Animal Life in Jasper National Park: The Rocky Mountain Region
Over two million visitors from around the world visit Jasper National Park, which is located in the Rocky Mountain Region of Alberta, every year. More people means hotels, campgrounds and recreation sites are busier. About half the people working in Jasper are in businesses related to tourism. Everyone wants to hike and bike the trails. They also want to see the wildlife, such as mountain sheep, mountain goats, foxes, wolves, coyotes and bears.With all this activity, habitats, or the natural homes, of the animals change. Some animals try to move further away from the people. Some animals become endangered. This means they are at risk of disappearing.Many people in Jasper National Park work to keep a balance between protecting nature and animal life, while allowing people to enjoy the park.
Over two million visitors from around the world visit Jasper National Park, which is located in the Rocky Mountain Region of Alberta, every year. More people means hotels, campgrounds and recreation sites are busier. About half the people working in Jasper are in businesses related to tourism. Everyone wants to hike and bike the trails. They also want to see the wildlife, such as mountain sheep, mountain goats, foxes, wolves, coyotes and bears.With all this activity, habitats, or the natural homes, of the animals change. Some animals try to move further away from the people. Some animals become endangered. This means they are at risk of disappearing.Many people in Jasper National Park work to keep a balance between protecting nature and animal life, while allowing people to enjoy the park.
Black Bear
Black bears are North America's most common bears. They usually live in forests and are excellent tree climbers, but are also found in mountains and swamps. Despite their name, black bears can be blue-gray or blue-black, brown, cinnamon, or even (very rarely) white.
Black bears mostly eat grasses, roots, berries, and insects. They will also eat fish and mammals. They easily develop a taste for human foods and garbage. Bears who become used to human food at campsites, cabins, or rural homes can become dangerous and are often killed. Please don't feed the bears!
When winter arrives, black bears spend the season dormant in their dens, feeding on body fat they have built up by eating all summer and fall. They make their dens in caves, burrows, brush piles, or other sheltered spots—sometimes even in tree holes high
above the ground.
Female black bears give birth to two or three blind, helpless cubs in mid-winter and nurse them in the den until spring, when all emerge in search of food. The cubs will stay with their very protective mother for about two years.
Grizzly Bear
As winter approaches, brown bears—often called grizzly bears—prepare for a long hibernation. During the fall, a brown bear eats practically around the clock, stocking up for the four to seven months when it'll have to live off stored body fat. A grizzly may chow down on 90 pounds (40 kilograms) of food each day. As the cold swoops in, the fattened bear waddles into a den among rocks or one it dug out among tree roots. As it falls into a deep sleep, the bear's heart rate drops from about 40 beats a minute to as low as 8 beats a minute. All the bear's body functions slow down.
The female brown bear enters her den pregnant with one (sometimes two or three) baby bears. Mama bear doesn't even wake up as her blind and hairless cub is born midwinter. The tiny bear, about the size of a chipmunk, is just strong enough to crawl into a position where it settles in to nurse. By the time the adult grizzly wakes up in the spring, her baby is strong enough to follow her out of the den. Cubs live with their mothers for up to three years, and then they're usually ready to face life on their own.
Mountain Goat
Mountain goats are not true goats—but they are close relatives. They are more properly known as goat-antelopes.
Mountain goats have cloven hooves with two toes that spread wide to improve balance. Rough pads on the bottom of each toe provide the grip of a natural climbing shoe. Mountain goats are powerful and can jump nearly 12 feet (3.5 meters) in a single bound.
Mountain goats have beards and long, warm coats to protect them from cold temperatures and mountain winds. Their dazzling white coats provide good camouflage in the snow. During the summer season goats shed this coat.
Female goats (called nannies) spend much of the year in herds with their young (called kids). These groups may include as many as 20 animals. Males (known as billies) usually live alone or with one or two other male goats.
In the spring, a nanny goat gives birth to one kid (sometimes two), which must be on its feet within minutes of arrival into its sparse mountain world. Mountain goats eat plants, grasses, mosses, and other alpine vegetation
Mountain Sheep
Bighorn males, called rams, are famous for their large, curled horns. The horns are a symbol of status and a weapon used in epic battles across the Rocky Mountains. Fighting for dominance or mating rights, males face each other, rear up on their hind legs, and hurl themselves at each other in charges of some 20 miles (32 kilometers) an hour. The clash of horns can be heard echoing through the mountains —sometimes for many hours—until one ram submits and walks away. The animal's thick, bony skull usually prevents serious injury.
A Rocky Mountain bighorn ram's horns can weigh 30 pounds (14 kilograms)—more than all the bones in his body combined. Females (ewes) also have horns, but they are of smaller size.
In winter, bighorn herds move to lower-elevation mountain pastures. In all seasons, these animals eat available grass, seeds, and plants.
Lambs are born each spring on high, ledges protected from bighorn predators such as wolves, coyotes, and mountain lions—though not the golden eagles which target lambs. Young can walk soon after birth, and at one week old each lamb and its mother join others in a herd. Lambs are playful and independent, though their mothers nurse them for four to six months.
