Rattlesnakes are a type of venomous pit viper found in every state of the lower 48 and in almost every type of environment. Rattlesnakes are comprised of a group of 32 known species and as many as 70 subspecies. Most are commonly found in the South West but can be found anywhere from sea level to 10,000 feet in the mountains, desert, swamp, prairie, and forest terrain.

Arizona alone has 13 species- how lucky!

Being cold-blooded, Rattlesnakes rely on their environment for their temperature regulation. They are most active in spring and early summer when temperatures are mild. In the morning it is very common to see the snakes basking in the sun in open areas or on rocks in order to warm up from the night before. In winter and areas of cold as many as a hundred snakes will shelter together in dens and hibernate.

Rattlesnakes always use the same dens and will return year after year sometimes traveling several miles before reaching their hibernating den. Similarly, during periods of very hot or dry weather Rattlesnakes will aestivate-which is basically seeking shelter and laying low in an attempt to conserve energy and beat the heat.

A Rattle Snake can strike Up to 2/3 of Its length- best not to try and measure it

Rattlesnakes are known of course for the rattle on the end of their tail. This rattle is made up of segments of keratin, that when rubbed together produce the snake’s famous buzz. A snake will gain a new rattle segment every time it sheds its skin however, this isn’t a reliable measure of the snake’s age as rattles can be lost and damaged.

Rattlesnakes use their rattle to scare off predators, they will also hiss and coil themselves in a defensive posture in order to strike. Humans should always let a Rattlesnake be if any of this behavior is exhibited.

The rattlesnake sheds its skin once a year. Each rattle represents one year of the snake’s life. By counting the rattles you can tell the age of the snake. 

The majority of humans bitten are young males who have been consuming alcohol. (never say hold my beer and watch this) When biting prey or drunken campers, the majority of Rattlesnakes will inject a hemotoxin from their hollow fangs. This toxin affects blood cells and quickly kills the snake’s usual prey such as rodents. In humans, the toxin causes extreme pain, swelling, nausea, and eventually organ and tissue damage.

The good news is that with quick treatment and the introduction of antivenin, most cases are rarely fatal. Tourniquets, incisions, and attempts to suck out the poison should not be used.

Instead having the victim remain still and rapid transport to the hospital is a priority. Being able to accurately describe what the snake looked like will enable doctors to select the best course of treatment for the bite.

Hikers and campers can take simple precautions to avoid being accidentally bitten by a Rattlesnake. When hiking you should always wear boots and loose pants. Never step over logs or into a brush you cannot see. These are a favorite resting places for snakes.

Instead, hikers should make sure to know where they are stepping and even use a long stick to probe ahead of where they are walking.

As always, it’s a good idea to head out with a buddy so that if there is a problem, help can be quickly summoned.

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In the frigid waters of the northern oceans, a remarkable creature thrives – the puffin. These small migratory seabirds, comprising four distinct species, are a marvel of adaptation and beauty. They are also the marine version of a “canary in a coal mine” when it comes to ocean health.

The name “puffin” comes from the bird’s distinctive appearance, which was first described in detail for the Atlantic puffin species in 1570. With their rotund bodies and dark capes, these birds resemble chubby medieval friars, earning them the nickname “little friars of the north” or Fratercula arctica.

Each species of puffin has its own unique habitat. Still, all can be found in the frigid waters of the Arctic and subarctic regions. The Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica), the most common species, can be found in the North Atlantic. In contrast, the other three species – the horned puffin (Fratercula corniculata), tufted puffin (Fratercula cirrhata), and rhinoceros auklet (Cerorhinca monocerata) – are found in the North Pacific.

The three Fratercula puffins have similar appearances, with black upper bodies and large colorful beaks. The rhinoceros auklet has a smaller bill and is predominantly gray in color.  

While the rhinoceros auklet doesn’t look like it belongs in the same family as the other puffins, recent genetic research has revealed that all three Fratercula puffins evolved from an earlier common rhinoceros auklet ancestor.

Puffins are recognized by their round, compact body shape, with short wings and legs. Their most prominent feature is their large, colorful beaks, which can be orange, red, or yellow, depending on the species. 

Like many marine birds, puffins spend much of their time at sea foraging for schooling fish. They can even drink seawater and expel the excess salt out of glands in their nostrils. 

Puffins swim underwater by flapping their wings as if flying through the water, using their feet as a rudder. These birds are excellent divers and can descend up to 200 feet deep in search of prey.

