Animals
In Canada and Alaska's Boreal Forests there are a large variety of animals ranging from
bird, to mammals, to fish, and even the insects, in the Boreal Forests you will be able to find
amazing animals like the Black Bear, the Warbler, the Bobcat, etc.
In the forests you'll typically find a lot of Caribous feeding on lichens, bog birches, and other
types of bark that grow off of trees, the Caribous are incredible animals because of the giant
antlers that they have on their head which they can use to fend off predators such as the Grey
Wolf or the Canadian Lynx. Another animal you may find is the Snowshoe Hare, a type of hair
that has a special ability where its fur will change color depending upon the season, white in the
winter and brown in the summer, it uses this ability as some sort of camoflage against predators.
Another animal is the Beaver, with their large front teeth which help them eat sticks and bark, and it also
helps them make their home, a dam, which creates small lakes that allow fish to survive.
However, an animal that you may only see rarely in the Boreal Forests nowadays is the Grizzly Bear, an
animal that is considered to be either a secondary or quarternary consumer, whose population is slowly
decreasing and becoming extinct in the Boreal Forests, the reason this happens is because of humans
cutting down their trees through logging and build buildings that harm the survival of Grizzly Bears, and
also because of hunters killing these bears accidently because they thought the Grizzly Bear was a Black
Bear.
bird, to mammals, to fish, and even the insects, in the Boreal Forests you will be able to find
amazing animals like the Black Bear, the Warbler, the Bobcat, etc.
In the forests you'll typically find a lot of Caribous feeding on lichens, bog birches, and other
types of bark that grow off of trees, the Caribous are incredible animals because of the giant
antlers that they have on their head which they can use to fend off predators such as the Grey
Wolf or the Canadian Lynx. Another animal you may find is the Snowshoe Hare, a type of hair
that has a special ability where its fur will change color depending upon the season, white in the
winter and brown in the summer, it uses this ability as some sort of camoflage against predators.
Another animal is the Beaver, with their large front teeth which help them eat sticks and bark, and it also
helps them make their home, a dam, which creates small lakes that allow fish to survive.
However, an animal that you may only see rarely in the Boreal Forests nowadays is the Grizzly Bear, an
animal that is considered to be either a secondary or quarternary consumer, whose population is slowly
decreasing and becoming extinct in the Boreal Forests, the reason this happens is because of humans
cutting down their trees through logging and build buildings that harm the survival of Grizzly Bears, and
also because of hunters killing these bears accidently because they thought the Grizzly Bear was a Black
Bear.
Relationships
One of the most common predator/prey relationships that are unique to this environment is the relationship between the tertiary consumer Canadian Lynx and the primary consumer Snowshoe Hare. Since the Canadian Lynxs main source of food is the Snowshoe Hare, the population of the Snowshoe Hare ends up going down and Snowshoe Hares become more rare, because of this, some of the Canadian Lynxs ended up starving to death, which lead to at least half of the Lynx population going down, and some of the Candian Lynxs however found alternative food sources which allowed them to live and be healthy. Basically it's as if the Canadian Lynxs have a chain attached to the Snowshoe Hares where if one side goes down, the other side goes down as well, and if one goes up, the other also goes up.
Picture of a graph that represents the predator-prey relationship between the Snowshoe Hare and the Canadian Lynx
Invasive Species
One example of the many species that have invaded the Boreal Forests are the many birds that have either travelled through it decided to live in them, many of these birds include Vireos, Sparrows, Flycatchers, etc, who have all had an effect on the Boreal Forests with their songs and nestings which creates more bird life in the Boreal Forests.
Another invasive animal that has had an effect upon the Boreal Forests isn't exactly an animal species, but instead they are Humen. Humen have been hunting down most animals that live in the Boreal Forests, such as the Grizzly Bears, the Wolverines, the Whooping Crane, etc, for food and money, and humen have been logging the Boreal Forests which is destroying the homes of many birds, harming the lives of many other animals that live in the Boreal Forests, and because most of the trees have been cut down this gives animals no place to hide in when the hunters come and hunt them down. They have also been building buildings that have ruining the lives of many animals and some buildings might pollute the air which makes it hard for the animals to survive. Because of this, animals like the Grizzly Bears and the Candian Lynxs won't be able to consume most of its prey, like the Elk, the Caribou, etc, and because of this the prey will start to overpopulate and the ecosystem will become unbalanced, the Elk and Caribou will eat almost all the plants and leaves, leaving none for other primary consumers, and they will eat stickes and bark which harms most bird nestings and beaver dams causing damage to the fish as well.
Another invasive animal that has had an effect upon the Boreal Forests isn't exactly an animal species, but instead they are Humen. Humen have been hunting down most animals that live in the Boreal Forests, such as the Grizzly Bears, the Wolverines, the Whooping Crane, etc, for food and money, and humen have been logging the Boreal Forests which is destroying the homes of many birds, harming the lives of many other animals that live in the Boreal Forests, and because most of the trees have been cut down this gives animals no place to hide in when the hunters come and hunt them down. They have also been building buildings that have ruining the lives of many animals and some buildings might pollute the air which makes it hard for the animals to survive. Because of this, animals like the Grizzly Bears and the Candian Lynxs won't be able to consume most of its prey, like the Elk, the Caribou, etc, and because of this the prey will start to overpopulate and the ecosystem will become unbalanced, the Elk and Caribou will eat almost all the plants and leaves, leaving none for other primary consumers, and they will eat stickes and bark which harms most bird nestings and beaver dams causing damage to the fish as well.
Sources
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- "Brown Grizzly Bear Endangered and Close to Being Extinct." Brown Grizzly Bear Endangered and Close to Being Extinct. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2016. <http://www.brownbear.org/endangeredbears.htm>.
- "Endangered Species." Boreal Forest - Banff National Park. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2016. <http://banffnationalpark.weebly.com/endangered- species.html>.
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- "Brown Grizzly Bear Endangered and Close to Being Extinct." Brown Grizzly Bear Endangered and Close to Being Extinct. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2016. <http://www.brownbear.org/endangeredbears.htm>.
- "Endangered Species." Boreal Forest - Banff National Park. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2016. <http://banffnationalpark.weebly.com/endangered- species.html>.
- "Food Chains." The Boreal Forest. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2016. <http://borealforestecosystem.weebly.com/food-chains.html>.
- "Lynx-Snowshoe Hare Cycle." Environment and Natural Resources. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2016. <http://www.enr.gov.nt.ca/node/3052>.
- "Northwestern Ontario Mammal Species - Caribou." Northwestern Ontario Mammal Species - Caribou. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2016. <https://www.borealforest.org/zoo/caribou.htm>.
- "Northwestern Ontario Mammal Species - Coyote." Northwestern Ontario Mammal Species - Coyote. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2016. <https://www.borealforest.org/zoo/coyote.htm>.
- "Northwestern Ontario Mammal Species - Snowshoe Hare." Northwestern Ontario Mammal Species - Snowshoe Hare. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2016. <https://www.borealforest.org/zoo/hare.htm>.
- "Taiga." Predator-Prey - Taiga. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2016. <http://taiga-biome-project.weebly.com/predator-prey.html>.
- "UCSB Science Line." UCSB Science Line. National Science Foundation, UCSB School-University Partnerships, 2015. Web. 02 Dec. 2016. <http://scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.php?key=365>.