Transcript Biodiversity in Minnesota

Biodiversity in Minnesota
Samuel Sellers
Common Loon
• Males are slightly larger than females, this
bird is smaller than a goose and larger than a
mallard duck. The bird weighs 8 to 12 pounds
when it is fully grown. It has a black bill and
red eyes it has a dark greenish black head and
in the summer its body is black with white
spots, in the winter its top is a shade of gray
and its bottom is white.
• Loons don’t begin breeding until three to four
years old. They build their nest on the outside
of reeds and grasses on the water edge. They
take turns incubating the eggs and then after
28 to 30 days the chicks start to emerge, the
chicks are blackish brown and take a swim not
long after they hatch. Young loons don’t fly
until they are two months or older. The
parents will carry the chicks on their backs for
protection from fish and turtle predators.
• Loons eat pan fish, perch, ciscoes, suckers, trout,
bullheads smelt and minnows. They also eat
frogs, leaches, crayfish, mollusks, salamanders,
amphipods, and insects.
• Adult loons are only venerable to bald eagles, but
their young are venerable to skunks, raccoons,
foxes, snapping turtles, northern pike and
muskies.
• Loons are found on lakes in central and
northeastern Minnesota. About September loons
travel to their winter home along the Atlantic
coast, from North Carolina to Florida or in the
Gulf of Mexico.
• Minnesota has more loons than all the states
except Alaska. Roughly 12,000.
• Human disturbance and pollutants like lead
and mercury are bad for the loons and will not
allow them to last very long.
• Loons have no season, they are a protected
bird, which means that there is no season to
kill them.
Fun facts about loons
• Loons will dive up to 250 feet to retrieve their
food.
• Loons have solid bones, unlike the hollow
bones of other birds.
• The extra weight of their bones helps them
dive down as far as 250 feet.
• Loons need a 100 to 600 foot runway to take
off.
•
female loon
http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6137/6005198729_10 http://www.loon.org/assets/images/AboutLoons
88e760cf_z.jpg
_summer_P&G.jpg
Male loon
White tailed deer
• Large brown or gray mammal with a white tail
that lifts when alarmed or running. 4 to 6 feet
long, 2 to 3 feet tall with a 6 to 12 inch tail
• Males weigh 100 to 300 pounds. Females
weigh 85 to 130 pounds
• Reddish brown in summer, grayish brown in
winter
• Snorts, grunts or bleats
• November to December, fawns are born 7
months later. Fawns have white spots that
last from 3 to 4 months, remain nursing with
their mother for several months. Males travel
long distances in search of females during
mating season, they scrape trees and patches
on the ground where they urinate to tell
others that it is not their territory.
• White tailed deer eat acorns, corn, soybeans,
mushrooms, grasses, tree leaves, buds, twigs
and bark, wild grapes, apples and assorted
shrubs.
• Wolves, coyotes, bear, and bobcats hunt and
eat whit tailed deer.
• White-tailed deer live in prairies, forests,
swamps, wood lots and agricultural fields.
• In Minnesota there are 900,000 to 1,000,000
deer.
• Hunters harvest around 150,000 to 200,000
deer a year.
Fun facts about white tailed deer
• When alarmed white tailed deer fan their ears
and raise their tails as though raising a white flag.
• The white tailed deer's white tail raises when
they are running.
• They can be a nuisance to farmers eating grain
they have stored for other live stock.
• Male white tailed deer loose their antlers in the
winter and grow them back in the late summer
and early fall.
male
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb
/b/b7/White-tailed_deer.jpg/220px-Whitetailed_deer.jpg
Female
http://www.statesymbolsusa.org/IMAGES/Illinois/whitet
ail_deer_lg.jpg
Fawn
http://www.manitowoc.org/images/pages/N879//white_
tailed_deer_reprod%5B1%5D.jpg
Rat snake
42 to 72 inches long, upper part is black with
blotches of yellow or white. Belly is gray or brown
with yellow or white diffusions.
Lives in moist forest, woodland animal.
http://www.amybartlettwright.com/images/snake_t.jpg
http://www.demotix.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/a_scale_large/4005/photos/1300990513-rat-snakes%27-combat-dance_432225.jpg
Fun facts
• Longest known rat snake was 101 inches long
• Female will lay 5 to 44 eggs
• Rat snakes are not venomous but will hurt
when they bite.
willow
• large when growing along streams and other
moist places, dwarfed shrubs when growing
on drier sites. Some trees are often 35 to 50
feet high with a diameter of 6 to 24 inches.
• Dark brown to gray on large trees; thick,
rough, furrowed, and flaky.
• Very narrow leaves with finely toothed
margins and are shiny green on both sides.
• Fun fact: ruins lawn mowers
• Tree
• Bark
• Fruit
http://www.varietybackyard.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Willow-Tree-002.jpg
http://www.cambridge2000.com/gallery/images/P5156716.jpg
http://www.aphotoflora.com/images/rosaceae/pyrus_salicifolia_willow_leaved_pear_tree_fruit_19-08-
11_1.jpg
• Seeds
http://www.morning-earth.org/Graphic-
E/BIOSPHERE/PLANTIMAGE/DISPERSAL/SEEDS%20&%20PODS/willowseed34.jpg
• Leaves
http://www.hccnursery.com/ebay/P108_12.jpg
Fire weed
• Native perennial to 5'. Pink flowers with 4
round petals form on a tall, conspicuous spike
which blooms from the bottom up. Common
along roadsides mid to late summer. Stems
are covered with alternate, willow-like leaves.
The common name is derived from its
responsive growth after fires.
• Fun fact: Fireweed is often one of the first
species to colonize newly exposed areas.
•
http://www.maliasrv.com/IMAGES/AlaskaReturnImages/Fireweed/FireweedMid.jpg