Many-Storied Mountains: The Life of Glacier National Park

Chapter III: Part 3

Text size

Not really goats at all, these relatives of the European mountaineering chamois are insulated from the wind by coats of long, hollow-haired fur overlying woolly underfur. They are stocky, stiff-legged, and deliberate, able to negotiate the walls and pinnacles with their superbly adapted hoofs. The unique design of these hoofs gives the animal great traction and stability on precarious crags. Opening towards the front, the cleft between the two hoofs spreads each outward as the animal descends a slope, helping to grip the rocky surface. In addition, the large, rough, and pliant sole of each foot conforms to the bare rock, increasing traction.

There is little need for the goat to leave its steep sanctuaries; it can subsist on lichens and mosses if browse is not available. It depends on the inaccessibility of the cliffs for its security. Accidents, avalanches, and rockfall are greater enemies than predators. Golden eagles sometimes attempt to knock newborn kids from ledges and a young goat quickly retreats under its nanny when an eagle soars by. With the protection of sharp spike horns and a terrifying terrain, adult goats seldom fall victim to cougar or grizzly.

It will be a long time before the snow releases this land and wapiti, bighorn, grizzly, and cougar wander back into these high basins. In this winter minimum of life, the spring songs of rosy finches, water pipits and white-crowned sparrows seem an impossible extravagance.

■ I am drawn to the spring tundra—to the vigor and tenacity of its sparse life—where survival itself seems ceremony enough. But it is a strange world, where a man is out of perspective. Here the plant cover is carpet-high, and distance, for the lack of trees, tricks the eye. Here the wind, snow, and sun quickly burn skin, and the intense light, reflected from snowbanks, stabs at the eyes. Almost instantly, a sandwich is sucked dry of its moisture. The desiccating wind probes the ears until it seems at last to pierce your brain. Except for fearful mountain walls the only shadow is your own. Animals seem somehow remote and unknowable, as if seen through glass. A day on the tundra and you feel the want of a company of trees.

Yet once exposed, you acquire a craving for the look of tundra. Nowhere else is there such an impatience for spring—the flowers rush into bloom; the male water pipit soars, its skylark song crystal sharp in the thin air. The nesting birds are restless, for sun-days and warm days are few, precious, and quickly spent. Insects and spiders abound—flying about the peaks or crawling among the rocks.

Summer brings bands of bighorn rams up from the valley to explore the highest meadows. Though not so sure-footed as the goats, they too have hoofs adapted to climbing steep faces, and they walk the slopes not far below the goats.

Marmots, which whistle sharply when threatened, spend their days sunbathing and grazing; they must fill out their now loose-hanging fur coats with life-sustaining fat for the coming winter.

Alpine animals are blessed with mobility and can choose their weathers, retreating to burrow, den, or rock-harbor to escape the worst fury of storms. But what about the plants, rooted forever in one spot, assaulted by an untempered sun and a drying wind, and facing the almost daily threat of freeze and storm?

Alpine plants, through their design and growing habits, have adapted themselves to the rigorous demands of this climate in many ways. Most plants are perennial: there just aren’t enough days or nutrients available for the growing of entire plants each year from seed. And they have the ability to grow and carry on photosynthesis at temperatures just above freezing, thus extending their season. In this zone, temperatures are rarely above 15° C; the mean summer temperature is about 10° C. But a flower such as the alpine buttercup, which is found at treeline or above, can grow through several centimeters of snow; heat given off during the plant’s respiration will create an opening through which it can emerge.

Plants have various adaptations to meet the demands of the alpine environment. Yellow stonecrop, not restricted to this zone, is nevertheless able to survive here because of its fleshy succulence and a waxy covering that prevents water loss. On some plants, protective hairs covering leaves and stems help retard the burning effects of wind and sun. Often this pubescent foliage looks more grey than green, for the soft hairs mute the color.

Cushion growth is another alpine adaptation. The moss campion cushion, covered with delicate pink flowers, grows to about one-third of a meter across and only 3 to 5 centimeters high. Spreading out close to the ground, the plant avoids the major violence of the wind and hoards moisture like a sponge.

The dryad, growing abundantly on the windy sweep of Siyeh Pass, shows alpine adaptations in several ways. The energy of the mature plant is channeled primarily into reproduction: its large flower, supported by a short stem, matures quickly; and it produces many seeds, ensuring germination of a few. An evergreen, it begins to synthesize water and carbon dioxide into food as soon as the snow is gone; and its rolled leaves prevent rapid evaporation. It grows as a low and woody mat that year by year extends itself through the production of new shoots that carpet the rock. Mat growth has the advantage of retaining dead plant material and capturing wind-blown grains of soil, allowing the plant slowly to enlarge its soil base.

Compared to the forest, the heartbeat of the tundra is painfully slow. Here a plant may grow for a quarter of a century before it has acquired the reserves necessary for flowering. Contrasted with the progress on the tundra, forest succession races by with dizzying speed. Yet imperceptible as the change may be the alpine plant community also passes from pioneer to climax.

Beyond the limit of other plants, lichens thrive, encrusting rocks with their rainbow colors. A lichen is actually a primitive and highly successful association between a fungus and an alga, working together for mutual benefit. The fungus protects the delicate alga, trapping and holding moisture; the green alga, in turn, produces enough food to sustain the needs of the fungus.

