat:

Range: Throughout the arctic tundra of Russia, Alaska, Canada and Greenland.

Diet: Moss and lichen.

What is the relationship between reindeer and caribou?

Caribou are wild, if they are domesticated they are called reindeer. Eurasians do not use the name caribou at all, they use the terms wild and domestic reindeer. Arctic people hunt caribou for the good meat and warm hide so they have names for caribou to specify age and gender; three of them are pagnnig (adult bull), julanak (adult female) and norraq (calf).
Why does the caribou shovel snow in the winter?

The caribou eats food under the snow, to get at it the caribou must shovel the snow. He nods his head and shoves snow out of the way like a horse would.
How do the does the caribou get two meals for one price?

When the caribou eats, the food goes down to the caribou’s first stomach, where it is mashed into small balls called cud and stored to eat at the caribou’s next meal.
When did a warm coat cause the caribou to become endangered?

The caribou has a very warm very soft fur that is hollow, insulated, and sheds water and snow. This valuable fur was traded for a lot of money in the 1800’s. The caribou population kept dropping because of overhunting until laws were passed to protect it.
Why do caribou fight?

In the fall when caribou gather in together the herd must be lead by one caribou so they fight for the lead position.
Is a broken antler a serious problem?

Yes. But only between April and August in the “velvet stage” when the antlers are velvety. When the antler is broken it loses blood flow to the antler and velvet.
What consequence can come to the caribou from fighting?

The caribou can get cut and bruised. The worse consequence is it’s horns can lock and the caribou not be able to unlock their horns so they will starve.caribou_2.jpg (6449 bytes)
Can you bullfight with a caribou?

Yes. Even though the caribou is color blind, the caribou will follow the movements and charge the flag (But please don’t try this!).
How are caribou like sheep?

The Laplanders herd the caribou so that they can have the tender caribou meat and warm hide. The hide is often made into blankets, clothing and shelter. They use the antlers and bones for toys, tools and weapons.
What prevents a caribou from freezing in the winter?

Caribou eat large quantities of food to increase their internal heat production. Also to conserve heat the caribou has hollow hairs rooted in a thick layer of fat. They also prevent heat loss from their thin, long legs by having two circulation systems. The circulation through the legs is up to 50 degrees colder than the circulation system for the rest of their body.

The arctic tern is a relatively small bird. It is also one of the most determined. Even though it is small it is still able to accomplish the remarkable feat of migrating over 22,000 miles (35,000 km) each year. The distance that it migrates is the longest of any bird. This mileage would be accurate if it flew in a straight line to where it was migrating to and from. But since it takes a lot of excursions the distance it flies each year is even greater. In fact the arctic tern almost never lands and is known to be in daylight more than dark because of its migration schedule.

Characteristics and Physical Features of the Arctic Tern
Identification:

Length: 12-15 in.
Weight: Under 2 lb. approximately
Color: White with a black head and a bright orange beak.

Distinguishing Characteristics: Black markings under each wing and its bright orange beak make the arctic tern stand out among other birds.

Breeding: Breeds north of the 50th parallel. It lays clutches of one to three eggs. It takes 20 to 24 days to incubate the eggs.  Eggs are laid in grassy areas for protection from their predators and also because there are no trees in the Arctic.
Habitat:

Range: The entire northern hemisphere Arctic area. It is a circumpolar animal.

Diet: Small fish, shrimp, krill, or insects and small invertebrates.

Who takes care of the hatchlings?

Both the male and female terns help incubate the eggs. The eggs hatch in about 23 days after they are laid. The hatchlings leave the nest quickly and hide in nearby vegetation. Until they can feed themselves the parents catch small fish and carry it to them in their bills.
Are arctic terns sociable birds?

They are remarkable for their social habits. They live together in groups of about 50 tern which are called colonies. Sometimes they will adopt to their colony different species of terns and sea gulls.
What is a “fish flight”?

During the breeding or courtship time male terns fly a v. They take a small fish in their bill and pass as low as they can over the female on the ground. If she notices him she’ll join him in doing this “fish flight” and they will soon mate.
How is an arctic tern like a duck?

Unlike some birds they have webbed feet like a duck when you look at a tern you would think that its’ feet would be like other sea birds but they aren’t. Even though they are in the gull family they don’t have feet like a gull.
Do arctic terns like to get wet?

