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All About Minnesota Wildlife:
The Whitetail Deer is Minnesota's
most popular wildlife species. Each year, roughly 500,000 hunters
harvest roughly 200,000.
Deer are amazing creatures. They can run at speeds of up to 40 miles
per hour and leap over an 8-foot-tall fence.
Adult female white-tailed deer weigh about 145 pounds, males 170.
The heaviest whitetail ever recorded in the United States was a
500-pound Minnesota buck.
The Black Bear was originally
found throughout Minnesota, but now occurs only in northern
woodlands. Bears lead solitary lives except when females are rearing
their young, or when concentrations of food bring bears together.
Before European settlement, grizzly bears also roamed in what is
today Minnesota, mainly in the western prairies. Grizzlies have been
extirpated (locally extinct) from Minnesota for more than 150 years.
An adult black bear weighs between 250 and 300 pounds and stands two
to three feet at the shoulders. Coat color may vary from light brown
to deep black.
The black bear is omnivorous, eating grasses, fruits, berries, buds
or leaves, nuts, insects and their larvae, and on small animals,
deer fawns, and carrion. Less than ten percent of a bear's food is
animal matter.
During hibernation, a female will give birth to one to four young.
At birth, cubs weigh eight to ten ounces and are hairless. They grow
rapidly, weigh about five pounds by the time they leave the den, and
60 to 100 pounds by their first year.
A full-grown Moose weighs as
much as four or five full-grown deer. It's Minnesota's largest
animal.
Moose is an Algonquin word meaning twig-eater, and indeed the big
mammal eats a massive amount of twigs and other browse.
A Minnesota or Canada bull moose weights around 800-900 pounds,
which is small compared to an Alaskan bull moose, which can weigh up
to 1,800 pounds. Its coat is usually dark brown to almost black.
Adults have a shoulder hump and a flap of skin--called a bell or
dewlap--hanging below the throat.
Bulls carry antlers which become palmated (flat and extended) after
the third year.
Moose have long legs and spreading hooves that help them in marshes
and deep snow. They have poor eyesight but great senses of smell and
hearing. They are also excellent swimmers and have been known to
cross lakes more than a mile wide.
Minnesota has 23 species of ducks
and geese.
Ducks
Ducks are divided into two groups:
Puddle ducks live in shallow marshes (puddles) and rivers and feed
by dabbling. You can often see their bottoms tipped up as they feed
in the shallows. These ducks also feed often in grain fields. Puddle
ducks are able to lift off from water or land immediately.
Minnesota puddle ducks are the mallard, green-winged teal,
blue-winged teal, cinnamon teal, pintail, gadwall, wigeon, shoveler,
wood duck, and black duck.
Diving ducks spend their time in large, deep lakes and rivers. They
feed on fish, shellfish, mollusks, and aquatic plants by diving,
often to deep depths. They can swim long distances underwater by
kicking their large paddle feet. Diving ducks can't launch from
water straight into the air like puddle ducks can. Instead, they
patter along the water surface for several yards before becoming
airborne.
Minnesota diving ducks are the canvasback, redhead, ringneck (also
called ringbill), scaup (also called bluebill), goldeneye,
bufflehead, and ruddy duck.
Geese
There are several species of geese that can be hunted in Minnesota:
The largest is the Canada goose. Those that nest in Minnesota are
called the "giant" subspecies and can weigh up to 16 pounds. Those
that migrate through in spring and fall are the Eastern Prairie
Population subspecies. These smaller Canada geese (6 to 8 pounds)
breed in Manitoba and fly south through western Minnesota in the
fall to winter in Missouri.
Minnesota also sees some snow, blue, and white-fronted geese. The
blue goose, which is gray, is a color phase of the snow goose, which
is white with black wing tips. White-fronted geese, also called "specklebellies"
or "specs" are the same size as snows and blues and are often found
flying with these other geese in massive flocks of up to several
thousand birds.
Mergansers
Other huntable birds categorized as waterfowl are the red-breasted,
common, and hooded mergansers. Mergansers are fish-eating birds that
often fly in a straight line. Their beaks are much narrower than a
duck's.
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