Generating rock-disintegrating acids that help secure this partnership to the rock, lichens, along with physical weathering, help break down the rocks into soil particles. Collected in pockets by run-off or wind, rudimentary soil is slowly invaded by cushion plants. After centuries of colonization by these, while the meager soil is deepened and enriched and moisture retention is increased, other plants move in, climaxing at last in hardy grasses and sedges. As in the forest, pioneer species change the environment to their detriment, creating a habitat better suited to other species.

Although it will progress with geologic slowness, the rocky ground of Siyeh Pass—its plant cover presently scant and wind-rowed by frost-heave and relentless wind—will in time develop grasses and sedges, the climax vegetation of the alpine meadows.

■ Simplicity rules the alpine zone. Here life is reduced to bare essentials. Chief controlling force is climate; but the plants and animals that live here are well adapted. Compared to the lower realms, where both competition and predation are fierce, life here looks secure.

There is a penalty to simplicity. In the lowland, the long food chains and diversity of species, the long growing season, and the abundant food supply give the forest an adjustment mechanism and healing power not found on the critically balanced tundra. The greater the variety in a plant and animal community, the greater the stability. So in the alpine world there exists a paradox: the most durable life forms constitute the most fragile community.

The Water Communities

Snowfields begin again their summer-long melt. The alpine stream, vocal again, collects its water from a thousand places. Miniature gorges drain the meadow, gurgling with the sparkle and rush of meltwater in the lengthening spring days.

Gathering volume, the stream seems to hurry faster; at the first rock staircase, it begins to sing. I follow the gully downward, drawn like the water. There is excitement in the growing dash and roar, a wind-gust sweeping spray into the air. A rainbow appears, holding steady to the swirling cloud of spray, then doubles and abruptly disappears.

At the first great plunge the water lunges outward over the lip. Like glass at shattering, long shards lance out. But the wind feathers the sharp edges as they fall.

The close thunder of a waterfall beats at your head, and your mind must shout to think. Here is water, a most amazing and most important substance. Perhaps some of this same water was once part of the ancient sea in which was laid down the mudstone of this ledge; was once drunk by dinosaurs; has coursed the globe countless times; and has flowed in this very stream before. In solid, liquid, or gaseous form, it goes through its own cycle. Together with sunlight, water makes possible and maintains all life on Earth.

Ouzel Music

A glacier might cling to a winter snow a hundred years and turn it to ice, a blue tool to rasp and pluck at rocks, before letting it go. Lingering summer snowfields might delay its passage for a time. But the water always wins at last, becoming, in one decisive instant, liquid again, and beginning its long journey to the sea. Plants and dry air will intercept some of its molecules, sending them back into the atmosphere to bloom as fog and cloud; but as rain, snow, or dew, these are soon commissioned to the land again.

Water is so familiar to us that we seldom think about it. We know that fish swim in the lower lakes, and we are vaguely aware of the bewildering assortment of life-forms abounding in a pond. But life begins in the streams.

Even cups of cold meltwaters, scooped out of a rivulet only a few meters away from its snowbank source, contain some life. Snow algae, which grow on the snowbank surface, often sufficiently dense to give the snow a distinctive red complexion, are released into the meltwater. In summer, small invertebrate life can be discovered in the standing pools of even the highest cirque.

But conditions are not good for the development of complete aquatic food chains in the streams and lakes of higher elevations. Alpine lakes, or tarns, support little visible life. Often flanked by high ridges and peaks, many tarns receive scant direct sunlight during the day. Since these lakes occupy basins that capture tremendous amounts of snowfall, the snowbanks persist in the mountain shadows, and summer makes little progress in warming the water. Iceberg Lake, for example, is seldom free of floating ice, and its temperature never rises above 4° C in summer, even at the surface.

Moving out of the cirque lakes, water is soon churning again, dashing downward many hundreds of meters to the valleys below, in rapids, cascades, and breathless waterfalls. Not surprisingly, few plants and animals are adapted to life in fast-moving water.

Algae can be found covering streambed rocks and stranded, water-polished tree trunks. Securely attached by holdfasts, these small plant forms survive the rigorous stream flow that would destroy the larger vascular plants. Several species exist, from microscopic forms to branched filamentous algae whose long hairlike strands wave in the current.

A surprising number of insects live on the stream bottom, finding a measure of protection from the current in the jumble of rocks. Underwater beetles live under the gravel or among the debris at the stream-edge, or cling to stones and sticks. Scurrying and creeping among the rock-crannies are the larvae of stoneflies, mayflies, and caddisflies. These and the small fish that venture up from lower lakes are the food of the water ouzel, a creature that loves the places where the waters thunder.

■ The noise of the water is overpowering. A slip into this boiling rage would mean quick death. Looking 10 meters across the dim, mist-slippery, water-scoured canyon, I see a young water ouzel peering out of its unique nest, on the lookout for its parents. Clouds of spray keep the nest of living moss continually wet; but this bird is waterproofed with an oily plumage and keeps its vigil at the nest opening. Peering into the torrent below, then upstream and downstream, it awaits patiently the delivery of the next meal.

With the approach of one of the adults, three other heads crowd the opening, begging yellow mouths agape. Flying low, the ouzel parent zeros through the heavy spray, alighting on a slippery boulder below the nest ledge. Preparing to fly up to the nest with its load of insect larvae, the ouzel spots me across the water. At its sharp _jigic, jigic_ alarm, the bills of the young snap instantly shut. Nervously the bird regards my close presence, dipping its entire body rapidly up and down, as if keeping time with the surging torrent.