Puffins are carnivorous birds that feed primarily on small fish like herring, sand eels, and small squid. They use their beaks to catch and hold their prey, which they then swallow whole. The average catch is around 10 small fish per trip, and they can make up to 100 trips in a day if they are supplying their young with food. 

The puffin is able to hold so many fish due to its raspy tongue. The bird pushes the tongue against the spines on the upper palate, pinning the slippery fish in place. This allows the puffin to open its beak to catch more fish on a single dive.

Puffins have a unique mating and breeding cycle. They usually mate for life and return to the same nesting site on steep coastal cliffs. After returning from a winter at sea, the mating couple reunites at the nest they’ve used year after year. The pair bumps beaks and pecks each other on the cheek in a courtship display known as “billing.”

Once the female puffin lays a single egg, each parent takes turns incubating for 40 days. After the egg hatches, the parents take turns feeding the chick, which fledges after around six weeks.

Puffin chicks, or “pufflings,” are raised in below-ground burrows or hidden between rocks on steep cliffs. The adults prepare the burrow by cutting into the soil with their bills and then using their legs to move the dirt behind them. The puffin also creates a side room in the burrow that the puffling uses as a bathroom, so it doesn’t dirty its feathers. As the puffling matures, the parents move the bathroom closer to the entrance.

The lifespan of a puffin can vary depending on the species and location. In general, puffins can live for up to 20 years in the wild. However, studies have shown that some puffins may live up to 40 years.

Puffins are social birds that form large breeding colonies and are often seen flying and swimming together in groups. Puffins can also fly at speeds of up to 55 miles per hour and can fly up to 30 miles from shore in search of food.

In 2009, researchers estimated that the biggest colony of Atlantic Puffins, found in the Westmann Isles of Iceland, held more than four million birds with approximately one million nests.

These birds are also sensitive indicators of ocean health, making their conservation a matter of global concern. Because puffins are entirely dependent on marine food resources, their future is most threatened by global warming of ocean waters and overfishing.  

While puffins are not technically endangered globally, the Atlantic puffin is classified as vulnerable. Their numbers have improved in some areas due to the efforts of conservationists. Still, newer threats like climate change and plastic pollution continue to threaten these seafaring “little friars.”

The post The Puffin appeared first on Danger Ranger Bear.

The Groundhog (Marmota monax) is a member of the squirrel family that lives throughout the eastern United States, Canada, and Alaska. This rotund rodent also goes by the name whistle pig, land beaver, monax and woodchuck. The name woodchuck doesn’t describe the raucous behavior of throwing lumber around, but really a mispronunciation of the Native American word Wuchak which means “digger”.

Weighing up to 13 pounds, low-slung, and having long claws and stout legs, groundhogs are built to dig. Solitary, these herbivore excavators create spacious underground burrows just for themselves.

Summer burrows are usually dug in grassy areas at the edge of wooded areas. These subterranean squirrels keep a tidy home and will change out their nesting material on a regular basis.

When the mercury drops these chucks will prepare a new abode closer to the trees. Winter burrows are typically dug below the frost line and can be twenty feet in diameter with multiple entrances and exits to evade unwanted visitors such as bobcats, coyotes, and foxes. 

From October till February, the groundhog hibernates, and much like bears they live off fat stores while their metabolic rates fall well below normal. Heart rates can go from 80 beats a minute down to 5 while they sleep away the coldest months. 

Come February and the lengthening of the days male groundhogs make the rounds visiting the burrows of nearby females. This is just to say “hiya” until spring is in full swing and it’s time to make some little whistle pigs. Groundhog litters can be up to six young after a 32-day gestation period. After about three months the young head out to dig their own burrows where they live to be about six years in the wild. 

Wood Chuck Weathermen?

Groundhog Day traces its roots back to Ye Olde Europe where the holiday of Candlemas was celebrated every February 2nd. Originally it was thought that if a hedgehog saw its shadow on a clear day it would portend more wintery weather. 

German immigrants that settled in Pennsylvania brought this tradition with them, but since hedgehogs don’t live in North America, the gift of meteorological insight was bestowed upon the local Ground Hogs. As the tradition continued in the New World it eventually entered into American lore and was even cited in the Farmer’s Almanac. 

Punxsutawney Pennsylvania became the North American epicenter of Ground Hog Day where the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club has kept the tradition alive since the 1880s. Every February 2nd the club meets at Punxsutawney Phil’s burrow on Gobbler’s Knob to see whether the sagacious squirrel sees his shadow or not. 

