Vancouver Island Marmot

American Kestrel

The American kestrel is the smallest falcon in North America and weighs only 3 or 4 ounces.

American White Pelican

American white pelicans are some of the largest birds in North America. They hunt together, driving small schools of fish into each other’s bill pouches.

Arctic tern

Arctic terns are unique birds with gifts of persistence and resourcefulness. These birds must fly great distances, and in doing so they have a diet with a variety of sea life.

Bald Eagle

Bald eagles are found all over B.C. and the U.S. The largest populations in North America live in B.C. and Alaska.

Banana Slug

Banana slugs are important decomposers in our coastal rainforest. They are nocturnal feeders, eating decaying animals, mushrooms, and plants.

Beaver

The beaver possesses many gifts! They are adept at swimming, building, and tree chomping.

Bighorn Sheep

The bighorn sheep are important primary consumers in the food chain. They are vegetarians, eating grasses, bushes and leaves.

Black and White Warbler

These iconic Canadian birds are also called the ‘black and white creeper’ because they creep along tree trunks looking for tasty insects.

Black Bear

Black bears and Pacific salmon play an important part in maintaining our forest ecosystems.

Bocaccio Rockfish

Bocaccio rockfish are important consumers. These fish eat smaller fish such as anchovies, mackerel, squid and other rockfish.

Bonaparte's Gull

These gulls nest in large numbers and produce two to three eggs at a time. These gulls are gifted with agility.

Boreal Chickadee

Boreal chickadees are an important indicator species of boreal ecosystems!

Boreal Chorus Frog

Boreal chorus frogs live in moist grassy or forested areas near wetlands across North America.

Boreal Owl

Boreal owls are gifted with incredible hearing. The position of their ears allows them to locate their prey.

Brown Lemming

Brown lemmings love to live in the cold! They like to eat mostly arctic grasses and moss.

California Quail

California quails are omnivores. These birds eat mostly plant seeds but will also eat fruit and insects.

Canada Goose

These geese are found across Canada and in parts of the US and Mexico at different times throughout the year.

Canada Jay

Canada jays are omnivores. They feed on the meat of small animals, fruit, insects, and seeds. They will frequent campsites with easy access to food.

Canada Lynx

These beings are gifted with excellent patience, hearing, and night vision to hunt prey.

Columbian Black Tailed Deer

Black-tailed deer are important grazers and primary consumers. They eat grass, leaves, twigs, and shrubs.

Cougar

Cougars are a keystone species which means they are vital in maintaining ecosystem balance.

Coyote

Coyotes are tactical beings, who are vital for their roles as scavengers. Coyotes keep areas clean by mostly feeding on rodents, rabbits, berries and carrion.

Crab

Crabs play an important role as decomposers in our ecosystem! They consume decaying biological (either plant or animal) matter.

Dall's Porpoise

Dall’s porpoises are found throughout the north Pacific Ocean, both in the open ocean and close to land where there is deep water.

Dall's Sheep

Dall’s Sheep are resilient, mostly non-migratory beings who withstand the throws of Yukon and Northwest winters.

Douglas Squirrel

Douglas squirrels and red squirrels are the only native squirrel species in British Columbia.

Eared Grebe

Since these birds do not have good legs for walking on land and cannot fly long distances, they are gifted with an adept swimming ability.

Elk

Elk are herbivores. They eat shrubs and grasses such as bunchgrasses throughout the year.

Gray Wolf

Gray wolves can be found in Alaska, Canada, and a few small pockets in the northern US Rockies.

Great Basin Spadefoot Toad

The Great Basin spadefoot toad is important to maintain balance in pond aquatic systems.

Great Blue Heron

These birds are expert fishers, graced with the gifts of patience and balance. It’s said that if you see one you’re more likely to have a good fishing day.

Grizzly Bear

Grizzly bears are omnivores, and they feed on salmon, carrion, trout, small rodents, insects, berries, leaves and roots.

Gull

Why do seagulls fly over the sea? Because if they flew over the bay they’d be bagels (bay-gulls)!

Hermit Thrush

Hermit thrushes are omnivores and help to balance the populations of insects, amphibians, lizards and plants.