Discovering no danger, the dusky blue-grey bird bobs more slowly. The other adult, returning from an upstream forage, alights on the same rock, occasioning a new outcry from the fledglings. Each in turn, the parent birds fly up to feed their young, beating their wings to maintain their position at the perchless nest. Not pausing to regard me further, they split the stream between them again, one flying upstream and one down, to continue the hunt. Blinking and shaking the collected mist from its bill, the single young sentry renews its watch.

In Shallow Waters

Life abounds in the shallow lakes and ponds. Calm, protected John’s Lake offers a fine example of how a complex aquatic plant-and-animal community can exist in balance in a confined space. The water teems with the microscopic algae, protozoans, and rotifers that sustain the barely visible zooplankton. Dancing, flitting, hopping, and swaying through the water, these zooplankton in turn support the larger plankton-eating animals.

Dragonflies and damselflies shoot past, crackling their wings, and perch in the bog grass. Looking into the shallow water, you will see a wealth of small animal life. A spotted frog swims into view, floating to the surface beside a lily pad so that its eyes protrude above the water.

The ribbonlike form of a leech swims across the bottom toward deeper water. Looking closer, you see that the water swarms with bizarre shapes—water boatmen propelling themselves with oarlike appendages, a gliding mayfly nymph, then a predacious diving beetle surfacing, grasping a bubble of air beneath its shiny brown wing plates and disappearing downward again—the bubble’s edge shining silver—into the brown bottom debris. Suddenly a whirligig beetle sets the surface to spinning, wrinkling the view below.

Everywhere in the water there is animal life, forms that are attached, free-swimming, crawling on the bottom, and clinging to or swimming on the surface film. The gray, slimy encrustation on a sunken log looks like a covering of lichen but is really a freshwater sponge, a colonial animal that feeds by filtering minute plankton from the water. Another attached creature is the barely visible hydra; this twig-shaped predator, related to marine jellyfish, captures water fleas and other small animals in its several poisonous tentacles.

Water beetles, backswimmers, water boatmen, and many other creatures move about more or less freely in the water, propelling themselves along with jerky movements. Suspended between surface and bottom are the zooplankton, the tiny water fleas, cyclops, daphnia, and others, which feed by filtering minute algae. On the bottom and below live scavenging worms. Water striders skate on the surface film.

Along the shore, frogs, salamanders, garter snakes, and water shrews are hunting. Dabbling and diving ducks patrol about, tipping or submerging for the bottom plants. Moose tracks circle the muddy shore. Because it produces vegetation abundantly, John’s Lake sustains a great diversity of animal life.

Beaver Ponds

Fully 10 percent of all the present meadow area in the Rocky Mountains is estimated to have been created by beaver, the only animal besides man that engineers extensive changes in the environment to suit its own needs.

When beavers dam a stream, they set in motion another form of succession. If the resulting backwater floods a forest area, the trees are soon killed, creating a broad opening in the forest canopy. Water-associated plants and shrubs quickly invade the pond and shoreline, creating favorable habitat for waterfowl, moose, blackbirds, amphibians, wading birds, warblers, marsh hawks, and a score of other animals.

After many years the water becomes shallow, filling in with silt and plant debris. When the beavers abandon the site, the dam may rupture for lack of maintenance and the pond will rapidly drain. Or it may continue to hold, delaying for several more years its slow conversion to meadow. Stimulated by the nutrient-rich mud, the water grasses, sedges, and shrubs finally choke the water with their accumulating debris, transforming the area into a bog.

Gradually the ground firms as more humus is created and more silt is trapped. The area becomes meadow, supporting grasses, sedges, and other flowering plants. Trees begin to reinvade the drier ground, and eventually the meadow reverts to forest. Centuries may be required to see this cycle through, from forest to pond, to bog, to meadow, to forest again. At each stage many of the animal inhabitants change: the song of the western robin and the chatter of a red squirrel in the original, pre-beaver forest give way to the croak of a heron; the heron is replaced by the insect-and-berry-eating cedar waxwing; the waxwing is followed by the tree-dwelling western robin and red squirrel.

Lakes Cold and Deep

Seeming to skate on its own reflection, a spotted sandpiper comes in low over the quiet water, wingtips almost touching the surface of the lake. It alights at the shore and folds its wings. Amid the rounded rocks, this plain but elegant little shorebird is all but swallowed up. Teetering constantly on long legs, it sets off along the water’s edge, pecking here and there, coming closer and closer, never forgetting to stop and curtsy, as if acknowledging, while hurrying offstage, the applause of an audience.

As it draws near, several water striders skate away from the shore. A stonefly, scuttling between two rocks, is deftly speared. So large a morsel makes the bird pause and rough its feathers, then scamper into the water to take a drink. Teetering again, it passes in front of me and continues down the shore, where I soon lose sight of it rounding a rocky point.

I am sitting at the foot of Lake McDonald, watching the darkness gather over the valley, seeing the last light slide upward to the tips of the distant mountains. As daylight dissolves, this long fleet of familiar peaks seems almost to glide toward darkness, slow and silent as sailing ships.