If it is overcast and Phil sees no shadow then we can look forward to warmer days of early spring, if he sees his shadow it means winter will last another six weeks. Either way, some schnapps is probably called for.

So how accurate is Punxsutawney Phil? 

A comparison of the Ground Hog Club’s century worth of records and weather data over the same period puts Phil’s accuracy rate at 39% which isn’t too bad for a fat squirrel who probably rather be left alone so he can sleep in. 

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The California sea lion (Zalophus californianus californianus) is one of five species of sea lion found on Earth. The near-threatened Steller sea lion inhabits the northern Pacific, the Southern sea lion inhabits South America, the Australian sea lion lives in Australia, and the Hooker’s sea lion lives along the New Zealand coast.

While similar in appearance to seals, sea lions have visible ear flaps. They also have larger front flippers and can curl their back flippers under their body to walk on land on all fours. 

Adult male sea lions are typically eight feet long from nose to tail and weigh around 600 pounds. As mating season approaches, some males may bulk up to 1,000 pounds. Adult females average six feet in length with a weight of 220 pounds. 

The California sea lion is thought to have evolved from Pujila, an otter-like mammal that lived near freshwater lakes 24 million years ago. Over the millennia, sea lions have adapted to spending more time at sea than on land. Their short limbs have evolved long digits enclosed in cartilage and connective tissue to form flippers for swimming. The back flippers are for steering, and the front flippers are used for propulsion, allowing the sea lion to reach speeds of 25-30 mph underwater and dive as deep as 1,000 feet.

Sea lions also have sensitive whiskers. They are used to communicate with other members of their social group and to identify prey. The whiskers can rotate forward and detect the slight movements of fish swimming nearby. This allows the sea lion to find and capture prey in total darkness.

Unlike seals that rely on thick coats of fur to stay warm, the California sea lion has a single-hair coat that is tan in females and juveniles and dark brown in males. In addition to trapping water next to its skin and warming it to body temperature, the sea lion’s fur offers some protection from the elements. However, its primary defense against heat loss is blubber. The sea lion has a 4-6-inch subcutaneous fat layer that provides highly effective insulation against the cold Pacific waters but can also lead to overheating on land.

To regulate its body temperature on shore, the sea lion protects its body from the sun by flipping sand on its back. It will also use one of its flippers like a radiator and dip it in the ocean to transfer body heat. 

While sea lions generally hunt near the shore, females will range between 6 to 62 miles in search of food. Males have been found as far as 280 miles from shore. A sea lion can hold its breath for up to 20 minutes underwater, pursuing its prey, which includes salmon, mackerel, codfish, herring, and squid.  

The breeding season lasts from June through early August, with most pups born the following May. Females gather in groups on the onshore rookeries or beaches and generally avoid contact with males until they are ready to mate. 

Male sea lions maintain and defend territories during the mating season and often mate with more than one female. On land and in the water male sea lions can be quite territorial towards humans as well.

Females give birth to a single pup and stay with the newborn for several days. After that initial period, females leave their pup for extended periods while feeding. 

As social animals, California sea lions have developed a vocabulary ranging from alarm barks to growls and roars. Females even use specific calls to identify their pups. When returning from the ocean, the female will call for her pup, and the youngling will respond with its unique cry. 

When left alone, the young pups gather in groups called colonies. The pups rest, explore, and play in tide pools. The pup will stay with its mother, nursing for up to a year, until the arrival of the following year’s offspring. 

California sea lions can live up to 20 years in the wild. The U.S. population of California sea lions is currently estimated at 300,000 animals, with sharks and orcas as their only natural predator. 

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The tarantula hawk is a large wasp that may be the most sadistic flying insect on the planet. This giant, metallic blue wasp brings a world of hurt to any living creature that dares mess with it. It is also the only wasp that actively hunts tarantulas and turns them into zombified buffets for their offspring.

With 18 different species found on all continents except Antarctica, the tarantula hawk wasp is one of the largest parasitoid wasps in the world.

In the U.S., three species of tarantula hawk are found in the deserts of the Southwest, with Pepsis grossa and Pepsis thisbe being the most common. 

The tarantula hawk wasp is two inches long, with bright rust-colored wings and metallic blue-black bodies. The wasp has long legs with hooked claws to securely grip its prey long enough to deliver the venom from its 9/32-inch long stinger. 

That stinger, which is only on female wasps, delivers one of the most painful stings in the insect world. In fact, the tarantula hawk takes second place on the Schmidt sting pain index. 

