The McKenzie's Official world tour site
# Saturday, 29 August 2009
Wildlife wonders..............
WILDLIFE FACTOIDS: • GRIZZLY BEARS- can weigh up to 800-1500 pounds and range in colour all shades from blonde to black. They have a shoulder hump and a dished face. 70-80% of their diet is plants and they use very long blunt claws to dig. The rest of their diet is made up from small mammals, and salmon! Grizzly bears have difficulty in climbing trees but are still reach heights of 12 feet up a tree trunk! While they sleep in the winter, their heart beat drops from 70 beats to around 10 beats a minute. They recycle stored fat, carbohydrates and muscle proteins in a way that allows them to survive without eating or drinking for months. • BLACK BEARS – can weigh 220-330 pounds, and also range in colour from black to brown to blonde. They have no shoulder hump and shorter claws. 95% of their diet is plant material. Black bears loose 20-40% of their body weight during winter hibernation and so they must consume 20,000 calories per day prior to hibernation! During those winter months they ‘den’ in caves or hollow trees. This is where their tiny cubs are born, and where they are nursed until they emerge from their dens in the spring. • MOOSE –are the largest member of the deer family. They have very long legs, a humpback, a short tale, and a flap of covered skin that hangs beneath their chin (called a bell). Males are the only ones to have antlers. Moose can swim continuously for several hours, dive down to depths of 20 feet, and remain submerged for up to a minute! • ELK – resemble very large white-tailed deer. They weigh 660-770 pounds fully grown and males have large antlers. Elks are highly vocal animals, they bark to warn each other of danger and communicate by grunting and squealing to each other. • CARIBOU – Both male and females grow antlers, however the males antlers are massive, in comparison to the females. Their favourite winter food of lichens, grow very slowly, but the caribou’s erratic movements keep it from becoming overgrazed. They have large hooves that keep them above snow through the winter months and paw through the snow in search of lichens. There are over a million caribou in Alaska. • BISON- can be recognised by their dark brown, shaggy furred head, lighter coloured body, massive humped shoulder and sharp upturned horns. If Bison are caught in a storm, they will face the wind, using their woolly head and shoulder coat to reduce the chill, before it reaches the rest of the body. • TUFTED PUFFINS- inhabit burrows. • HORNED PUFFINS- occupy naturally occurring rock crevices. • DALL SHEEP – live in high, alpine tundra on ridges. They eat grasses, lichens and moss. Rams have large, curling horns which grow to a ‘full curl’ in eight years. • WOLVES – are social animals and live in packs of six or seven. They eat animals ranging from tiny voles and ground squirrels to caribou and moose. • AMERICAN WOOD FROGS- freeze solid during the winter, even their blood and eye balls, and their hearts stop beating. They replace much of the water inside their cells with glucose and create their very own antifreeze so that their cell walls are not permanently damaged. Within hours, as temperatures rise in the spring – these frogs thaw out and hop away as if nothing has happened – how is this possible? • SEA OTTERS – are an endangered species in western Alaska. It is the smallest marine mammal and the largest member of the weasel family. They like to eat crabs, clams, sea urchins and octopus. Sea otters have the densest fur in the animal kingdom; up to a million hairs per square inch! • BALD HEADED EAGLES- are the symbol of the USA. They opportunistically eat other birds, fish and carrion. They have a majestic and proud beauty. • HARBOR SEALS- are members of the true seal family and have no external ear flaps. They eat fish such as Capelin and swimming crustaceans, such as shrimp. • HUMPED BACK WHALES – exhales water at over 300 mph (480 kph) in a fine spray. They surface every 5 to 8 minutes before diving to continue their 18 –hour-long feeding. Females must consume about 800 pounds (360 kgs) of krill and schooling fish a day, sieved through baleen instead of teeth, to support their 90,000 pound (41,000 kg) weight. A whale fluking (lifting its tail out of the water) is beginning a deep dive down and saying in Whale language “diving deeper; see you later!”
Saturday, 29 August 2009 06:41:15 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)  #    Comments [0]  Alaska