The sheet of motionless water stretches many kilometers away between tree-covered moraines. The water is deep and cold. No emergent plants line the barren shore. It would seem that no life, except for the single gull that rests on the water far away, exists in this nearly thousand-meter-high lake.

■ Considering the great volume of Glacier’s large, deep lakes, the life they support is indeed meager. A large part of the reason lies with the nature of their shores, where almost no plants grow. A combination of factors prevents the development of a lush shoreline growth.

Contoured like bathtubs, these steep-sided lakes exhibit narrow or non-existent shoreline shallows, which are vital for the production of rooted plants. Strong wave action and extensive seasonal fluctuations in the level of these natural reservoirs prevent the development of emergent water plants in locations where they might otherwise be expected.

Since sunlight cannot penetrate to the bottom of these deep lakes, they are deprived of bottom-anchored plants in midlake as well. As a result, herbivorous animal life must depend almost wholly on algal growth. Wave action inhibits the spread of free-floating algae by washing much of it onto the shore. Deep lakes are also low in available oxygen, preventing the development of bottom decomposers, which would rapidly release nutrients as they break down the accumulating debris washed into the lake. Without a steady supply of nutrients, plant growth is retarded.

Since the food chain depends upon green plants, the ability of a lake to support higher animals such as fish depends upon its ability first to produce adequate plant growth. The production of one kilo of trout requires that a lake produce about 1,000 kilos of plants to support 100 kilos of herbivorous invertebrates, which are eaten by 10 kilos of carnivorous insects, on which the trout feed.

Compared to smaller shallow lakes, which teem with visible life, cold, deep, nutrient-poor lakes such as McDonald appear to be watery deserts. Yet because of their great volume—Lake McDonald contains 5 or 6 cubic kilometers of water—these large lakes do sustain significant numbers of fish. Of the 22 kinds of fishes found within the park, most are coldwater species. Trout, whitefish, grayling, suckers, minnows, and carp fill the roles of herbivore, carnivore, and scavenger. Agile, highly mobile, and acutely sensitive, fish represent the most successful total adaptation to the aquatic environment.

Through the stocking of nonnative species, including plantings in formerly fish-free lakes, the natural aquatic communities of many of Glacier’s lakes and streams have been permanently modified.

Aquatic food chains are not confined to the water. Ospreys, ducks, mergansers, otter, mink, and many other semi-aquatic or terrestrial birds and mammals utilize the plants and animals of the water. In fall, a remarkable spectacle occurs along the outlet of Lake McDonald. Attracted to the kokanee salmon concentrations, which run from Flathead Lake to spawn and die in these clear, shallow waters, bald eagles collect to exploit the vulnerable fish. In 1977, 444 eagles were counted in one census. This food resource is also exploited by grizzlies, coyotes, skunks, gulls, loons, and other animals. On occasion, even white-tail deer have been observed swallowing salmon!

Shooting Stars

This park is very special. The people who know it well feel proprietary toward its mountains, scattered lakes, and glaciers. Perhaps it is the arrangement of the land, an unsurpassed concentration of American wilderness. Time and again I have thought, as I regarded some aspect of this country, _yes, this is exactly right_—almost, it would seem, as if some magic existed that could translate thought and emotion into rock and bark.

Glacier remains largely unexploited, bearing still the aspect of the Earth the Indians knew for 500 generations—a land where it is yet possible to feel a sense of discovery, sense that a single man matters. On too many mountains, man has tarnished whatever he has touched; but here the land has shed, as a fir sloughs snow, a long succession of traders, trappers, explorers, hunters, surveyors, prospectors, loggers, settlers, and tourists.

You may walk the same trail a dozen times and not tire of the view. I have given up wondering why. I know only that these are mountains a man might grow old with, and that mountain-fever never diminishes but only changes its look, as a forest does over many years.

Repeatedly I have noticed that this park creates an instant bond between strangers. A certain pause intrudes at the first mention of Glacier National Park, and a look of distance comes, as Red Eagle becomes real again, or the wind at Firebrand is remembered, or the flowers of Fifty-Mountain converge once more upon the senses.

Never are we quenched. If a goshawk rushes past, straining upward with its squirming load of ground squirrel, forever afterward our blood demands more. The sight of a wolverine running is not enough. Nor the magnificent assemblage of bald eagles feasting on November salmon. More days of this: mountain goats leaping impossible ledges, wave tracks from a beaver reaching out on dawn water. There are messages here, loud as kingfishers. The land has languages, stories to tell.

But in wilderness there is no moral, save that it must continue. For all our probings and plottings we discover no adequate interpretation of the forces we find swirling about us. A larch you must touch to know; your neck must feel the ache of too much looking up. Watch its treepoint pirouette. Then, looking back at the world level, you will find that you have lost all answers. We have learned the art of building bridges, cataloging plants, predicting what a shrew might do. Of the essential mystery, we know nothing.

For nature assigns no “roles” to its creatures; there is no “reason” for a forest fire, which burns mightily but with no intent. Life’s only “purpose” is the feeding of life, and the beauty we see therein is but its lack of guarantee: for the chipmunk and the weasel, and the man who measures his life to theirs, no assurance of long days and tempered seasons, abundant seeds, ample meat. In wilderness there is mystery yet, unsimplified, not reduced, resplendent and immense.

