The pink salmon is a medium-sized salmon that lives in the Arctic and Pacific Oceans. The average pink salmon weighs about 4.8 pounds, but the current world record weighed 15 pounds and was 30 inches long. The pink salmon is anadromous, meaning it lives in saltwater and swims into freshwater to spawn. It always goes back to the stream in which it was born. The salmon makes a redd, which means “nest,” and guards it until it dies, which happens shortly after the salmon spawns.

The sea cucumber is an echinoderm that lives on the ocean floor around the world. Its size ranges from 3 mm. to 10 ft. long! The sea cucumber uses hollow tube feet to move. If a sea cucumber wants to squeeze into a crack, it can liquefy its body to pour through. The sea cucumber can make long jumps, up to 1,000 m. (3,300 ft.) off the seafloor. The sea cucumber feeds on detritus and plankton. It feeds by burying itself in the sand and sticking out its mouthparts to grab prey.

Pisaster ochraceus is a sea star with five arms. These arms can grow up to 10 in. long. Its color ranges from yellow to reddish-purple. The purple sea star can attach itself to a rock whenever waves threaten to carry it away. It uses its tube feet to accomplish this, and these feet also aid in prying California mussels open, the sea star’s favorite food. It also eats chitons, limpets, snails, and barnacles. The purple sea star has another way to eat. It can insert its digesti

©2025 by Joshua Venturo Dolichovespula maculate is native to southern Canada and the northern United States, but it is most common in the southeastern US. It prefers the forest, where it builds a nest about 23 inches long, high in a tree. The bald-faced hornet is very protective of this nest, and can sting and also spray venom into the eyes of anything or anyone who comes near. Its diet is omnivorous, including spiders, caterpillars, flies, fruit, and nectar, which it feeds t

The caribou is a large, deer-like mammal that lives in Alaska, Canada, and parts of Washington and Idaho. There are several different types of caribou, including the barren-ground caribou of the north and the woodland caribou of the south. The barren-ground caribou prefers tundra, while the woodland caribou lives in boreal forests. The caribou’s antlers are large, growing up to 53 inches long. A caribou’s diet consists mainly of lichen, but it also eats willows and birches. D

Cyanocitta stelleri is a bright blue jay native to western Canada, the western United States, and along the Rocky Mountains, even into Mexico. This bird is hard to confuse with other birds because of its color and its crest, which is bigger in the northern parts of its range. The average size is 12-13 inches (30-34 cm.) long and 3.5-4.9 ounces (100-140 g.) in weight. This bird inhabits coniferous forests throughout its range. Its diet includes seeds berries, fruit, rodents,