In case you’re curious, first place goes to the bullet ant of Central and South America. Its sting causes excruciating pain that can last up to 24 hours.

The tarantula hawk’s second place is still formidable. Getting stung by this wasp has been described as “‘instantaneous, electrifying, and totally debilitating.” Fortunately, the pain only lasts 3-5 minutes for humans. 

Tarantulas, on the other hand, aren’t so lucky.

This parasitic wasp’s venom has evolved not to kill but to paralyze tarantulas. Even though the tarantula hawk is a nectar feeder, it preys on these large spiders to use them as unwilling hosts for their young. 

The female wasp carefully approaches a tarantula and dives underneath the spider. In a deft feat of wasp-jitsu, she flips the tarantula on its back and stings it in a weak point in the arachnid’s armor, typically the leg joints. 

These battles don’t always go smoothly. Spiders lose legs during the melee, and wasps sometimes get crunched by the tarantula’s large fangs.

In the end, most wasps win the day, paralyzing the tarantula nearly instantly once the stinger finds its mark. With her prey immobilized, the she-wasp drags it back into her burrow or the tarantula’s own den. She lays one fertilized egg on the body, and leaves, sealing the den behind her. 

The wasp egg hatches into a larva, burrows a hole in the tarantula’s abdomen, and begins eating the still-living but paralyzed spider from the inside. The larva will consume all non-essential tissues to keep its host alive for as long as possible. This tarantula buffet can often last for several weeks.

After feasting, the larva pupates inside the tarantula’s abdominal cavity. The adult wasp emerges, leaves the burrow, and continues life as a vegetarian, feeding on the flowers of mesquite trees, milkweeds, and western soapberry trees. 

Male tarantula hawk wasps sit on top of tall plants and watch for females to fly by. This starts the next reproduction cycle, leading to a pregnant female wasp looking for a fresh tarantula host for her offspring. 

The tarantula hawk has no natural predators aside from the occasional roadrunner. 

As a solitary insect, the tarantula hawk rarely bothers, let alone stings, humans. However, if you’ve found yourself on the wrong end of this wasp’s stinger, wash the area with antibacterial soap and warm water to reduce the chance of infection. You can apply a cold compress or ice in a futile attempt to minimize the pain. 

You’ll likely have to cowboy up, embrace the agony, and hate life for the next five minutes. But hey, it’s a lot better than what happens to the tarantulas!

The post The Tarantula Hawk appeared first on Danger Ranger Bear.

Vampire bats are real, but they do not live in the Carpathian mountains near Transylvania, rather they prefer warmer climates of Central and South America. 

The three species of Vampire Bat all come from the family of leaf-nosed bats; the common Vampire Bat (Desmodus rotundus), the Hairy Legged (Diphylla ecaudata), and White Winged (Diaemus young).

All Vampire Bats are relatively small only weighing a few ounces and have a wing span of approximately eight inches. It is common for a Vampire Bat to drink their own weight almost every night when they feed. 

Before developing a taste for blood the Vampire Bat’s early ancestors were fruit bats that used their sharp teeth to puncture ripened fruit. Like all other bats, they spend their days in darkened caves, hollow trees, and mine shafts in colonies of about 120 individuals. Males and females stay separated in their dark dens exiting at dusk to find a warm meal.

Vampire Bats are “Obligate sanguivores” which means they live entirely on blood. They are the only mammals to do so and have many adaptations to survive on a liquid diet that is high in protein and iron. This lack of nutrients such as fats and sugars means the bats must feed daily. 

Altruistic behavior is often seen in vampire bats where nursing females or unsuccessful hunters will be helped out by their neighbors who will regurgitate blood for the others to eat. This behavior has also revealed that vampire bats have long memories and will help out fellow bats who had groomed them or shared a meal in the past. 

Hunting after Dark

Vampire bats like other bat species have exceptional hearing that they use for echolocation, but they also use it to zero in on their sleeping prey. Vampire bats rarely go after humans and mostly target larger livestock. 

First, the Vampire bat will first find a likely animal such as a cow, and lands near it. Using its acute hearing the vampire will listen for the rhythmic breathing indicating its target is fast asleep.

Then the bat will exhibit another strange activity by walking across the ground on its hind legs and large forward thumbs eventually climbing atop the sleeping victim. Using a sensory organ in its nose similar to a pit viper the bat will locate an area that is hotter than the rest indicating blood flow near the surface. 