Whatever the conclusion of this planet, however many the acts to follow in this consuming drama—mountains coming up, mountains going down, forests, lakes, and seas skimming past like wind-driven scud clouds before a storm—at least in the scant shadow of this present age there is an achievement of sorts. For now, with this creature man, such things as mountains can be loved. And men have memories to fill.

Tomorrow I will look for shooting stars—purple spring flowers that point their fire down, always down toward the center of the Earth, as if to give in their brief term beneath the sun a tribute to this most excellent mystery.

Today I can say nothing more, neck-sore now from looking at larchtops swaying with the wind of this splendid morning.

Appendix

Mammals of Glacier National Park

Distribution information was obtained from _Meet the Mammals of Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park_, by Robert C. Gildart (see Reading List). Nomenclature follows, for the most part, _a Field Guide to Mammals_, by William H. Burt and Richard P. Grossenheider.

Key to symbols:
E—occurs east of Continental Divide (spruce-fir forest; aspen;
bunchgrass meadows)
W—occurs west of Continental Divide
(redcedar-hemlock-lodgepole-fir-larch forest; some meadows)
A—occurs in alpine areas (above upper edge of continuous forest)
R—rare in Glacier National Park

Shrews
Masked shrew, _Sorex cinereus_
E, W, coniferous forests, meadows, pond and stream edges
Vagrant shrew, _Sorex vagrans_
E, W, A, moist forests and grasslands, marsh and stream edges
Northern water shrew, _Sorex palustris_
E, W, stream edges

Bats
Little brown myotis, _Myotis lucifugus_
E, W, coniferous forests, often around buildings, caves; nocturnal
Long-eared myotis, _Myotis evotis_
E, W, A, R, coniferous forests, meadows; nocturnal
Long-legged myotis, _Myotis volans_
E, W, A, coniferous forests, meadows; nocturnal
Big brown bat, _Eptesicus fuscus_
E, W, coniferous forests; often around buildings, caves; nocturnal
Silver-haired bat, _Lasionycteris noctivagans_
E, W, coniferous forests; meadows; nocturnal
Hoary bat, _Lasiurus cinereus_
E, W, coniferous forests; mostly nocturnal

Cats
Bobcat, _Lynx rufus_
E, open forests, brushy areas
Lynx, _Lynx canadensis_
E, W, coniferous forests
Cougar, _Felis concolor_
E, W, coniferous forests

Raccoon, bears
Raccoon, _Procyon lotor_
E, W, R, open forests, stream bottoms
Black bear, _Ursus americanus_
E, W, A, forests, slide areas, alpine meadows
Grizzly, _Ursus arctos_
E, W, A, forests, slide areas, alpine meadows

Canines
Red Fox, _Vulpes vulpes_
E, grasslands, open forest
Coyote, _Canis latrans_
E, W, A, forests, grasslands
Gray wolf, _Canis lupus_
E, W, R, coniferous forests

Mustelids
Striped skunk, _Mephitis mephitis_
E, W, open forests, grasslands
Badger, _Taxidea taxus_
E, W, grasslands
River otter, _Lutra canadensis_
E, W, R, rivers, lakes
Wolverine, _Gulo gulo_
E, W, A, coniferous forests, alpine meadows
Least weasel, _Mustela rixosa_
E, R, open forests, grasslands
Shorttail weasel, _Mustela erminea_
E, W, A, coniferous forests, meadows
Longtail weasel, _Mustela frenata_
E, W, A, open forests, meadows
Mink, _Mustela vison_
E, W, creek and lake edges
Marten, _Martes americana_
E, W, A, coniferous forests
Fisher, _Martes pennanti_
E, W, R, coniferous forests

Lagomorphs
Pika, _Ochotona princeps_
E, W, A, rockslides
Snowshoe hare, _Lepus americanus_
E, W, coniferous forests
Whitetail jackrabbit, _Lepus townsendii_
E, W, R, grasslands

Squirrels
Hoary marmot, _Marmota caligata_
E, W, A, rocky areas, alpine meadows
Richardson ground squirrel, _Spermophilus richardsonii_
E, R, grasslands
Columbian ground squirrel, _Citellus columbianus_
E, W, A, open woodlands, grasslands, alpine meadows
Thirteen-lined ground squirrel, _Spermophilus tridecemlineatus_
E, R, grasslands
Golden-mantled squirrel, _Spermophilus lateralis_
E, W, A, high, open forests; rocky areas
Least chipmunk, _Eutamias minimus_
E, W, A, high, open forests; brushy, rocky areas; alpine meadows
Yellow pine chipmunk, _Eutamias amoenus_
E, W, open forests; brushy, rocky areas
Redtail chipmunk, _Eutamias ruficaudus_
E, W, open forests; brushy, rocky areas
Red squirrel, _Tamiasciurus hudsonicus_
E, W, coniferous forests
Northern flying squirrel, _Glaucomys sabrinus_
E, W, coniferous forests; nocturnal