Research has shown that arctic terns will do everything possible totern photo courtesy Krog’s Kamp stay out of the water. Terns don’t swim well even though their feet are webbed because they have small feet so they swoop down, catch the fish, and keep flying to stay out of the water.
How is an arctic tern like a hummingbird?

Both the tern and the hummingbird can hover in midair. Most birds are not able to do this. This is an important thing for the tern to be able to do when it hunts or does its “fish flight”.
What does “on the wing” mean?

Arctic terns hardly ever land. So they eat while flying most of the time. When terns eat insects they catch them “on the wing”. This means they catch them while flying.
How do arctic people benefit from the arctic tern?

Because fish swim in schools that include both large and small fish natives watch to see where arctic terns are feeding.  By monitoring where the terns hunt they are able to find large schools of fish and increase their catch.

The arctic hare is not the same thing as a snowshoe hare. It is not even the same as a rabbit. There are two hare that live in Arctic areas - they are the arctic hare and the tundra hare. The major difference between them is where they live, and the color their tail turns. The arctic hare is larger than a snowshoe. His fur is long and white all the way through in the winter and his ears are blackish around the edges. In the summer his coat is grayish brown on top and white beneath.
Identification:

Size: 22-28 in.
Weight: 9-12 lb.
Color: Brown in the summer, white in the winter. Ears tipped with black year round.

Distinguishing Characteristics: Short ears, and a fur coat that changes color with the seasons make the arctic and tundra hare special.

Breeding: Leverets born June thru July. Usually there are 4-8 in a litter. They are fully furred and have their eyes open.
Habitat:

Range: Lepus articus live in Canada and Greenland. Lepus othus lives only in Alaska. The arctic hare likes to live on the rocky slopes and upland tundra of the Arctic. They like to live in groups. They don’t like to live in low places or wooded areas.

Diet: The food they eat is mostly willow - the leaves, shoots, bark and roots - and grasses, flowers, saxifrage and crowberry.

How is a hare different from a rabbit?

The major difference between a rabbit and a hare is that the young of a hare are born open-eyed and furred. The rabbit’s young are born naked and with closed eyes. Hare are able to leave the nest soon after they are born but rabbits don’t even open their eyes for 7-10 days.

Some people say that the length of the ears is part of the difference but arctic hare have short ears while hare outside of Arctic areas have long ears.
Why does an arctic hare have camouflage?

The arctic hare looks a lot different from the rabbits and hares that you see anywhere outside of the Arctic. In the summertime the arctic hare is brown with black flecks. This helps to camouflage it during the growing season. When the weather starts to change the arctic hare starts to change too. So that during the winter its coat is completely white. This change helps to protect it during the winter.
Why are the ears of an arctic hare so short?

The ears are so small to help keep the hare warm during the cold winters on the tundra. The small ears do not have a lot of area to have the blood vessels exposed to the cold so more heat is kept down in the body to help the hare stay warm.
What is the world’s smallest “Big Foot”?

Arctic hare would fit this description. The feet of an arctic hare are huge compared to other rabbits. Having big feet is like having snowshoes. They help them to stay on top of the snow. If they could not do this they wouldn’t be able to get away from their predators.
When do snowballs jump?

Arctic hare sit out on the tundra in large groups. Whenever threatened by a wolf or fox or other predator they scatter in all directions. This makes it harder for them to be caught. It looks sort of like big snowballs jumping around the tundra.
What is a baby arctic hare called?

You call a baby hare a leveret. When an arctic hare has a litter there are usually 4-8 leverets born. The leverets are born in June in the Arctic areas. They are darker than their parents and their fur is sort of black looking.
Where do arctic hares live?hare in summer

Unlike rabbits arctic hares like to live in nests. Rabbits prefer to live in burrows. This is good because it would be very hard for a arctic hare to dig a burrow in the Arctic.
How do arctic people benefit from the arctic hare?

The Arctic people do not eat the arctic hare a lot. It is not one of the more important foods for them. They prefer other meats and only eat hare if nothing else is available. They use the fur for shoe linings and robes:

Sorce:http://library.thinkquest.org/3500/arctic_hare.html

Arctic Animals

The Arctic:
The Arctic is a very cold, windy, and often snowy biome located around the North Pole. When referring to the Arctic, people usually mean the part of the earth within the Arctic Circle (an imaginary circle around the Earth, parallel to the Equator and 23 degrees 28 minutes from the North Pole, that is, above about 75 degrees North Latitude). Although there is no land at the North Pole, the icy Arctic Ocean is teeming with life ranging from the microscopic (like zooplankton) to the huge (like whales).