Bighorn males, called rams, are famous for their large, curled horns. The horns are a symbol of status and a weapon used in epic battles across the Rocky Mountains. Fighting for dominance or mating rights, males face each other, rear up on their hind legs, and hurl themselves at each other in charges of some 20 miles (32 kilometers) an hour. The clash of horns can be heard echoing through the mountains —sometimes for many hours—until one ram submits and walks away. The animal's thick, bony skull usually prevents serious injury.
A Rocky Mountain bighorn ram's horns can weigh 30 pounds (14 kilograms)—more than all the bones in his body combined. Females (ewes) also have horns, but they are of smaller size.
In winter, bighorn herds move to lower-elevation mountain pastures. In all seasons, these animals eat available grass, seeds, and plants.
Lambs are born each spring on high, ledges protected from bighorn predators such as wolves, coyotes, and mountain lions—though not the golden eagles which target lambs. Young can walk soon after birth, and at one week old each lamb and its mother join others in a herd. Lambs are playful and independent, though their mothers nurse them for four to six months.
Elk
Elk are also called wapiti, a Native American word that means "light-colored deer." Elk are related to deer but are much larger than most of their relatives. A bull (male) elk's antlers may reach 4 feet (1.2 meters) above its head, so that the animal towers 9 feet (2.7 meters) tall.
Bull elk lose their antlers each March, but they begin to grow them back in May.
In early summer, elk migrate to high mountain grazing grounds where the cows (females) will give birth. Each cow typically has a single calf, which can stand by the time it is 20 minutes old.
During the late summer breeding season the bugling of bull elk echoes through the mountains. These powerful animals strip the velvet off their new antlers. Males with the bigger antlers, typically older animals, usually win these battles and dominate small herds.
Elk are also called wapiti, a Native American word that means "light-colored deer." Elk are related to deer but are much larger than most of their relatives. A bull (male) elk's antlers may reach 4 feet (1.2 meters) above its head, so that the animal towers 9 feet (2.7 meters) tall.
Bull elk lose their antlers each March, but they begin to grow them back in May.
In early summer, elk migrate to high mountain grazing grounds where the cows (females) will give birth. Each cow typically has a single calf, which can stand by the time it is 20 minutes old.
During the late summer breeding season the bugling of bull elk echoes through the mountains. These powerful animals strip the velvet off their new antlers. Males with the bigger antlers, typically older animals, usually win these battles and dominate small herds.
Coyote
Adult coyotes measure from 23 to 25 inches (58 to 64 centimeters) high at the shoulder and are 3.4 to 4.3 feet (1 to 1.3 meters) long. Adult coyotes weigh between 20 and 50 pounds. That's about the weight of a medium-size dog. Coyotes can woof softly, growl, bark, howl, and sing in a chorus. They communicate with 11 different sounds, as well as with body language and scent.
A coyote can easily change its behavior to survive in a new place. A coyote is naturally adaptable because it eats such a wide range of food. If it can't find mice or voles to eat, lizards, insects, or even garbage will do.Coyotes eat almost everything: mice, voles, rabbits, insects, fish, frogs, snakes, lizards, grasses, nuts, and all sorts of dead animals.
In Native American stories coyotes are clever and tricky. This reputation is based on fact. Coyotes may scan the sky for ravens flying in circles. Coyotes know that the birds often hover over a dead animal, so finding the birds frequently leads to finding a free meal.
Female coyotes select den sites and give birth from 1 to 12 pups in spring. Both parents care for the pups. Parents chew food and swallow it. Then they bring it up again to feed the pups.
Gray Wolf
The howl of a gray wolf isn't only a mysterious sound in the wilderness. Howling sends other wolves a message. It might mean "I'm here, where are you?" or "Stay away from my territory." Wolves live in groups called packs. The wolves' communication skills are very important to the pack's survival. Wolves work together to hunt, raise their young, and protect their territory. Wolves communicate with more than howls: They whimper and whine, growl and bark, yelp and snarl. Wolves have an excellent sense of smell, and they use scents produced by their bodies to communicate, too.
When a wolf wants to play, it prances about happily and bows—lowering the front of its body while its rump stays up in the air with its tail wagging. A wolf's body language may remind you of another animal: a pet dog. Wolves and dogs are closely related, and the ways they communicate are similar.Wolf pups play a lot as they're growing. They leap and pounce, chase and wrestle, play hide-and-seek and tag—a lot like you do! While they're having fun, they're also practicing skills they'll need when they're adults. By playing, they learn how to communicate and get along with each other. Their games provide practice for hunting techniques.
A wolf pack is generally made up of an adult male and female pair (a mother and a father) and their young. Sometimes unrelated wolves join a pack, but the parents are usually the leaders. They tend to be the strongest and smartest wolves in the group. Young wolves stay in their parents' pack for at least two or three years before some of them take off to join other packs or to start their own.