The vampire bat uses its extremely sharp incisor to make a small slit in the animal’s skin. Prior to this, the bat gives its victim a lick (a vampire’s kiss?) which contains a pain killer to make the attack go undetected. Next, the vampire drinks the blood, not through hollow fangs but by lapping up the liquid meal with its tongue that has adapted to the task. 

An anticoagulant in the bat’s saliva keeps the blood flowing and has been adapted by scientists to produce a clot-busting medication for treating stroke victims. This anticoagulant contains the protein desmoteplase or DSPA, which was given the nickname Draculin. 

Only eating once a day Vampire bats will drink up nearly their entire weight in a single meal which makes flying home a bit of a struggle, but once again the vampire has a bit of black magic up its sleeve err… wing. As soon as the vampire bat begins drinking blood its circulatory system and kidneys begin pushing out water to lighten the load. You could say that being peed on by a flying Vampire Bat is good luck because it means he is already full and likely to leave you alone.

Even with the immediate offloading of the water weight, the vampire bat may have to drop to the ground to try and get a running start or use its hind legs to jump into the air to get enough air for its wings to obtain flight. 

With their ghoulish diet, habits, and frightening appearance it’s no wonder Vampire Bats have entered folklore and are a staple of Halloween imagery, but unless you go trick or treating in South America and decide to pass out under the stars you are probably safe from becoming a shape-shifting member of the undead…probably. 

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The kit fox (Vulpes macrotis) is the smallest member of the fox species in North America and one of the dog family’s smallest and rarest members. This cat-sized fox is only found in the southwestern deserts of the United States and northern Mexico.

The kit fox looks like the offspring of a miniature coyote and a jackrabbit. Actually, the kit fox is the size of an adult jackrabbit. 

This diminutive canine sports a light gray and yellowish-tan coat and weighs between 3-6 pounds. It has a body length of around 20 inches plus a 12-inch black-tipped bushy tail, which accounts for about 40 percent of the fox’s total body length. 

Found in desert and semi-desert landscapes, the kit fox has large, close-set ears that give it a remarkable sense of hearing. The large ears also help dissipate heat during summers when temperatures can exceed 110 degrees Fahrenheit. The kit fox also has fur surrounding its paw pads, forming a “sand shoe” for traction and insulation from the scorching desert surface. 

As another desert adaptation, if no open water is available, the kit fox can stay hydrated by absorbing fluids from the animals and plants it consumes. 

The kit fox lives in small groups. The foxes dig communal dens with multiple key-hole-shaped entrances where they reside during the day to avoid heat and predation from coyotes and golden eagles. The kit foxes also take over burrows constructed by other animals. They can have up to 30 multi-chambered dens in one group.

The kit fox leaves its den at night to hunt and can roam an average of nine miles in a single hunt. The fox’s primary prey includes jackrabbits, cottontail rabbits, prairie dogs, rock squirrels, and kangaroo rats. These small foxes will also eat insects, carrion, birds, and human trash if available. 

The kit fox mates for life, with the mating season occurring between December and February. Gestation is about two months, with most litters containing four pups born in February or March. 

Parents bring food to the den until the pups are about five weeks old. At that point, the pups begin to leave the den and join their parents on short foraging trips to learn how to hunt. The pups will stay with their parents until they are about four months old.

The kit fox has a lifespan of 5-7 years in the wild, with a nearly 75 percent mortality rate for pups within their first year. 

Threats to the kit fox include predation and loss of habitat due to urbanization, grazing, and agriculture. Off-road vehicles also account for an increase in kit fox mortality by hitting foxes, driving over, and crushing dens.

In 2011, the first-ever documented outbreak of canine distemper hit kit foxes in Riverside County, California, causing the local population to die off. 

The San Joaquin kit fox (Vulpes macrotis mutica) is a recognized sub-species only found in central California. Sadly, there are currently fewer than 7,000 of these foxes remaining, and sadly their population continues to decline.

The post The Kit Fox appeared first on Danger Ranger Bear.

The sockeye salmon is one of nature’s greatest wonders, traveling 1,000 miles in a year between freshwater and saltwater, surviving countless predators, and having a one in 1,000 chance of reaching adulthood.

The sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) is one of the smaller species of salmon found along North America’s west coast and the third most common after the chum and pink salmon. 

Easily recognized by its green face and bright red body, the sockeye has an average length of 25 inches and tips the scales between 5-15 pounds. The trademark red hue only appears during the spawning season. For most of their adult lives, the sockeye has a metallic blue-green top tinged with silver.