There is also a lot of land within the Arctic Circle (northern parts of Asia, Europe, and North America). Land within the Arctic Circle is tundra, and it supports less life most other biomes because of the cold temperatures, strong, dry winds, and permafrost (permanently-frozen soil). Long periods of darkness (in the winter) and light (in the summer) also affect Arctic life.

Arctic Land Zones:
The most extreme Arctic land (the closest to the North Pole) is called the High Arctic Zone; this polar desert supports very little animal or plant life (less than 5 percent of the land area is covered with vegetation) due to a very short, dry growing season, dry air, permafrost, poor soils, and a lack of pollinating insects. The warmer Arctic region is called the Low Arctic Zone. This area supports more life, with more than 90 percent of the land area covered with hardy, cold-and-dry-adapted vegetation.

Arctic Animals:
Animals that live in the Arctic (either full time or seasonally) are adapted to extreme conditions. Many animals who overwinter in the Arctic (like the Arctic fox and the ermine) have a coat that thickens and changes color to white during the winter as camouflage in the snow (blending into the background is called cryptic coloration).

Some animals hibernate during the cold season; they go into a very deep, sleep-like state in which their heartbeat slows down. These animals often hibernate in an underground burrow or pit. Some hibernators include skunks, chipmunks, and some bears (but these bears are not true hibernators, they go into a state that is closer to a normal deep sleep).

Many animals (like the Arctic tern) spend the summer months in the Arctic, but leave as the weather turns frigid and food becomes scarce (these animals return again the next summer, repeating this pattern year after year). This behavior is called migrating.

Source:www.enchantedlearning.com

Desert Dinosaurs

Scientists classify dinosaurs in a larger group of critters called archosaurians, that as well includes crocodiles, alligators and such a relatives — pterosaurians (extinct flying reptiles the as Pterodactyls), birds and thecodonts, the earliest archosaurians.

Dinosaurs got the dominant land animals on the planet over the Mesozoic Era (from 245 to 65 million decades ago) but became extinct at its close. They were divided into 2 distinct orders — the Saurischia (lizard-hipped dinosaurs) and Ornithischia (bird-hipped dinosaurs).

Range
Throughout all the North American desert regions, that during the Mesozoic Era, transformed based on a tropical climate, when the continent was close to the equator, to more temperate and arid climates.

Habitat
Dinosaur habitats got probably as distinct as the animals themselves — from lowland forests of cycads and conifers, to aquatic, littoral, marine and arid deserts.

Description
Mammals and dinosaurs both produced their appearance in the Upper Triassic Period (about 225 million decades ago). Mammals remained pitiful and minor throughout the Mesozoic, while Dinosaurs ruled the Earth. But contrary to popular belief, dinosaurs represented diminished than 10% of the 40 groups of reptiles from the Mesozoic Era. Other large prehistoric beasts such as Pterodactyls, Icthyosaurs, Sea-serpents, giant lizards and Pelycosaurs are not dinosaurs.

It is believed that the the the first part of dinosaurs descended on bipedal (walked on 2 legs) archosaurs called thecodonts. Many remained bipedal throughout the group’s history, but in both dinosaur orders, a multitude of that became herbivores developed a four-footed mode of locomotion.

SAURISCHIA

Of the three known suborders of saurischian (lizard-hipped) dinosaurs that evolved, the two primary sorts got the theropods and the sauropods. All carnivorous dinosaurs belonged to the theropod group, and close to all of such got bipedal among terrific teeth, as if the earliest dinosaurs and this thecodont ancestors. Some evolved to the well-known of Jurassic Period Allosaurus and Tyrannosaurus, that had a huge skull, multi razor-sharp teeth and acquired a rank up to 18 feet and a duration of regarding 50 feet.

Sauropods, with massive bodies, powerful limbs. a extended tail, a for a while now neck and a small administered — got the peak of all dinosaurs. They included the huge, 4-footed plant eaters Diplodocus, which reached a quantity of 87 feet, and the heavier Brachiosaurus, which weighed as a good deal as 80 tons. In this Jurassic heyday, they were the dominant
herbivores on Earth, but by the end of the Age of Dinosaurs properties had been heard replaced for the a good amount of half by armored, horned and duck-billed dinosaurs.

