According to a recent post in Cougar News about an article in the Ottawa Citizen written by Tom Spears, March 15, 2012, cougars have made a comeback in eastern Ontario. Rick Rosatte, a biologist with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Trent University in Peterborough, ON conducted a study from 2006 to 2010 that confirmed sightings. He suspects the cougars come from those in the wild, and those people had as pets decided to release them back into the wild. They prefer low density areas and prey upon the large deer population.
Myself, I'm pleased the wildlife are making a comeback in areas they deserve to live in. Although if the cougar population increases substantially then they will be reduced by hunters who are given permits by the Ministry. It's a shame they were almost hunted to extinction in the first place. But times are changing.
These pretty birds are making a wonderful comeback from near extinction. Lake Ontario is not their normal habitat which is the west coast of British Columbia and parts of Alaska and the interior of British Columbia and Idaho.
Every spring and summer when I venture down to Lake Ontario there they are in pairs or singles, some with cygnets paddling in tow. Large at 60 inches, their wingspan is 96 inches. For awhile there were only a few pairs; and now there are multiple groups of them along Lake Ontario wherever people venture to offer food. They'll take wild birdseed as fast as the ducks and Canada Geese do.
[2]
Photo Credits: [1] Grant Gingko CC=nd-sa-flickr, [2] steveharris CC=nc-flickr.
Research: A Field Guide to the Birds of North America by Michael Vanner, Parragon 2006 p.49.
Cougars are on the endangered list in Canada, including Ontario. Because they are elusive animals they are rarely seen.
Recent sightings have occurred in Morden, Manitoba located in the southern portion of the province near the U.S. border at North Dakota. The article in the Mordon Times reports the deer population in the Morden area is larger than normal due to humans feeding them over the winter. The Manitoba Conservation is looking for methods to move this deer population away from human populated areas thus assisting in luring the big cat away.
UPDATE: The Ministry of Natural Resources in Ontario has annouced that there have been 30 confirmed sightings of cougars since 2006 with an estimated population of 550 animals.
For those interested in cougars there is a website dedicated to them: EasternCougar.org . This site covers all cougars in Canada and the United States.
More information can be found on Wikipedia about cougars, especially for writers looking for characteristics and behaviour in creating a realistic animal. Photo Credit: digitalART2 CC=nc-nd-flickr.
The American Badger, is a North American Badger, somewhat similar in appearance to the European Badger. Recognized sub-species include: Taxidea taxus jacksoni, found in the western Great Lakes region; on the west coast of Canada and the US; and Taxidea taxus berlandieri, in the south-western US and in northern Mexico.
In Ontario, the badger is found in the southwestern part of the province, mostly close to Lake Erie in Haldimand-Norfolk County, and in northwestern Ontario in the Thunder Bay and Rainy River Districts. There are thought to be 218 individuals in Canada. Protection provided by Ontario's Endangered Species Act, 2007 prohibits actions such as killing, capturing, possessing, and selling or trading this species. Badger dens are protected under the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act. Nearly all the sites in Ontario where the badger lives are on private land.
This animal prefers dry open areas with deep soils that are easy to dig, such as prairie regions.
The video shows an American Badger digging a burrow. A badger can dig a hole faster than a man with a shovel.
The American Badger has most of the general characteristics common to badgers; stocky and low-slung with short, powerful legs, they are identifiable by their huge foreclaws (measuring up to 5cm in length) and distinctive head markings. Measuring generally between 60 to 75 cm (23.6 to 29.5 inches) in length, males of the species are significantly larger than females (with an average weight of roughly 7 kg (15.5 pounds) for females and up to almost 9 kg (19.8 pounds) for males). Northern subspecies such as T. t. jeffersonii are heavier than the southern subspecies. In the fall, when food is plentiful, adult male badgers can exceed 11.5 kg (25.3 pounds).
Excluding the head, the American Badger is covered with a grizzled, silvery coat of coarse hair or fur. The American Badger's triangular face shows a distinctive black and white pattern, with brown or blackish "badges" marking the cheeks and a white stripe extending from the nose to the base of the head. In the subspecies T. t. berlandieri, the white head stripe extends the full length of the body, to the base of the tail.
[2]
The American Badger is a fossorial carnivore. It preys predominantly on pocket gophers, ground squirrels, moles, marmots, prairie dogs, pika, woodrats, kangaroo rats, deer mice and voles, often digging to pursue prey into their dens, and sometimes plugging tunnel entrances with objects. They also prey on ground-nesting birds such as bank swallow or sand martin and burrowing owl, lizards, amphibians, carrion, fish, skunks, insects, including bees and honeycomb and some plant foods such as maize, peas, green beans, mushrooms and other fungi, and sunflower seeds.