Pocket gophers
Northern pocket gopher, _Thomomys talpoides_
E, W, A, meadows

Beaver
Beaver, _Castor canadensis_
E, W, streams, lakes

Voles and kin
Deer mouse, _Peromyscus maniculatus_
E, W, A, forests, grasslands, alpine meadows
Bushytail woodrat, _Neotoma cinerea_
E, W, A, rocky areas, old buildings
Northern bog lemming, _Synaptomys borealis_
W, R, coniferous forests
Mountain phenacomys, _Phenacomys intermedius_
E, W, A, coniferous forests, alpine meadows
Boreal redback vole, _Clethrionomys gapperi_
E, W, coniferous forests
Meadow vole, _Microtus pennsylvanicus_
E, W, open forests, meadows; along streams; marshy areas
Longtail vole, _Microtus longicaudus_
E, W, coniferous forests, grasslands
Water vole, _Arvicola richardsoni_
E, W, A, high-elevation stream and lake edges
Muskrat, _Ondatra zibethica_
W, streams, lakes, marshy areas
Western jumping mouse, _Zapus princeps_
E, W, A, grasslands, alpine meadows

Deer
Wapiti (American elk), _Cervus canadensis_
E, W, A, open forests, meadows
Mule deer, _Odocoileus hemionus_
E, W, A, open forests, meadows, often at high elevations
Whitetail deer, _Odocoileus virginianus_
E, W, coniferous forests, meadows, creek and river bottoms
Moose, _Alces alces_
E, W, coniferous forests, lakes, slow streams, marshy areas

Bovids
Mountain goat, _Oreamnos americanus_
E, W, A, high peaks and meadows
Bighorn, _Ovis canadensis_
E, A, open mountainous areas

Reptiles and Amphibians of Glacier National Park

Note: This check list is based upon actual specimens in the Park and other collections, according to Dr. Royal Brunson, Montana State University.

Reptiles
Great Basin Garter Snake, _Thamnophis elegans vagrans_
A large garter snake of mountainous areas, usually with large spots.

Great Plains Red-sided Garter Snake, _Thamnophis ordinoides
parietalis_
Dorsal stripes varying from yellow to blue or black. Usually found
near water.

Hypothetical List:
Rubber Boa, _Charina bottae utahensis_
May occur in rock slides or, possibly, in forested areas, on either
side of the Divide.

Gopher Snake, _Pituophis catenifer sayi_
May occur along eastern boundary (Great Plains).

Yellow-bellied Blue Racer, _Coluber constrictor mormon_
May occur on eastern boundary of Park along border of Great Plains.

Painted Turtle, _Chrysemys picta_
May occur in ponds and sluggish waters from Upper Sonoran Zone to
Canadian Zone.

Western Skink, _Eumeces skiltonianus_
May occur in Transition Zone along western border of Park.

Northern Alligator Lizard, _Gerrhonotus coeruleus principis_
May occur in Transition Zone along western border of Park.

Amphibians
Tiger Salamander, _Ambystoma tigrinum melanostrictum_
Ground color either black or bluish-black, with large spots or
blotches of yellow.

Long-toed Salamander, _Ambystoma macrodactylum_
Ground color black or dark brown; wide band of yellow extends from
back of head to tip of tail.

Northwestern Toad, _Bufo boreas boreas_
Widely distributed over entire Park. (Also known as Columbian,
Northern, or Western Toad.)

Western Spotted Frog, _Rana pretiosa pretiosa_
Widely distributed over entire Park. (Also known as Western or Pacific
Frog.)

Green Frog, _Rana clamitans_
One specimen, from Bowman Lake. (Chicago Natural History Museum)

Tailed Frog, _Ascaphus truei_
Should be fairly common, although it is not often taken.

Pacific Tree-toad, _Hyla regilla_
Small size and disks on fingers and toes identify this species. Common
throughout Park.

Fishes of Glacier National Park

Classification and common scientific names are from: “A List of Common and Scientific Names of Fishes from the United States and Canada,” American Fisheries Society Publication No. 2, 1960.

Key to symbols:
N Species native to at least one major drainage of the Park.
I Non-native species, having been introduced into Park waters by man.
S A species of sporting qualities and valued for recreational angling.
1 Waterton Drainage
2 Belly River Drainage
3 Swiftcurrent Drainage
4 St. Mary Drainage
5 Two Medicine Drainage
6 Middle Fork Flathead River Drainage (exclusive of McDonald Valley)
7 McDonald Valley Drainage
8 North Fork Flathead River Drainage

Family _Salmonidae_ (trouts, whitefishes, and grayling)
Lake Whitefish, _Coregonus clupeaformis_ (I) (1, 2, 3, 4, 7)
Pygmy Whitefish, _Prosopium coulteri_ (N) (7)
Mountain Whitefish, _Prosopium williamsoni_ (N) (S) (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,
7, 8)
Kokanee (Sockeye) Salmon, _Oncorhyncus nerka_ (I) (S) (3, 7, 8)
Cutthroat Trout, _Salmo clarki_ (N) (S) (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
Rainbow Trout, _Salmo gairdneri_ (I) (S) (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7)
Brook Trout, _Salvelinus fontinalis_ (I) (S) (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
Dolly Varden, _Salvelinus malma_ (N) (S) (1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8)
Lake Trout, _Salvelinus namaycush_ (N) (S) (1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8)
Arctic Grayling, _Thymallus arcticus_ (I) (S) (2, 8)

Family _Esocidae_ (pikes)
Northern pike, _Esox lucius_ (N) (S) (1, 2, 3)

Family _Cyprinidae_ (minnows and carps)
Longnose Dace, _Rhinichthys cataractae_ (N) (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
Northern Pearl Dace, _Margariscus margarita_ (N) (3, 5)
Redside Shiner, _Richardsonius balteatus_ (N) (7, 8)
Streamline Chub, _Hybopsis dissimilis_ (N) (1, 3)
Northern Squawfish, _Ptychocheilus oregonensis_ (N) (7, 8)

