school energy&environment

Animals of the taiga

Mammals living in the taiga include foxes, lynxes, bears, minks, squirrels, while larger ones include grey wolves and their preys: caribou, reindeers and moose. In winter, wolves hunt these herbivores in packs, often dividing themselves into two groups to encircle their preys before attacking them. Sometimes, either group upsets the herd of preys, and the other one creeps up on them. Nevertheless, only the young, wounded or older specimens are taken, while adults are spared. During the harsh winter, the majority of these mammals live within the forest, sheltered by the vegetation. The species that do not hibernate have adjusted somehow to move nimbly on snow. Reindeers and moose, for instance, have large and flat hooves on which they distribute their weight better. Similarly adjusted legs can also be found in Arctic hares, lynches and wood grouses.
The American beaver is a mammal living near water streams, where deciduous trees (trees that shed their leaves in some seasons), such as poplars, birches and willows, grow. Beavers are ecologically very interesting, since they can substantially change the vegetation; they feed on the bark of some types of trees, often causing them to die, and fell some trees to make liars and river dams. The entrance to their lair is always underwater, while the inner room is dry; the lair diameter can measure up to 1 m and 40-50 cm high. If steep banks are not available, beavers prefer to build “huts”, which can sometimes be very big. Beavers are not only good at building liars and huts, but also to make canals to reach their feeding places under cover.
These rodents store wood inside their lairs to live on during the winter. Even when water is frozen, beavers live inside their lairs, protected by such predators as the wolverine, a fairly big predator that can climb up and drop unexpectedly on passing victims.