Wildlife of North America

Animals and plants are abundantly represented in the waters of North America. Fish, amphibians, insects, and other aquatic animals appear in water ranging from near-freezing, rapid streams to warm, sluggish swamps. Some fish, such as eels and salmon, live in fresh water and salt water at different times in their lives. Other water inhabitants are animals that also live on land. These include turtles, water snakes, ducks, loons, and otters.

The frost-free tropical forests of Central America contain the continent's widest variety of plant and animal life. Vegetation includes palms, bamboos, orchids, and tree ferns. Reptiles, amphibians, and insects abound. Birds and mammals not found elsewhere in North America include jacanas, parrots, monkeys, sloths, and agoutis.

Adaptation to periods of freezing weather and scarcity of food is necessary for the survival of plants and animals living in the forests of eastern North America. In the Coastal Plain south of Virginia these forests contain primarily pines; from Virginia northward, most of the trees lose their leaves in winter. Here are found oaks, elms, maples, and hickories.

The ability to hibernate allows frogs, toads, snakes, and turtles to survive the winter. Most kinds of birds, including warblers, thrushes, and hawks, migrate southward for the winter. Jays, woodpeckers, and chickadees are among those that do not migrate. Mammals keep warm in various ways—by hibernating, becoming dormant, or growing heavy coats, for example. Mammals include bats, opossums, foxes, deer, and many kinds of rodents.

The area of grassland extends roughly from the southern areas of the Prairie Provinces of Canada almost to the Rio Grande in the west-central portion of the continent. The area is characterized by a small amount of rainfall, which results in a lack of trees and the predominance of grass for vegetation: long grass in the prairie area, and short grass in the drier steppe area.

Insects, amphibians, and reptiles, having adapted to living in the grass, are often green or light brown in color. Most of the grassland birds, such as prairie chickens, larks, and burrowing owls, nest on the ground or in burrows. Grassland mammals include prairie dogs, pronghorns, and coyotes.

Plants and animals of the desert areas of the Great Basin and northern Mexico must endure water scarcity, temperature extremes, and drying winds. Some plants, such as mesquite, have deep roots that extend far underground for moisture; some, such as succulents, store water for future use. The seeds of annuals may lie dormant for many years and then germinate quickly after a rain. Many kinds of insects are present. Scorpions, lizards, snakes, fly-catchers, roadrunners, kangaroo mice, kit foxes, and peccaries are found here. Most desert animals eat insects and are adapted to conserve the water available to them.

The forest trees growing in the severe northern climates of central Canada and at high altitudes in the Appalachian and Rocky mountains are primarily spruce and fir. Along the northern Pacific coast are coniferous rain forests containing chiefly Sitka spruce, coast redwood, western hemlock, and Douglas fir. Flies and mosquitoes are particularly abundant insects. Because of the cold winters, few reptiles and amphibians live here. Although most birds migrate, some—such as ravens, jays, and grouse—remain for the winter. Fur-bearing and thick-coated mammals of these forests include moose, wolves, weasels, lynx, and bears.

The frozen ground and extreme cold of the arctic tundra, located in the northernmost reaches of North America, prevent the survival of most plants other than certain mosses, herbs, grasses, and shrubs. Lichens are common. The same kinds of organisms are found high in the Rockies and northern Appalachians.

Insects and waterfowl breed in the tundra during the summer. Living here through the winter are the cold-adapted snowy owls, willow ptarmigans, lemmings, hares, caribou, musk oxen, and polar bears. Some of the animals have differently colored summer and winter coats, providing them with protective coloration.