Hoary Marmot

Hoary marmots live at high elevations, near the tree line on rocky slopes and alpine meadows. They are found throughout the mountainous areas of B.C.

Keen's long-eared bat

Keen’s long-eared bat are found from southeast Alaska to the Olympic Peninsula, but most of them live on Haida Gwaii.

Least Chipmunk

Chipmunks fill their stretchy cheek pouches with the food they coChipmunks fill their stretchy cheek pouches with the food they collect. They'll store it in their nests or in small holes they have dug in the ground.llect and store it in their nests or in small holes they have dug in the ground.

Least Weasel

The least weasel eats primarily mice, voles, and insects, but some birds' eggs and frogs make up its diet.

Leatherback Turtle

Leatherback turtles are the largest of all turtles! These reptiles can grow up to seven feet long and weigh over 2,000 pounds!

LeConte's Sparrow

These sparrows have a mottled brown back with a white belly and crown stripe, an orange-yellow eye stripe and collar.

Lesser Yellowlegs

They are alert birds that defend their territory and keep their eyes out for trespassers, dipping their heads up and down while watching them.

Little brown myotis

Little brown myotis live in a wide range of habitats, from northern and coastal forests to grasslands and pine forests.

Long-Billed Curlew

Curlews love to use their long bills to dig deep into coastal mud for worms, insects, and tasty crustaceans. When threatened by predators, males flock together to fight off the potential threat.

Marbled Murrelet

The marbled murrelet was a mystery to conservationists for quite some time. It seemed like no one could figure out where they nested!

Marten

Martens are mainly threatened by habitat and food loss (especially because of logging), disease, and in the past, over-trapping for their fur.

Meadow Vole

Meadow voles are often called field mice, but they actually have shorter tails and ears than mice.

Moose

Moose are herbivores, and eat twigs, shrubs, bark and tender plants. As a grazing animal, moose can change the landscape to increase heterogenized vegetation.

Mountain chickadee

Mountain chickadees look very similar to other chickadees. Their body is about the size of a tennis ball with a white belly, greyish wings and have a black cap on their head.

Mountain Goat

Mountain goats are a critical species for alpine and high-altitude ecosystems. Mountain goats have the incredible ability to stand on an area the size of a Canadian quarter.

Mule Deer

Mule deer are primary consumers. They eat grass, foliage, twigs, and shrubs.

Muskrat

Muskrats often get mistaken for beavers, and are specially adapted to chewing on plants underwater.

Mussels

Mussels are a type of clam that have a long shell. Mussels live in the same place their entire lives (they are “sedentary”) and fix themselves in place by their byssal threads.

Northern alligator lizard

Northern Alligator Lizards are brown or grey with some dark spots and stripes on their belly.

Northern Flying Squirrel

Northern flying squirrels act as nature’s gardeners in the forest. These animals help plants grow by dispersing fungi spores that help new mushrooms, like truffles, to grow.

Northern hawk owl

Northern hawk owls are a little smaller than crows and have long, rounded tails and striped bellies.

Northern Leopard Frog

The northern leopard frog plays an important role in transferring nutrients between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.

Northern Long-Eared Myotis

Northern long-eared myotis are mouse-eared bats with long, rounded ears. They have a distinct dull-brown coloured spot on their shoulder.

Northern Red-Backed Vole

The northern red-backed voles have many different foods they like, including nuts, seeds, fruits and leaves.

Northern Saw-Whet Owl

This owl is an important predator that is necessary in forest ecosystems to eat insects, small mammals, amphibians and songbirds.

Nuttall's Cottontail

Cottontails are herbivores and eat mostly grass and other green plants. They are nocturnal, most active at dawn and dusk.

Orca

Orcas are carnivores and top marine predators. Resident orcas eat salmon, octopus, and other cold-blooded sea creatures.

Osprey

Known as fish-hawks, these raptors can often be found gliding on their five-foot wingspan around coastal areas.

Pacific Giant Salamander

The Pacific giant salamander is an indicator species, and thus is an important marker of ecosystem health.

Pacific Salmon

The pacific salmon plays a vital role in maintaining our ecosystem balance in British Columbia.