Family _Catostomidae_ (suckers)
White Sucker, _Catostomus commersoni_ (N) (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
Largescale Sucker, _Catostomus macrocheilus_ (N) (6, 7, 8)
Longnose Sucker, _Catostomus catostomus_ (N) (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)

Family _Gadidaie_ (codfishes and hakes)
Burbot, _Lota lota_ (N) (S) (1, 4)

Family _Cottidae_ (sculpins)
Mottled sculpin, _Cottus bairdi_ (N) (5, 6, 7, 8)
Spoonhead sculpin, _Cottus ricei_ (N) (1, 2, 3, 4)

Birds of Glacier National Park

Key to symbols:
E—occurs on east side of the park (east of the Divide)
W—occurs on west side of the park (west of the Divide)
A—occurs in alpine areas
ab—abundant
c—common
u—uncommon
r—rare
i—introduced
a—accidental

Loons
Common Loon E, W, ab
Arctic Loon?
Red-throated Loon?

Grebes
Red-necked Grebe E, W, c
Horned Grebe E, W, ab
Eared Grebe E, W, c
Western Grebe E, W, u
Pied-billed Grebe E, W, r

Pelicans, Cormorants
White Pelican E, W, u
Double-crested Cormorant E, r

Herons, Bitterns
Great Blue Heron E, W, c
Black-crowned Night Heron a
American Bittern, W, r

Swan, Geese, Ducks
Whistling Swan E, W, ab
Trumpeter Swan E, W, r
Canada Goose E, W, c
Snow Goose E, W, c
Ross’ Goose E, W, r
Mallard E, W, ab
Gadwall E, W, r
Pintail E, W, c
Green-winged Teal E, W, c
Blue-winged Teal E, W, u
Cinnamon Teal E, W, u
European Widgeon E, W, c
American Widgeon E, W, ab
Northern Shoveler E, W, c
Wood Duck E, W, r
Redhead E, W, c
Ring-necked Duck E, W, u
Canvasback E, W, u
Lesser Scaup E, W, c
Greater Scaup?
Common Goldeneye E, W, c
Barrow’s Goldeneye E, W, ab
Bufflehead E, W, u
Harlequin Duck E, W, c
White-winged Scoter E, W, r
Ruddy Duck E, W, c
Hooded Merganser E, W, u
Common Merganser E, W, ab
Red-breasted Merganser, E, W, u

Vultures, Hawks, Eagles
Turkey Vulture E, W, r
Goshawk E, W, c
Sharp-shinned Hawk E, W, u
Cooper’s Hawk E, W, u
Red-tailed Hawk E, W, c
Red-shouldered Hawk a
Swainson’s Hawk E, W, c
Rough-legged Hawk E, W, r
Ferruginous Hawk E, W, u
Golden Eagle, E, W, A, c
Bald Eagle, E, W, ab
Marsh Hawk E, W, ab
Osprey E, W, ab
Prairie Falcon E, W, A, r
Peregrine Falcon E, W, r
American Kestrel E, W, c

Grouse, Ptarmigans
Blue Grouse, E, W, ab
Spruce Grouse E, W, ab
Ruffed Grouse E, W, ab
Sharp-tailed Grouse E, r
White-tailed Ptarmigan A, c
Willow Ptarmigan ?
Ring-necked Pheasant E, W, r, i
Gray Partridge E, W, r, i

Cranes
Sandhill Crane E, r

Rails, Coots
Sora E, W, r
American Coot E, W, ab

Shorebirds
Killdeer E, W, c
Black-bellied Plover E, r
Common Snipe E, W, c
Long-billed Curlew E, r
Upland Sandpiper E, r
Spotted Sandpiper E, W, A, ab
Solitary Sandpiper E, r
Willet, E, r
Pectoral Sandpiper E, r
Baird’s Sandpiper E, W, r
Lesser Yellowlegs, E, W r
Greater Yellowlegs E, W, r
American Avocet E, W, u
Northern Phalarope E, W, r
Wilson’s Phalarope E, W, u
Black Turnstone ?
Long-billed Dowitcher E, W, r

Gulls, Terns
Herring Gull E, W, r
California Gull E, W, ab
Ring-billed Gull E, W, c
Franklin’s Gull E, W, c
Bonaparte’s Gull E, u
Forster’s Tern E, W, u
Common Tern E, r
Caspian Tern a
Black Tern E, W, u

Doves, Pigeons
Band-tailed Pigeon E, W, r
Mourning Dove E, W, c
Rock Dove E, W, r, i

Owls
Screech Owl E, W, r
Great Horned Owl E, W, ab
Snowy Owl E, W, u
Hawk Owl E, W, u
Pygmy Owl E, W, ab
Barred Owl E, W, c
Great Gray Owl E, W, u
Long-eared Owl E, W, r
Short-eared Owl, E, W, c
Boreal Owl E, W, r
Saw-whet Owl E, W, u

Nighthawks, Swifts
Common Nighthawk E, W, ab
Black Swift E, W, u
Vaux’s Swift E, W, ab
White-throated Swift W, A, r

Hummingbirds
Broad-tailed Hummingbird E, W, r
Rufous Hummingbird E, W, A, ab
Calliope Hummingbird E, W, A, ab
Black-chinned Hummingbird E, W, r