ORNITHISCHIA

All ornithischian (bird-hipped) dinosaurs were plant eaters. They got outstandingly dominant through the Cretaceous Period. They did not develop as large as some of the saurischians but got notable for their armor and other strange adaptations. They comprised two main groups: cerapods — which included the ornithopods, pachycephalosaurs and ceratopsians — and ornithopods — included the hadrosaurs and the iguanodonts, that got bipeds with duck covet mouths and several hundred teeth spent for grinding hard vegetable matter.

The pachycephalosaurs were bipeds with dome-shaped skulls, additonally the four-footed ceratopsians, such as Triceratops, had a broad bone protecting the run and neck and a for a while horn or horns projecting from the skull. Another ornithischian group, the thyreophorans, included the armored dinosaurs.

In the Jurassic period, the primary group of armored dinosaurs was the stegosaurians, the most familiar of that is Stegosaurus from what is now the United States. This 20-foot-long oddity had a dual row of upright triangular plates the present ran minimal its back, followed by one spikes on its tail.

The ankylosaurians, who flourished during the Cretaceous Period comprise the other number one collection of armored dinosaurs. The uppermost and best-known of these was Ankylosaurus itself, which lived at the end of the Cretaceous, had small front legs and huge going back legs. Instead of erect plates, however, ankylosaurians had flattened armor all during the top and sides of the bodies.

Behavior
Most dinosaurs had extensively tails, but they owned these tails straight out and off the bottom for benefit in maintaining their balance, rather than dragging them along the bottom as had carried on earlier thought. Contrary to the traditional image of dinosaurs as sluggish, slow-moving beasts, many of them got swift-moving creatures in on quite above average metabolic rates.

The discovery the most dinosaurs possibly walked upright and that multi dinosaurs appear to experience been heard adapted to running, not crawling, has led many paleontologists to the finishing that properties got warm-blooded Dinosaurs were neither “warm-blooded” (endothermic) like modern mammals, nor “cold-blooded” (ectothermic) as fresh lizards. Today, most experts believe dinosaurs maybe relied on a combination of both endothermic ectothermic mechanisms for thermoregulation the present chosen engage “dinosaur-blooded.” New unofficial terms, such as metathermic and gigantathermic have been proposed for this condition in Mesozoic dinosaurs.

Life Cycle
Fossil eggs have carried on at last found based on what i read in simply a few creatures of dinosaurs.but it is likely that all dinosaurs reproduced by laying eggs. Baby dinosaurs grew remarkably quickly and, in a couple of cases, increased in size as that much as 16,000 times before reaching adulthood.

There is evidence such a some hatchlings got cared for by the parents. The fossils of many plant-eating dinosaurs have been found in herds made up of both adults and young, indicating to a couple of researchers that dinosaurs got maternal.

The discovery in 1978 of 14 dinosaur nests in a Montana excavation helped convince paleontologists so dinosaurs built vast colonies in circumstances to better care for their young, much as today’s penguins do. Living in groups may undergo also helped particular dinosaurs defend against predators. It is also possible that one or two carnivore dinosaurs hunted in packs, and that together they could kill perfect prey as opposed to a single animal can on its own.

Extinction
It is widely believed that all dinosaurs died out at the same time — apparently relatively The next thing you knew at the end of the Cretaceous Period about 65 million years ago. But of the approximately 350 known Mesozoic dinosaurs, only 10 to 20 animals faced the final extinction in North America at the end of the Cretaceous.

The exact cause of such extinction has puzzled scientists for decades. One theory showed that heap making activity so adjusted the locations that it destroyed the lowland habitat of the dinosaurs. But in current years, the “asteroid theory” of dinosaur extinction — that an asteroid or comet striking the Earth at the end of the Cretaceous Period lead to the extinction of the dinosaurs by raising a enormous dust cloud that reduced foreign temperatures — has gained above average popularity. While a good number of dinosaur specialists are ready to accept that an asteroid struck the Earth about the present time, properties do not agree that it was the only cause of the Mesozoic extinction.

Whatever the cause, the massive extinction of numerous species, in addition to the dinosaurs, marks the beginning of the Cenozoic Era and the Age of Mammals. For whatever reason, mammals survived this extinction, and thereafter, filled many of the eco-niches left by the dinosaurs and other extinct species

It is also usually projected that dinosaurs left no direct descendants, a view that has kept on challenged and is now a matter of intense reexamination by paleontologists and evolutionary biologists. Today, many experts agree overly birds are the direct descendants of the Theropoda group of dinosaurs. If true, when that happens ironically, birds evolved on the Saurischia (lizard-hipped), not the Ornithischia (bird-hipped) shape of dinosaurs.