Juvenile sockeye salmon spend their first 1-2 years in freshwater before migrating to the Pacific Ocean and later returning to their freshwater birthplace to spawn. They drift counterclockwise (east to west) for 2-3 years in cold Pacific waters of the Gulf of Alaska before returning to their freshwater home. Sockeye can travel up to 1,000 miles during this migration. 

The sockeye sexually matures between 3-5 years old as it begins the journey back to freshwater. The sockeye remembers the chemical trail, or scent, of its birthplace. It can successfully navigate hundreds of miles back to that location, often spawning within 20 feet of where it was born.

Water temperature and predation influence the sockeye’s mass migration. Warmer waters shorten their eggs’ incubation time while colder waters lengthen it. This is why the salmon spawns in late summer as water temperatures begin to drop. 

The sockeye also run upstream in massive numbers to overwhelm predators. Tens of thousands of fish may enter one river system within hours or days. Traveling in large numbers through the gauntlet of eagles, bears, and sea wolves lowers the odds of any one salmon getting eaten before it spawns.

The sockeye returns to freshwater in early summer, spawning in late summer or early fall. Once the female returns to her birth location, she uses her tail to dig a nest (“redd”) in the gravel. She will lay between 2,500-5,000 eggs in her redd.

Male sockeyes will present themselves to a female several times before she picks a suitable mate based on his color and size. Once the males fertilize the eggs, the female covers them with gravel. 

Since both males and females have expended so much energy returning home to spawn, they soon die once the eggs are covered. The salmon carcasses add a valuable source of nutrients to the river ecosystem, improving the growth rates of the next generation of salmon.

The sockeye eggs hatch in the winter, and embryos live off their attached yolk sacs. The following spring, the “fry” leave the relative safety of their gravel beds and move to larger bodies of freshwater to feed on zooplankton and small crustaceans. Between 1-3 years of age, the juvenile sockeyes begin their downstream migration to the Pacific Ocean in search of larger and more plentiful food needed to support upcoming tremendous growth.

However, sockeye salmon don’t come equipped with a magic switch that makes the fish instantly transition from living in freshwater to thriving in salt water. 

Like every other vertebrate, the sockeye has the challenge of keeping a balanced concentration of water and salt (specifically sodium chloride) in its body. If the sockeye could not keep the high saline water from pulling water from the fish’s body, its cells would shrink and die, killing the fish within minutes.

Fortunately, the sockeye salmon has developed a unique physiological adaptation that allows it to thrive in fresh and saltwater environments. 

First, the sockeye drinks very little water while living in freshwater to avoid diluting its body’s natural salt levels. Once the fish moves to saltwater, it consumes several gallons of seawater daily to offset the ocean’s dehydrating effects.

Second, the sockeye’s kidneys change the concentration of the fish’s urine. In freshwater, the kidney produces large volumes of dilute urine to flush the water infused into the fish’s body from the water it swims in. Once the sockeye is in the salty ocean, the kidneys produce less but more concentrated urine to remove as much salt as possible from the body.

The sockeye’s gills have also adapted to have a specialized enzyme that actively pushes sodium chloride against its natural concentration gradient. This means that in freshwater, the gills suck salt out of the water and into the salmon’s body. In seawater, the gills pump salt out of the salmon’s body and into the surrounding water.

These physiological changes begin during the first part of the migration when the juvenile sockeye stops at the mouth of its home stream. These coastal estuaries are a mix of freshwater and saltwater. It spends several days in these transitional waters, drinking the brackish water. This makes its kidneys begin to shift urine concentrations, and its gills reverse the direction they pump sodium chloride.

Once the sockeye has made the freshwater to saltwater physiological transformation, it swims into the Pacific to begin the next stage of its long migration. 

Once the sockeye reaches saltwater, their diet primarily consists of zooplankton and krill that are trapped and filtered by bony projections on the fish’s gills. The sockeye will also consume small fish and the occasional squid. 

The sockeye gains 99 percent of its body mass while feeding in the ocean. The food they eat is high in carotenoid, the same pigment that gives carrots their orange color. Those pigments are stored in the fish’s flesh. As the salmon reaches its spawning grounds, its body begins to absorb its scales, and the stored carotenoids are transferred to the skin and the eggs. By the time the spawning is complete, the sockeye’s flesh is primarily white because all the pigment has been moved out of the flesh.

Today, the largest sockeye salmon populations live in the rivers attached to Bristol Bay in Alaska and the Fraser River systems in Canada, where millions of fish migrate yearly.

