[...]... little about the creatures who live there They hurry across the portages and paddle across the lakes so quickly that they miss a good share of the intrigue and the beauty of the wildlife around them This friendly field guide Canoe Country Wildlife is a field guide to the most commonly encountered mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, insects and other invertebrates native to the Boundary Waters Canoe. .. act as a "bear"icade, and watched the show The other guide had insisted that I was hanging the food pack too low, but I had countered that there was no way a bear 4 MAM M ALS could reach it This one, however, was a big Black Bear Standing on his hind legs, he latched his claws into the faded green canvas and yanked it clean from the tree as if snatching a sock off a clothesline We took bets on what would... that operates on a dominance hierarchy within the structure of an extended family The leaders of the pack, the alpha male and the alpha female, are dominant over all other pack members and are the only breeders Hierarchy equals harmony in this family When all know their status within the pack, infighting is curtailed For example, a hypothetical, hierarchical, harmonious pack has just killed a Moose Alpha... lakes, many connected to one another by overland portages, create an amazing 1200-mile labyrinth of mapped canoe routes Ontario's Quetico Provincial Park was granted wilderness status and protection in 1973 The Quetico's forests are also laced with a myriad of clear blue lakes and small rivers Lake Saganaga, Knife Lake, Basswood, and Lac la Croix form the 100-mile international border between the Boundary. .. will, therefore, be useful from Alaska and British Columbia to Quebec and New England, as well as around the upper Great Lakes Bring it with you on journeys to Yosemite, Yellowstone, Banff, Algonquin Park, the Allagash, or the Adirondack Mountains—as well as on your excursions through Northern Wisconsin, Upper Michigan, and the Boundary Waters and Quetico wilderness Read and enjoy the essays Try out the. .. clues to how the animals live Watch the clock and the seasons Like humans, animals develop a predictable rhythm to their days—regular times for eating, singing, exercising, playing, and resting The seasonal cycles also occur regularly and predictably from year to year Pay attention to the timing of what you observe Then set your wildlife watching schedule in line with what you have learned Attract the wildlife. .. years ago, and I can "bear"-ly remember it I, an assistant guide, and seven hardcore juvenile delinquents from Chicago camped on a lake along the Granite River route My fellow guide and I sat up late discussing tomorrow's itinerary, and suddenly we heard the telltale snap of twigs, which in the canoe country can mean only one thing bear! We gathered up stones, flipped a canoe on its side to act as... is their wingspan? Use the bat chart to make an educated guess as to which kind of bat you're watching Even experts need a bat in the hand to accurately determine its species, so relax and have fun Bring a big flashlight to spotlight the action I3at guano and the U.S Army Bat guano (poop) Is harvested (mined?) from Texas caves for use as a nitrogenrich fertilizer The U.S Army also uses guano Guanlne,... extracted from guano, Is combined with sulfuric acid to form nitroguanidine, which Is used as a propellant in artillery and tank ammunition 3 CANOE COUNTRY WILDLIFE Black Bear Ursus americanus Black fur or cinnamon, blue, and brown in rare instances Adults weigh 150 to 400 pounds A s a Boundary Waters- Quetico paddler the first Black Bear you're likely to encounter will be at the campsite And that bear... blotch on the throat Members of the weasel family abound in the North Woods Identification can sometimes be confusing Otters are much larger, communal, and more aquatic The Pine Marten is solitary, like the Mink, but strictly a landlubber The Longtailed Weasel, Short-tailed Weasel, and Least Weasel are much smaller and more terrestrial The canoe country provides Mink with thousands of miles of fascinating . class="bi x0 y0 w0 h1" alt="" North Woods and Boundary Waters Wildlif A Field Guide to the CANOE COUNTRY This page intentionally left blank CANOE COUNTRY A Field Guide to the North Woods . small rivers. Lake Saganaga, Knife Lake, Basswood, and Lac la Croix form the 100-mile international border between the Boundary Waters and Quetico—between the United States and Canada. The . border. Declared a wilderness area in 1964, Minnesota& apos;s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) is the largest U.S. wilderness east of the Rocky Mountains and the most heavily used