They are mainly active at night, but may be active during the day. They do not hibernate, but become less active in winter. A badger may spend much of the winter in cycles of torpor that last around 29 hours. They do emerge from their dens on warmer days.
Badgers sometimes use abandoned burrows of other animals like foxes or animals slightly smaller or bigger. Badgers are normally solitary animals for most of the year, but it is thought that in breeding season they expand their territories to actively seek out mates. Males may breed with more than one female. Mating occurs in the summer, but implantation is delayed (similar to bears) and the young are born in an underground burrow during late winter. Litters consist of one to five offspring.
Although this video was filmed in Yellowstone National Park, it shows a mother badger with 2 kits on the move. When they reach the sagebrush they become almost invisible.
American badgers will sometimes form a symbiotic relationship with Coyotes. Because coyotes are not very effective at digging rodents out of their burrows, they will chase the animals while they are above ground. Badgers on the other hand are not fast runners, but are well-adapted to digging. When hunting together, they effectively leave little escape for prey in the area.
Research: ParksCanada, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Wikipedia
[1] The Beluga or White Whale (Delphinapterus leucas) is an Arctic and sub-Arctic species of cetecean. This marine mammal is commonly referred to simply as the Beluga or Sea Canary due to its high-pitched twitter. It is up to 5 m (16 ft) in length and an unmistakable all white in color with a distinctive melon-shaped head. The whale is also colloquially known as the Sea Canary on account of the high-pitched squeaks, squeals, clucks and whistles.
[2-Range of the Beluga Whale]
The baby Beluga is usually born grey but not always. This whale is unmistakable when adult: it is all white and has a dorsal ridge rather than a fin. The head is also unlike that of any other cetacean – its melon is extremely bulbous and even malleable. The Beluga is able to change the shape of its head by blowing air around its sinuses. Again unlike many dolphins and whales, the vertebrae in the neck are not fused together, allowing the animal flexibility to turn its head laterally.
The absence of the dorsal fin is reflected in the genus name of the species - apterus is the Greek word for "wingless". The evolutionary preference for a dorsal ridge in favour of a fin is believed by scientists to be adaptation to under-ice conditions, or possibly as a way of preserving heat. Like in other cetaceans the thyroid gland is relatively large compared to terrestrial mammals (three times per weight as a horse) and may help to sustain higher metabolism during the summer estuarine occupations.
[3-Beluga Whale with calf]
The body of the Beluga is rotund, particularly when well-fed, and tapers smoothly to both the head and tail. The tail fin grows and becomes increasingly ornately curved as the animal ages. The flippers are broad and short - making them almost square-shaped.
In the spring the Beluga whales move to their summer grounds, bays, estuaries and other shallow inlets. These summer sites are detached from one another and a mother will usually return to the same site year after year. As their summer homes become clogged with ice during autumn, beluga move away for winter. Most travel in the direction of the advancing ice-pack and stay close to the edge of it for the winter months. Others stay under the iced area - surviving by finding ice leads and polynyas (patches of open water in the ice) in which they can surface to breathe. Beluga may also find pockets of air trapped under the ice. The remarkable ability of the Beluga to find the thin slivers of open water where the dense ice pack may cover more than 96% of the sea surface is still a source of mystery and great interest to scientists. It is clear that the echo-location capabilities of the beluga are highly adapted to the peculiar acoustics of the sub-ice sea and it has been suggested that beluga can sense open water through echo-location.
There are estimated to be 25,045 individuals in Hudson Bay, and 28,008 in the Canadian Low Arctic. The population in the St. Lawrence estuary is estimated to be around 1000. The Beluga's natural predators are polar bears, who hunt when the whales become encircled by ice during winter. In these cases many miles of ice separate groups of Belugas from the open ocean, and as a result they are unable to leave until the ice melts in spring. During this period belugas do not offer much resistance to bear attacks due to their low energy reserves.
[4 - Beluga Whale in wild]
Because the Beluga congregate in river estuaries, human-caused pollution is proving to be a significant danger to their health. Incidents of cancer have been reported to be rising as a result of the St. Lawrence River pollution. The bodies of the Beluga inhabiting this area contain so many contaminants that their carcasses are treated as toxic waste.
This is food for thought for humans: if the whales contain this amount of toxicity from pollution, then humans carry equal amounts. We are killing the flora and fauna of the planet, including ourselves. It is time to take a stand for an alternative lifestyle before it is too late.
Research: Wikipedia, Vancouver Aquarium Photo Credit: [1][2]-Wikipedia, [3]-Bright_Star CC=nc-nd-flickr, [4]-Senor Hans CC=nc-nd-flickr.
