Answers About Wildlife

Sample Answers to Specific questions: Animals
Note to teachers: Many people (not just children) tend to use the words “animal” and “mammal” in the same context. It might be worthwhile to clarify for students that living things are generally divided into two broad categories (at least in the early years) as plants and animals. (This is a gross simplification. Currently there are 6 groups of living things: Plants, Animals, Protista, Fungi, Eubacteria and Archea. A web search can easily supply you with information on each of these.)

Within the “animal kingdom” students should consider all of the groups of animals: invertebrates (insects and spiders), fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. All of these categories have representative species in the posted videos.

How can the animals in these videos be classified? See PDF below.
What does each group of animals have in common? (I.e. covering, body parts, food selection, needs) See PDF below
Which animals are shown using plants for food? Black bear, American robin, White-tailed deer
How do the animals move about? Birds: fly, hop, walk, swim Deer, Bear, Coyote: walk, run Beaver, Muskrat: walk, swim Butterflies & Insects: Walk, fly Toads and Frogs: walk, hop, swim
Which animals do you think might be found where you live? Answer will depend on the habitats that surround a student’s home.
Which animals migrate north and south? Grebe, Cormorant, Robin, Great Blue Heron, Wood duck, Canada Goose, Bald eagle, Osprey, Gnatcatcher.
Why do they do this? They do so to ensure accessibility to food resources and to escape the cold of winter.

Answers to Specific Questions” White-tailed Deer

How are white-tail deer adapted to their environment? Some of the ways are: The colour of the white-tailed deer coat blends in well with their forest and edge habitats. They walk on their toes which helps them run faster to escape predators. They have excellent eyesight and hearing. They are ruminants which means that can feed quickly on plants and then retire to the safety of the forest to chew their cud.
Why are fawns spotted? White-tail fawns are hiders. They do not follow their mother until a few weeks after they are born. The spots help camouflage them. They can have nearly 300 spots!
When are fawns born? In Southern Ontario most births occur at the end of May and early June. Why then? Spring is an ideal time for these births. There are lots of plants for their mothers to feed on (needed to produce milk) and lots of cover for the fawns to hind in.
What habitats do whitetails prefer? White-tailed deer are generalists when it comes to habitat preferences. They can be found in mixed forests, open plains, farmlands and even tropical forests.
What is the rut? The rut is the term used for the breeding season of large ungulates such as deer, moose, elk and bison. For white-tails it begins in late August when the bucks lose their velvet and their male hormones become active. The males bulk up and begin to seek out the females. Compare the males shown in the summer video with those shown in the fall video. Note the following changes: Velvet is gone, antlers are hard, their coat colour has changed, and the buck’s necks are swollen and much larger in the fall. Actual mating occurs in November and December.
What are antlers? Antlers are boney growths on the head of members of the deer family (North American deer are: white-tail deer, mule deer, black-tailed deer, elk, moose and caribou). They are deciduous which means that like some tree leaves they fall off and then regrow each year. How do they grow? A buck’s antlers fall off in early winter. They start growing again in late winter under a covering of skin known as “velvet”. Blood carries calcium to the antler but unlike most bones there is no marrow in antlers. At first the antlers are tender and can be bruised but late August they are hard and the velvet is scraped off.
Do whitetails migrate? Yes but in Southern Ontario it is not very far. They seek food and shelter. Riverwood’s deer live within an area of about 15 kilometers squared.

(See also Deer World, Dave Taylor, Boston Mills Press, 2008: ISBN: 978-1550465013)

Sample Answers to Specific Questions: Salmon T
he videos focusing on the Credit River salmon represent the first major themed-set of videos in this series. Many of the questions posed here are answered in the support material available on line or in the video.

How many types of salmon are there in North America? 6 Species: Atlantic salmon, Chum, Sockeye, Chinook, Pink, Coho
How can these species be grouped? Atlantic species that do not die upon spawning for the first time (Atlantic salmon) and Pacific salmon all of which die after their first spawning run (Chum, Sockeye, Chinook, Pink, Coho). Note: the Salmon Family (Salmonidae) also includes various species of whitefish, trout (including lake trout), Arctic char and graylings. All are freshwater breeders. Other members of this family found in the upper reaches if the Credit include brown trout and brook trout. Lake trout are found in the lake. Atlantic salmon are more closely related to lake trout than they are to the Pacific salmon. The rainbow (or steelhead) trout is related to the Pacific salmon.
What is the major difference between Atlantic and Pacific salmon? See above
What is the salmon migration? The migration begins when the salmon hatch. The eggs take about 3 months to hatch. The hatchlings called alevin feed off of their yolk sacks for several weeks. Between 5 to 10 weeks the fry are swimming. Parr spend several months in the river. Smolt enter the ocean when they are 1 to 3 years old depending on the species. Adults spend 1 to 8 years in the ocean (or lake). Pacific Spawning adults die after spawning. This is the full migration but we see only the spawning run and refer to it as the salmon migration.
When does it occur? If you want to see the spawning run of the Chinook salmon in the Credit River it occurs sometime between late August and December. The exact timing depends on when a heavy rainfall occurs. The flooding river washes the scent of the river into the lake and this sell is something the fish remember. They then head up river to spawn.
What is spawning? The female selects a male to mate with. She uses her tail to clear out mud and silt from a gravel bed and then releases her eggs. Milt? Milt is male sperm. He releases it into the water and the sperm and eggs meet to fertilize the eggs. Redd? The clean gravel bed where the eggs will hatch.
When were Chinook salmon introduced into the Great Lakes? 1950’s in Lake Michigan
Why were Chinook salmon introduced into the Great Lakes? To provide a viable sport fishing industry.
What other salmon were introduced into the Great Lakes? Coho, Pink
How did people think they could manage them? The fish were stocked from fish hatcheries. Biologists thought if they just stopped releasing more fish the introduced fish would die off because the rivers were too polluted. Did this prove to be the case? No. Why? Why not? The fish were able to breed in some streams.
What happened to the Ontario salmon? It was a land-locked race of Atlantic salmon that entered Lake Ontario at the end of the last ice age. As the water receded it was stuck here. When the settlers dammed up the streams (the Credit had 16 dams) the fishes spawning habitat was destroyed. They became extirpated in the late 1800’s.
What are the problems with reintroducing them? The smell of dead salmon along the river certainly got many complaints however the main issue was the impact of the introduced salmon on the native species. Since Atlantic salmon do not die after spawning the hope was that they would replace the introduced salmon species. However another fish from the Atlantic entered Lake Ontario via the Erie Canal/ Hudson River waterway. The alewife is a small fish but when Atlantic salmon fed on these fish there was an unexpected side-effect. Chemicals in the alewife’s body caused the Atlantic salmon to be unable to deposit fertile eggs.
Can these salmon be consumed? Yes but only the smaller fish, not large ones and even these should not be eaten by women who are planning to have children. The fish carry pollutants that they picked up while feeding on Lake Ontario. Check the fishing regulations for more specific guidelines.
What effect do they have on the river’s ecosystem? The salmon of all species provide recreational activities for the public; fishing, fish viewing. They are an important source of food for wildlife ranging from insects, crayfish, other fish, birds and mammals. They provided needed nutrients for the river and for both aquatic and terrestrial plants. They help control lamprey eel populations. On the negative side the dead fish are smelly. The living fish compete with native species and they are an invasive species.
What are the fishing regulations around salmon? Please visit the two sites below for up to date regulations as these may change.

www.ontario.ca/document/2015-ontario-fishing-regulations-summary
http://www.creditvalleyca.ca/enjoy-the-outdoors/activities/fishing/fishing-regulations/

Answers about wildlife