Kingfishers
Belted Kingfisher E, W, ab

Woodpeckers
Common Flicker E, W, ab
Pileated Woodpecker E, W, ab
Red-headed Woodpecker E, W, r
Lewis’ Woodpecker E, W, c
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker E, W, ab
Williamson’s Sapsucker E, W, u
Hairy Woodpecker E, W, ab
Downy Woodpecker E, W, ab
Black-backed Three-toed Woodpecker E, W, ab
Northern Three-toed Woodpecker E, W, ab

Flycatchers
Eastern Kingbird E, W, ab
Western Kingbird E, W, u
Ash-throated Flycatcher a
Say’s Phoebe E, W, r
Willow Flycatcher E, W, c
Hammond’s Flycatcher E, W, ab
Olive-sided Flycatcher E, W, ab
Western Flycatcher E, r
Western Wood Peewee E, W, c

Larks
Horned Lark E, W, A, ab

Swallows
Violet-green Swallow E, W, A, ab
Tree Swallow E, W, ab
Bank Swallow E, W, ab
Rough-winged Swallow E, W, u
Barn Swallow E, W, u
Cliff Swallow E, W, A, ab

Jays, Magpies, Crows
Gray Jay E, W, ab
Blue Jay E, W, r
Steller’s Jay E, W, ab
Black-billed Magpie E, W, ab
Common Raven E, W, A, ab
Common Crow E, W, ab
Clark’s Nutcracker E, W, A, ab

Chickadees
Black-capped Chickadee E, W, ab
Mountain Chickadee E, W, ab
Boreal Chickadee E, W, r
Chestnut-backed Chickadee E, W, u

Nuthatches, Creepers
White-breasted Nuthatch E, W, u
Red-breasted Nuthatch E, W, ab
Brown Creeper E, W, ab

Dippers, Wrens
Dipper E, W, A, ab
House Wren E, W, u
Winter Wren E, W, ab
Long-billed Marsh Wren a
Rock Wren E, W, u

Catbirds, Thrashers
Gray Catbird E, W, u

Thrushes, Bluebirds, Solitaires
American Robin E, W, A, ab
Varied Thrush E, W, ab
Hermit Thrush E, W, ab
Swainson’s Thrush E, W, ab
Veery E, W, c
Western Bluebird E, W, r
Mountain Bluebird E, W, A, ab
Townsend’s Solitaire E, W, A, ab

Kinglets
Golden-crowned Kinglet E, W, ab
Ruby-crowned Kinglet E, W, ab

Pipits
Water Pipit E, W, A, ab

Waxwings
Bohemian Waxwing E, W, ab
Cedar Waxwing E, W, ab

Shrikes
Loggerhead Shrike E, W, r
Northern Shrike E, W, r

Starlings
Starling E, W, c, i

Vireos
Solitary Vireo E, W, ab
Red-eyed Vireo E, W, ab
Warbling Vireo E, W, ab

Warblers
Black and White Warbler W, r
Tennessee Warbler E, W, r
Orange-crowned Warbler E, W, r
Nashville Warbler E, W, r
Yellow Warbler E, W, ab
Yellow-rumped Warbler E, W, ab
Townsend’s Warbler E, W, ab
Northern Waterthrush E, W, ab
MacGillivray’s Warbler E, W, ab
Common Yellowthroat E, W, ab
Wilson’s Warbler E, W, ab
American Redstart E, W, ab
Yellow-breasted Chat ?

Weaver Finches
House Sparrow E, W, r, i

Blackbirds, Orioles
Bobolink E, r
Western Meadowlark E, W, u
Red-winged Blackbird E, W, ab
Northern Oriole E, W, r
Brewer’s Blackbird E, W, u
Rusty Blackbird E, W, r
Yellow-headed Blackbird E, r
Common Grackle E, r
Brown-headed Cowbird E, W, c

Tanagers, Grosbeaks
Western Tanager E, W, ab
Evening Grosbeak E, W, ab
Pine Grosbeak E, W, ab
Black-headed Grosbeak E, W, r

Finches, Sparrows, Buntings
Lazuli Bunting E, W, c
Lark Bunting E, W, r
Snow Bunting E, W, c
Cassin’s Finch E, W, A, ab
Gray-crowned Rosy Finch E, W, A, ab
American Goldfinch E, W, u
Common Redpoll E, W, c
Pine Siskin E, W, A, ab
Red Crossbill E, W, ab
White-winged Crossbill E, W, u
Rufous-sided Towhee E, W, u
Green-tailed Towhee E, W, r
Savannah Sparrow E, W, c
LeConte’s Sparrow E, W, u
Vesper Sparrow E, W, ab
Tree Sparrow E, W, r
Chipping Sparrow E, W, A, ab
Brewer’s Sparrow E, W, r
Harris’ Sparrow E, W, r
White-crowned Sparrow E, W, A, ab
Fox Sparrow E, W, A, ab
Lincoln’s Sparrow E, W, A, c
Song Sparrow E, W, ab
Dark-eyed Junco E, W, c
McCown’s Longspur E, c
Lapland Longspur E, W, c
Chestnut-collared Longspur E, c

Comments

Many-Storied Mountains: The Life of Glacier National ParkChapter III: Part 3

0%29 min left in chapter