Pacific treefrog

Pacific treefrogs are usually about 5 centimetres long full grown. They can be green, bronze, grey, and all colours in between.

Painted Turtle

Painted turtles are famous for their basking behaviour, sometimes piling on top of each other to warm up in the sun’s rays.

Peale's Peregrine Falcon

Falcons are carnivores gifted with the art of the hunt. They have exceptional eyesight, with sharp talons and beaks.

Pika

Small, brown, and fuzzy, pikas are a relative of the rabbit. They have short, round ears and short limbs.

Pine Siskin

Pine siskins are small birds that resemble a sparrow when perched and measure only 4.25 inches long.

Porcupine

Porcupines play a crucial role in the establishment of forests and the development of ecosystems. Porcupines eat mostly the inner bark of trees, but sometimes tender leaves and stems.

Red-Breasted Sapsucker

Sapsuckers drill holes in rows across trees. They get their name from the sap they drink, along with insects that are stuck in the sap.

Red-tailed hawk

Red-tailed hawks have many different colour patterns in both light and dark phases, but most adults have a red-coloured tail and a light belly with a dark band across it.

River Otter

River otters have a unique gift for communication! They communicate via speech, smell, touch and body language.

Rough-skinned newt

These newts are small, less than 10 centimetres long, and have a dark back and a yellow or orange belly.

Sandhill Crane

Sandhill cranes are one of the oldest living bird species in the world. Fossils of the sandhill crane date back over 10 million years!

Sharp-Tailed Grouse

This grouse species has an extravagant mating dance that is performed on mating grounds known as leks.

Snow Bunting

Snow buntings are a kind of sparrow. They are an important part of the ecosystem and food chain.

Solitary Sandpiper

Solitary sandpipers eat from the shallow waters and muddy shores of marshes, finding frogs, spiders, crustaceans, and a variety of insects.

Spotted Bat

Spotted bats have a great gift of communication. In fact, they use their communication skills to see through echolocation.

Spotted Owl

The spotted owl is an indicator species for old-growth forests. This means it indicates the health of the ecosystem.

Spruce Grouse

Spruce grouse are unique in that they like to live in regenerating forests. They play an important part in the restoration of ecosystems after disturbance.

Tailed Frog

They are one of the longest living frogs in the world! The adults don’t mate until they are seven or eight years old, and some tailed frogs can live for 20 years.

Three-Toed Woodpecker

True to their name, the woodpeckers peck at wood to get to the delicious insects that live under the bark of various trees.

Trumpeter Swan

The trumpeter swan is the heaviest living bird native to North America, and one of the largest flying birds on the planet!

Tundra Shrew

Tundra shrews are insectivores, meaning that they mainly eat insects. Like most shrews, they eat worms, insects, some grasses, and flowers.

Western Jumping Mouse

Western jumping mice hibernate during the winter and spend most of their days in the summer building up fat reserves for this dormant period.

Western Sandpiper

These birds are important for shoreline and coastal ecosystems. They like to eat small aquatic animals, including worms, shellfish, and insects.

Western Screech Owl

The western screech owl is a unique being that lives in low-elevation, woodland areas adjacent to streams.

White Tailed Deer

The deer will band together during the winter when food is scarce, as the snow may be high and feeding areas may be limited.

White-Tailed Ptarmigan

Ptarmigans change the colour of their feathers in winter and summer so they can blend in with their habitat and be protected from predators.

Wolverine

Wolverines are in the weasel family, but are shaped more like a small bear. Wolverines are carnivores, usually scavenging rather than hunting.

Wood Frog

Wood frogs eat mostly worms, insects, snails, and other small creatures, but they have also been known to eat small frogs.

Woodland caribou

Woodland caribou are found in the Yukon, Northwest Territories and in central/northern B.C. with a pocket in the Central Interior’s Chilcotin.

Yellow Pine Chipmunk

The yellow pine chipmunk eats mainly seeds and nuts and scampers up pine trees to retrieve the seeds available in their cones.

Yellow-Bellied Marmot

Marmots create rock burrows in the ground that they use to keep themselves cool during the day and to provide protection from predators.

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