Among indigenous people, the sockeye was used for both food and currency. The fish was caught using spears, gill nets, and traps made from spruce and red willow branches. 

Indigenous people consumed sockeye in various forms, from raw to baked, boiled, or smoked. Many families sometimes kept the smoked salmon for up to three years and cooked the dried fish with berries. A favorite delicacy was salmon eggs poached with black seaweed and seal oil. 

While sockeye populations are healthy in Alaska and Canada, the fish are severely declining in the lower 48 states. The primary threats come from agriculture and flood control. Dams in sockeye habitats block upriver access to the fish’s return to their spawning grounds. 

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The fisher (Pekania pennanti) is a cat-sized carnivorous mammal in the weasel family found in North America’s boreal forests. Sometimes called a fisher cat, the fisher’s closest relatives are the (Martes americana) and Pacific marten (Martes caurina). 

Solitary predators, fishers can be found in old-growth forests with dense canopy cover throughout the northern United States and most of Canada. 

An average male fisher weighs between 9-12 pounds, and its long, slender body is 38-48 inches from nose to the tip of its thick tail. It has a short muzzle and small round ears. Female fishers are typically 30 percent smaller than males.

Depending on the season, the fisher has dark brown to light brown fur. The fur darkens during the winter and fades to a mottled brown during the summer. 

The fisher has five toes on each foot with retractable claws. Coarse hairs grow between the pads and toes on the hind paws to increase traction when walking on ice and snow. The fisher also has highly mobile ankle joints that allow it to rotate its rear paws nearly 180 degrees. This extreme flexibility — also found in squirrels — makes the fisher one of the few mammals with the superpower of descending trees head-first. 

Each hind paw has a circular patch of hair on the central pad where the plantar gland is located. This gland secretes a distinctive odor that creates a scent trail to allow fishers to find each other during the spring mating season.

Fishers are generalist predators, hunting small mammals like snowshoe hares, rabbits, voles, squirrels, chipmunks, muskrats, and gophers.

They are also one of the few carnivores that dine on porcupines. Fishers kill porcupines by repeatedly biting them on the face until the animal dies. This onslaught of biting can last up to 30 minutes before the porcupine succumbs to its injuries. 

Controlling the porcupine population actually helps the forest grow since these spikey critters love to eat the tender shoots and stems of new tree growth.

The fisher has a year-long reproductive cycle, with the female reaching maturity at 12 months old. Mating occurs in late March and early April, but the blastocyst — the early structure that develops into an embryo — is not implanted in the uterus until mid-February of the following year. For reference, human blastocyst formation begins five days after fertilization, while the fisher’s blastocyst forms 10 months after fertilization.

Once the blastocyst forms, the fisher’s active pregnancy begins with a 50-day gestation and ends with the birthing of a litter of 3-4 kits in the spring. Young are cared for and nursed by the mother in a hollow tree den. They feed exclusively on their mother’s milk for the first 8-10 weeks and then switch to a solid diet. 

After four months, the kits become increasingly intolerant of their littermates, and their mother kicks them out of the den at five months. 

By 12 months, the juvenile fishers will have established their own ranges that they will maintain for their 7-year lifespan.

The fisher has a hunting range of approximately three square miles in the summer and up to five square miles in the winter. Males and females will have overlapping territories, but not males. Some Fishers on the search for food have been tracked traveling up to twenty miles in a day.

Aside from humans, adult fishers have few predators. Juveniles, however,  are hunted by bears, coyotes, eagles, wolverines, mountain lions, bobcats, and Canada Lynx.

Adult fishers are sometimes preyed on by bobcats and Canada lynx, but the tables are usually turned where the hunter becomes the hunted. Researchers have documented fishers killing and eating lynx bedded down in snowstorms. The fisher attacks the sleeping cat and quickly ends the melee with a  grip bite on the neck. One study of Canada lynx from 1999-2011 in northern Main found that predation was the leading source of lynx mortality, with 77.8 percent of those deaths caused by fishers.

Eighteenth-century fur traders trapped fishers for their dense, soft pelts, which were used to make scarves and coat collars for the wealthy. These early trappers called the animal fiche or fichet, which is French for polecat. Even though the fisher is not a cat, the name stuck

In southern parts of their range, fisher pelts almost led to the animal’s extinction between 1900 and 1940. Fortunately, closed trapping season, animal repopulation efforts,  and habitat recovery initiatives have restored fishers to most of their original range. 

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As one of America’s most endangered species, the California condor (Gymnogyps californianus) also holds the distinction of being the largest wild bird on the North American continent.

