Vulcan, County Flora & Fauna (Plant and Animal Life)

Grass is tough – the toughest stuff around – and that’s what Vulcan County is made of. Throughout the county you will see wide stretches of flat, sometimes rolling landscape, a mixture of cultivated and native grasses.

You have entered the grassland zone!

As you gaze across the thousands of acres of grassland around Vulcan County, at first glance, you might not realize what a diverse environment the prairies are. Most of what you’ll see at first, is cultivated grasslands, seeded by the county’s farmers, producing food that goes to many parts of the world. But natural grasslands are important too. Every part of a grass plant provides food for some kind of animal, from insects and birds to small animals and ungulates (large hoofed mammals). At first glance, you may see little life on the grasslands, but look closer, there is a lot happening, beneath the ground where animals and insects burrow to escape enemies, fire and extreme temperatures. Vulcan County is a great place to find lots of plants and animals in a variety of habitats, or homes.

Your mission:
To search for ecosystems and discover where their inhabitants find food, water, shelter and space in which to live. Some wonderful natural areas to explore in Vulcan County are: Little Bow Provincial Park, Wyndham Carseland Provincial Park, the Lake McGregor Nature Walk in Milo and the McFarland Nature Trail in Carmangay. As you travel, think about the core of all life – energy. It is the common thread that binds all organisms, from mushrooms to butterflies to human beings.

Endless Energy:
The sun fuels every living thing on Earth. It is the key to all life. Through interconnecting food chains, or food webs, energy flows from one organism to another. The chains start at the most basic stage, where plants with chlorophyll, called producers, convert sunlight to useable energy through photosynthesis. These plants then provide life energy to the consumers, almost every non-green living thing on Earth. Remember, chains and webs are important, but the connection between living things is often less obvious (though equally important). For example, insects pollinate many different plants. Decomposing animals provide nutrients for the soil. And some creatures take over where others leave off – like burrowing owls, which live in badgers’ and ground squirrels’ abandoned holes.
In Vulcan County there are lots of chances to see plants and animals. Watch for birds of prey, pelicans, coyotes, cormorants, pronghorn antelope, mule deer, wildflowers, cactus and much much more.

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FUN FACTS: Vulcan County Animal Life Trivia:

• -Some kinds of grasshoppers and crickets hear through holes on their front legs – ears on their knees!
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• -The red fox can leap up to 7.5 metres as it pounces downhill toward its prey. It uses its cunning to avoid being preyed upon by coyotes.
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• -The meadow vole, like the farmer, will harvest and dry grasses and then store them for winter use.
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• -The pronghorn antelope has been recorded at speeds of up to 100 km/h and at sustained speed of 72 km/h over a distance of 6 km.
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• -The burrowing owl can defend itself by hiding in the back of its burrow and hissing like a rattlesnake to scare off predators.
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• - The ladybug isn’t a bug, but is a ladybird beetle. IT can flap its paper-thin flying wings almost 100 times per second flying from plant to plant, gobbling up aphids.
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• - The garter sake has small teeth for hanging onto slippery prey, such as wood frogs. In turn, it is eaten by most meat-eating animals. Even robins eat worm-sized baby garter snakes.
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• - The heron uses its knife like beak to catch unsuspecting fish, frogs and salamander larvae.
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• - The caddisfly makes a home out of twigs, rocks, aquatic plants and debris, and guess what – it carries the home on its back!
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• - Birds use their wings, feathers and feet in the same way a plane uses its wings and engines. A bird uses its wings and feet to produce thrust and lift during takeoff by pushing down and then once airborne, the feathers on the wings are moved to fly upward, to float on the air currents or to slow down. The feathers on a bird’s wings are arranged so that the top surface curves upward for extra lift by making the air on the upper surface of the wings move faster, which will create a lower pressure above the wings allowing lift.
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  - The canvasback duck can avoid danger by traveling great distances underwater.
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  - Northern pike fish are voracious eaters, consuming almost anything they can catch, growing up to 48 inches in length, and weighing up to 23 kg!
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  - April through September is the best time of year to spot American White Pelican, which are common on Lake MacGregor.
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  - Richardson’s Ground Squirrel: User of Scientific Theory: Even Vulcan’s squirrels use science in their everyday life! Richardson’s ground squirrels (commonly known as gophers) cool their tunnels with the science of the Bernouli principle – the same principle used in aircraft design and bird flight. Ground squirrels make a mound of dirt around the entrance to some of their tunnels. The air speeds up as it passes over them, causing an area of lower pressure over the hole and drawing air out of the tunnel like a fan. The other end of the tunnel is not mounded, so… in flows the fresh air!

