Characteristics Of Eastern Chipmunk

resides in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. This species is migratory through most of its range,

The Point Arena mountain beaver (Aplodontia rufa nigra) is a federally listed endangered subspecies that is restricted to the small area of Point Arena, in coastal Mendocino County, California (Zielinski, et al., 2013). (See Figure 1). The Point Arena mountain beaver is a dark brown, medium-sized burrowing rodent with small ears and eyes, and long whiskers and claws (National Park Service (NPS), n.d.). The subspecies is semi-fossorial, spending most of its five to six year lifespan in underground burrows (United States Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS), 2011). The burrows are typically found on moist and steep north-facing slopes or in well-drained gullies; each burrow contains separate chambers for food storage, nesting, and excrement (NPS,

Habitat: Their habitats are on crops, arable and waste land, gardens. Commonly on footpaths and in

The American Mink (Neovison Vison) is a semi-aquatic animal that lives in forested areas where there are ponds and lakes for them to swim. They feed on frogs, cray fish, muskrats, birds and ground squirrels (Fur Commission USA). Their ranges vary by gender, male minks can inhabit 2.5 miles of stream or river to about 2, 500 acres of wetland territory while female minks inhabits much less wetland only about 40 acres and about 1 mile of stream or river. Male minks tend to hunt more than females during the spring time, so it is more likely a male mink will be spotted over a female mink (Magnusdottir et al. 2014). There has not been a mink spotted in Abernathy filed station

The preferred habitat for this species are wet areas such as river bottomlands, floodplains, wet prairies, and marshes. However, relatively drier habitats are often used in summers. They feed primarily on small rodents, but may also consume frogs, other snakes, and nesting birds. Breeding generally occurs during summer or early fall, although it can occur

One of the largest rodents is the Sciuridae family is the Woodchuck (Marmota Monax) or more commonly known as the Groundhog. It is a fairly common animal most heavily found in the north and north eastern parts of the United States and across most of Canada (Encyclopedia of Life, 2015). Most Woodchucks choose to live in a habitat of grasslands or along the edge of a forest. They tend to like a cooler climate, but during the heart of winter they will hibernate in burrows that they dig throughout the year. The Woodchuck is a incredibly interesting animal that creates elaborate burrows for homes and one of the true hibernators.

All species are found in North America and tend to be nocturnal, but they inhabit relatively unique niches, which is evident in various minute differences between the species, including fur and nose size. C. townsendii tends to live in evergreen forests that have a moderate climate while C. mexicanus lives in higher, more humid and mountainous habitats. For this reason, C. townsendii has a darker, thicker coat; not only does it act as better natural camouflage, but the coarse, thick hair protects it well from the environment. C. refenisquii is found primarily in the Southwestern United States, but migrates frequently due to the changes in

An environment with a lot of vegetation and their preys is ideal for them. They are perfect hunters with ability to stalk their prey with patience and stealth. They then capture their meals with one strong leap. These animals live in solitary or in territories. One unique thing about them is that the females do not share the same territory with each other. Territories for males usually tend to overlap. The territories are established with scent markings and the size varies extremely. The size ranges from twenty five to thirty square miles for males and five square miles for females (Sunquist & Fiona

The tail of these weasels make up about 50% of their total body length. They have small, slim heads with long whiskers, and tiny legs. These types of weasels shed their fur twice a year, which is a response to the changes in daylength. It is known that long-tailed weasels that are populated in the north are white in the winter and brown in the summer, as for the once populated in the south are brown most of the year. In the source “Critter Catalog,” it states that their head and body length ranges from 203 to 266 mm, and their tail length ranges from 76 to 152 mm (Newell, 2002). The weasel has various types of environments that are comfortable and earthly like crop fields to small wooded areas to suburban areas. The weasel’s nests and burrows are built in hollow logs, rock piles, and under barns. Every now and then, weasels use rodent burrows instead of making new

The Red Tailed Hawk is one of God’s amazing creatures. It is a great majestic creature that shows Gods guiding gentle hand in its creation. The bird was made toward the top of the food chain. The hawk is able to spot animals from one hundred feet in the air, and attack and kill small prey such as mice, voles, shrews, moles, squirrels, chipmunks, rats, rabbits, opossums, muskrats, cats, skunks, and bats. These are some of the hawk’s prey. This is why it is toward the top of the food chain.

Many of these small mammals, although very common are nocturnal, and thus are rarely seen by park visitors. There are four common species of bats, raccoon, porcupines, and many species of squirrels, rabbits, voles, mice, and shrews. The Marmot, Uinta ground squirrel, least chipmunk, golden-mantled ground squirrel and American red squirrel are commonly encountered by park visitors. Weasel species, including badgers, river otters, and American pine martins are also prevalent in the park. Beaver were almost trapped out of the park, but today, their populations are estimated at 600. The otter is a favorite among wildlife watchers that come to the park. These water mammals are very social and are always at play. Their main food source is the cutthroat trout, whitefish, clams and anything else swimming in their

Chipmunks, scientific name tamias, interact with their environment in three major ways. They use their environment for shelter, food and protection. Chipmunks commonly live in forest or areas with lots of ground coverage. Generally, they live in burrow systems near said coverage; chipmunks also can live in nest in logs or bushes. Since they dig burrows, they help the plants receive the nutrients that they need to grow. The plants in turn give the chipmunks food. A typical chipmunk diet consists of nuts, seeds, eggs, frogs, berries and insects. Plants provide them with the food that they will store for the winter, when they wake up periodically from their hibernation to feed. The plants also provide them protection from predators such

The Least Weasel is a secondary consumer (carnivore). They have to eat 40%-60% of their body weight every day, because of this they mainly eat rodents like rabbits, voles, lemmings and hares. If they get really hungry they will occasionally eat insects and amphibians during the summer. They hunt hunt night and day but stay within close range of there home. But what they eat is different than what eats them. The predators of the Least Weasel are other Weasels, snakes,

As I look up animals for my research paper I had found a cute and fun animal I thought would be a great animal to write about. So with being said I over the past couple of days had researched the Chinchilla. Chinchillas are a very fluffy and cute animal that are about ten to fourteen inches long, and fourteen to eighteen ounces. I had chosen to write about chinchillas because recently my cousin had gotten on for a pet. They are one of the nicest animals I had ever held and are super easy to take care of and who wouldn't wanna learn about chinchillas!

2005). Along with plant life there were also considerable amounts of organisms that I spotted. Around the last stretch of the hike (10minutes left to the car) my friend who was walking in front of me stopped and gazed into the distance. I walked up to him as he pointed into a nearby brush. I couldn’t tell what he was pointing at when suddenly two large eyes popped out behind the leaves. The creature’s sharp ears pointed directly towards us as we both stood in silence. What looks like a large house cat the creature sat and stared at us for a good 20 seconds. Moments later we hear a rustle of leaves nearby, a similar (yet smaller) feline appears and proceeds towards the other cat and they both walk off into the forest. Bobcats (Lynx rufus) usually pose no real threat and most of the time avoid human contact, supported in my case as they became aware of our presence and started to head the opposite direction (A-Z Animals, Nov 2008). Throughout the exploration I’ve come to realize that some of my pre-visit research didn’t quite match up to the species I saw, this could be because of seasonal patterns or just random dispersal of certain species and