Open Coniferous Forest: Mammals

Birds

Amphibians/Reptiles

Arthropods

Plants

Bryophytes/Lichens

Rocky Mountain Elk

A large member of the deer family with reddish-brown body, dark nose and white rump patch. Only the male grows antlers and they have six pointed tines. Elk prefer grasslands and open forests, feeding on grasses, sedges and forbs, willows, soopolallie, saskatoon, and trembling aspen. Found in largest numbers throughout the Rocky mountain trench and in the Peace River region, with much smaller populations in the south Okanagan and Princeton areas.
 

Yellow-pine Chipmunk

A yellow-brown chipmunk with characteristic head and body stripes growing to 22 cm. Feeds on seeds, especially ponderosa pine, berries, and insects, storing large quantities of seeds in their underground winter burrows. Summer homes are made in hollow logs or abandoned woodpecker holes. Chipmunks hibernate from September to April and have a single brood of four to eight young in May.

Northern Pocket Gopher

A secretive animal that pushes up mounds of dirt from its underground tunnel systems. About the size of a rat with fur-lined pouches in the cheeks, it eats the roots and leaves of plants.

Want to find out about species at risk in open coniferous forest?
Go to Species at Risk

Here are some other representative species in open coniferous forests:

Mule Deer
White-tailed Deer
California Bighorn Sheep
Moose
Black Bear
Short-tailed Weasel
Common Shrew
Deer Mouse
Western Harvest Mouse
Nuttall’s Cottontail
Red Squirrel
Northern Flying Squirrel
California Myotis
Western Long-Eared Myotis
Little Brown Myotis
Silver-haired Bat
Big Brown Bat
Spotted Bat
Red:
Pallid Bat

Photos:
Jared Hobbs (Rocky Mtn. Elk, Yellow-pine chipmunk)

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