Listed as an endangered species since 1967, the California condor has a wingspan nine feet long. This large bird can tip the scales at more than 20 pounds and is noted for its black feathers and striking white patches on the underside of its wings.  

The California condor once dominated the skies of North America. During the Pleistocene epoch (2.58 million years ago to 11,700 years ago), condors inhabited most of the continent, from Mexico to Canada. A dramatic decrease in their range occurred approximately 10,000 years ago with the extinction of the large mammals such as mastodons, camels, and giant ground sloths that condors feasted on. 

By the time European settlers arrived, the condor population had retreated to the Pacific coast. However, shooting and egg collecting started to take a toll on the bird’s numbers.

Declines in the California condor population were first noticed as early as 1890. These scavengers were dying from eating poisoned carcasses set out by ranchers to kill large predators like mountain lions, wolves, and coyotes. 

By the early 1900s, the only condors remaining were located in the mountainous regions of southern California.

By 1965, the population was estimated to be about 60 condors.

Less than 22 California condors were alive in 1982. 

An aggressive rescue attempt began to save this magnificent aerial scavenger. A captive breeding program was launched in 1983 with the Los Angeles Zoo and the San Diego Wild Animal Park. 

Wild California condors were captured and placed into the breeding program as a last-ditch effort to save the species. The last wild condor was captured in April 1987.

This captive breeding program turned out to be surprisingly successful. Condors started being released back into the wild in California beginning in January 1992. 

By the end of 1996, condors were released into the wild in Arizona near the Grand Canyon. 

While the condor population is slowly growing, two of these rare bird’s behaviors continue to put it at risk: slow maturation and diet. 

Even though the California condor can live up to 60 years in the wild, the birds do not mate until approximately seven years old. Once condors mate, the female lays only one egg. Both the female and male take turns incubating the four-inch-long egg in shifts lasting one to five days. 

The condor chick hatches after 56 days. Both parents bring food to the nest and protect the chick from predators like ravens and Golden eagles. 

After five months, the young condor is ready to fly but will continue to rely on its parents for at least another six months. 

This 12-month nesting cycle, with only one egg per cycle, means condors can only reproduce a maximum of one offspring every two years. 

The second major factor contributing to the California condor’s fragile grip on survival is its carrion diet, with a preference for recently deceased large animals like cattle, elk, and deer. 

To locate its next meal, the condor takes to the sky to search for food during the warmer hours of the day. Afternoon upward thermals allow the big bird to expend less energy and soar at speeds close to 60 mph. While the California condor can fly as high as 15,000 feet, most of its time is spent gliding below 2,000 feet.

Another challenge to the current California condor population still comes from the end of a shotgun. Although it has been illegal to shoot a condor for more than 100 years, lead poisoning still kills the birds indirectly when they ingest lead in carrion. 

Lead gunshot used by hunters stays in non-recovered animals and gut piles. As these carcasses are consumed, so is any remaining lead. The lead ingestion causes loss of appetite, lethargy, and progressive muscle failure. 

The use of lead ammunition has been restricted in waterfowl for nearly 30 years and has recently been banned in California’s condor habitat. The state created a “non-lead” zone in 2007 for those hunting within the condor’s range. By 2013, non-lead ammunition was required for all hunters in the state. 

California condors have also experienced varying degrees of poisoning from the insecticide DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane). Researchers believe this chemical, a synthetic pesticide developed in the 1940s and banned in the U.S. in 1972,  continues to play a dangerous role in damaging condor eggs.  

As recently as 2006, the eggs from two captive-born condors that had successfully nested in the Big Sur area had cracked before the chicks could hatch. An investigation revealed the shells were too thin, and DDT was the primary suspect.

Since that initial failure, 12 out of 16 California condor nests have been nonproductive between 2007 and 2009. All shell fragments recovered from each nesting site were thin and weak.

However, condors that were released hundreds of miles to the south have experienced an 80 percent successful hatching rate. 

Researchers believe the Big Sur condor population ended up with DDT in their systems by dining on the carcasses of sea otters, sea lions, and other fatty marine mammals. Previous research revealed high levels of DDT in the blubber of these animals. 

While the California Condor’s wild population has dramatically increased from 22 birds in 1982 to approximately 300 today, efforts continue to rebuild and redistribute the species across the American West. 

In May 2022, the Redwood National and State Parks and the Yurok Tribe released two California condors — the first time condors have soared among Northern California’s redwoods since 1892.  

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