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2009 Envirothon Wildlife Study Session

Discover fascinating details about Pennsylvania wildlife, including bobcats, foxes, otters, beavers, minks, skunks, porcupines, opossums, deer, and bears. Learn about their habitats, behaviors, and unique characteristics.

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2009 Envirothon Wildlife Study Session

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  1. 2009 EnvirothonWildlife Study Session Carey Entz Lycoming County Conservation District Watershed Specialist

  2. Wildlife Facts With Track and Skull ID #’s refer to the Wildlife Note

  3. Bobcat (#3) • Bay Lynx, Wildcat, Swamp Tiger or Red Lynx • Efficient predator with acute senses • 36” in length, and weighs 15- 20lbs • Feeds on mice, rats, squirrels, birds, rabbits • Nocturnal and Colorblind • Strong swimmer and climber • Live in dens, rock crevasses • Habitat: Mountainous areas, in deep forest and swamps

  4. Bobcat (#3)

  5. Cottontailed Rabbit (#4) • PA most popular game animal • Length 15-18” and weighs 2-3lbs • Sharp hearing and keen sense of smell • Herbivore: leaves, herbs, fruits and veggies • Favorite Foods: clover and grass • Habitat: swamps, thickets, briar patches, weedy fields, brush piles, brush gullies and overgrown fence rows. • Nest are fur and grass lined cup shaped depressions in the ground.

  6. Cottontailed Rabbit (#4)

  7. Gray Fox (#5) • Small, carnivores, found throughout PA • Extremely sharp sense of sight, smell, and hearing. • A fox can hear a mouse squeak from 150’ • The eat whatever is the easiest to obtain • Intelligent predators • 22-25” length and weighs 8-12lbs • Grizzled gray coat • Habitat: brushy swamplands, and mountainous terrain

  8. Gray Fox (#5)

  9. Red Fox (#5) • Long, Reddish-orange fur slightly darkened on the back, black ears and legs and feet; and a long bushy tail with a white tip. • Dramatic Color Variations: • Dark stripe from head down and stripe across shoulders to form a cross like pattern • All Red Foxes • Melanistic Red and Silver Foxes: are black with white tipped hairs

  10. Red Fox (#5)

  11. Raccoon (#9) • Known for being destructive; damaging crops and gardens, getting into garbage cans and raiding nest of birds. • 18-28” in length and weighs 10-30lbs, 10” tail • Noted for their bandit like appearance. • Adapted well to people and human activities • Omnivorous: fish, small mammals • Nocturnal and are well climbers

  12. Raccoon (#9)

  13. River Otter (#11) • An exclusively aquatic mammal • Belongs to the Mustelid or weasel family • Otters are very playful usually found sliding on the ice, shooting down muddy banks, playing with their food or wrestling with one another. • 30-40” in length and weights 10-25lbs • Favorite food: fish, frogs, turtles and mussels • Habitat: Clean water supporting aquatic life and fish.

  14. River Otter (#11)

  15. Beaver (#14) • North America’s Largest Rodent • Beaver fur is thick and valuable • Weighs 40-60lbs and 40” in length, • Poor vision and Acute hearing and smell • Herbivores: Aspen, Maple, Willow, Black Cherry and Birch • Dam water, and live in Lodges • Habitat: prefers creeks small enough to be dammed.

  16. Beaver (#14)

  17. Mink (#22) • Furbearer and trapped for pelts • Semi-aquatic member of the Mustelidae family • Weasels, fishers, badgers, otters and skunks • 2’ in length and weighs 1.5-2lbs, 8” tail • Excellent hearing and sight, good sense of smell • Great swimmers with webbed feet • Carnivores: mice, rabbits, frogs, and Crayfish • Habitat: edges of lakes, streams, and rivers in forested areas.

  18. Mink (#22)

  19. Stripped Skunk (#23) • AKA Polecat • 7-10” in Length and weighs 3-12lbs • Omnivorous: will eat about anything • pine needles, honey, spiders, mice, frogs • Stripes vary in length and width • Placid and sluggish creature • Den in burrows • Habitat: mixed woods, fencerows and brushlots

  20. Stripped Skunk (#23)

  21. Porcupine (#24) • Colonial name Quilled Pig • 30” in length and weighs 9-15lbs, 10” tail • North America's 2nd largest rodent • Quills are 1-4” in length may have 30,000 • Quills are replaced as they fallout • Almost blind to stationary objects • Slow and clumsy animal • Vegetarian Diet: wood, twigs, and needles • Habitat: Mixed hardwood forests

  22. Porcupine (#24)

  23. Opossum (#25) • One of the worlds oldest species of mammal • The only marsupial in our continent • Marsupials are born before they are well developed and continue to develop in the mothers pouch on her abdomen. • 24-40” in length and weighs 4-12lbs, 10” tail • Excellent climbers, and nocturnal • When threatened they play possum and exude a musky odor • Habitat: farmland and woodlands

  24. Opossum (#25)

  25. White-Tailed Deer (#28) • Spilt hoofed, ruminant animal • Ruminant: chews cud, 4 chamber stomach • Largest sub species is the Northern woodland • 70” in length and weights 140lbs • They have sent producing glands • Can run at 40mph in a short distance • Colorblind, keen sense of smell and hearing • Great jumpers: 9’ high and 25’ wide • Eat herbaceous and woody plants • Habitat: seedling-sapling forests

  26. White-Tailed Deer (#28)

  27. Black Bear (#29) • PA premier big game animal • 50-80” Length and Weighs 140-400lbs • Males are known as Bores, Female are Sows • Extremely agile and can run 30mph • Acute sense of smell, mainly nocturnal • Largely vegetarian: Fruit, nuts and plants • Hibernate in Winter • Habitat: Wooded areas, enjoy Mt. Laurel thickets

  28. Black Bear (#29)

  29. Elk (#33) • Before the white settlers came to America the Elk lived throughout the state. • By 1867 the species were ultimately extinct • Today, the inhabit Elk, Cameron and few in Clinton and Clearfield Counties. • 2nd largest member of the deer Family. • Elk can also be called “Wapiti” an Indian word for white deer. • 50-60” length and weighs 600-1000 • Males: Bull and Females: Cows

  30. Elk (#33)

  31. Eastern Coyote (#39) • Fossil records indicate coyotes have been in eastern N. America since Pleistocene period • 1 million years ago! • Highest populations are in the northern PA • 48-60” length and weigh 45-55lbs • Monogamous- mate for life • Social group animal • Habitat: mostly deep forestland, Prefers brushy cover, and forest edges

  32. Eastern Coyote (#39)

  33. More Notes… You Need to Know! We have only went over the Notes which you need to know track, skull and info based on the Wildlife Notes. There are 35 more notes you will need to know! New species this year: Bluejay, Chipmunk, Flycatchers, Snow Goose Pileated Woodpecker, Yellow Bellied Sapsucker Wildlife Notes: http://www.pgc.state.pa.us/

  34. Bird Songs Don’t forget to review Bird Songs found on the Pa Envirothon Bird Song CD! For Bird Song List : http://www.envirothonpa.org/Wildlife-Station.shtml

  35. 2009 EnvirothonWildlife Resources http://www.envirothonpa.org/Wildlife-Station.shtml

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