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HABITATS:

Ditchbanks:
The easiest habitats to study while traveling through the Vulcan area are the ditchbanks and roadsides – wonderful areas for seeing insects and plant adaptations. Ditchbanks and roadsides are examples of disturbed ecosystems. After a site is disturbed, changes take place. Species of plants, animals and insects which cannot survive die off, leaving only the most adaptable. The first plants to grow back must often tolerate greatly reduced nutrient supplies. Plants with nitrogen-fixing capacities (such as the buffalo bean), tend to grow back first, followed by other plants which need more nutrients to succeed. Large colonies of just one plant species often occur, compared with more varied plant communities in climax (mature) ecosystems. As you explore, ask yourself: would a disturbed community be as stable as one with a greater diversity of plants?

Good news, bad news
Both native and cultivated grasslands have to be tough, surviving extreme weather changes. Chinooks, caused by warm pacific air from the mountains, can raise the temperature by 15 – 20 degrees Celsius in less than 24 hours. Melting snow cover helps the antelope, which depend on open grazing areas, but often hurts spring-emergent forbs (soft non-grass plants, like the crocus), which are killed when the warm Chinook is replaced by freezing winter conditions.

The Riparian Zone:
Fires, abrasive winds and the dense root fabrics of prairie grasses all combine to exclude trees from the grasslands areas. But, on your Trek around the harsh prairies, you may suddenly enter an oasis of trees, signaling a journey into the riparian zone – a cool green retreat from surrounding grasslands.

Think of the riparian zone as a drop-in centre, providing cover and food for many species. It is the habitat bordering streams and rivers, and is critically important to many fish, plants and wildlife. Wyndham Carseland Provincial Park is an excellent place to explore the riparian zone, as is the nature trail at Carmangay.

Rivers vary in speed, width and depth, as they travel from mountain to sea. Through their course, many different habitats are created. What do you think the Vulcan County rivers look like near their source in the mountains? What animals might you see? How about later as the waters flow to the South Saskatchewan River, as the river gets slower, deeper and wider? Look for forest or river adaptations. Leafhoppers look very much like the leaves they settle on. Several other spiders and insects camouflage themselves on bark. Crossbills have beaks that are adapted for easy extraction of conifer seeds. How many others can you discover? Watch for tracks and signs. Turn over rocks. How many types of insect and animal homes can you find?

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Wetlands – let’s get our feet wet!
When you come to a place where the muddy ground is wet or covered by shallow water, you have entered another habitat common to Vulcan County – the wetlands. The wetlands, with green plants growing outside and half-in, half-out of the water, is one of the world’s most productive environments. A haven for wildlife, both visible and hidden, wetlands are often transitional habitats between solid ground and bodies of standing or flowing deep water and provide part-time homes for life from both deep water and high ground. Various types of wetlands overlap and interact with each other.

Wetlands exist in many forms and in many locations in Vulcan County. The biggest is definitely Lake McGregor, but how about the smallest county wetland – the pothole? These depressions are a result of glacial melting. Some provide a permanent source of water, but most rely on spring rains to fill up. In drought years they will remain dry, but add a little water, and presto! A favourite waterfowl nesting area!

Have you noticed any freshwater marshes? They look like shallow weedy ponds and are usually FULL of ducks and other waterfowl.

Thousands of plants and animals rely on Vulcan County’s wetlands. Wetlands are often referred to as “staging areas” for many birds. This means they provide a critical habitat for one or more “stages” in a bird’s life, like nesting, breeding, feeding and gathering for migration. Upland sites are also important! Many people think that if you have water you have good waterfowl nesting habitat; however, the majority of ducks nest in the uplands around water bodies.

Why not make many trips to Vulcan County’s wetlands throughout the year – look for different types of birds at different times.

FAST FACTS – Vulcan County Plant life:

• - First Nations people used the flowering of the poisonous buffalo bean (or golden bean) as a sign that the buffalo bulls were fat and ready for the spring hunt.
• - The berries or fruit of the prickly pear cactus are edible and the barb (spine) of the plant is a specialized leaf. You can see excellent examples of Prickly Pear Cactus at Little Bow Provincial Park.

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