This dark grey salamander sports an irregular green or yellowish stripe along the middle of the back. It is named for the long fourth toe on their hind legs.
One of the neatest things about the salamanders is that they can regenerate body parts. So if a leg or tail is removed by a predator, the salamander can simply grow it back! However, most predators have learned to leave salamanders alone because when disturbed they secrete a distasteful poison from glands on their back and tail.
When it comes to vehicles, salamanders don’t fare so well. Studies in Waterton Lakes National Park showed that vehicles were killing between 10% to 41% of the salamander population attempting to cross roads. So Parks Canada responded by installing tunnels under the road to provide a relatively safe passage between the salamanders’ over-wintering habitat and their breeding areas. It worked - Salamander deaths from vehicle traffic in Waterton was reduced to 0.6% and 1.6% of the population.
Some ungulates like Bighorn Sheep are ruminants. Meaning they have a rumen or a false stomach that allows them to gather large amounts of food quickly, especially when they are in the open and more susceptible to predators. Then later they can retire to safer areas to rechew and digest their food.
The rumen is also like a fermentation vat containing millions of microorganisms that help digest the fibrous grasses and shrubs.
The one side effect of ruminating is that the fermentation produces enormous quantities of gas which the sheep get rid of by belching. So next time you see a bighorn chewing its cud listen closely for burps.
The golden-mantled ground squirrel was surveyed as part of Kootenay National Park's biophysical inventory back in the early 1980s, and was described at that time as widespread but uncommon in the park.
There is a perception, however, that this species is common and consequently few people have bothered keeping written records of its occurrence over the years since then. An interesting question, 30 years later, is whether the golden-mantled ground squirrel still occurs in all the same places it did in the 1980s. That inventory showed that golden-mantled ground squirrels occurred at Radium Hot Springs (pools), near the summit of Kindersley-Sinclair Trail, Mt. Wardle, Marble Canyon, and several sites above tree-line in Helmet and Ochre Creeks. These days, the place where golden-mantled ground squirrels are most frequently seen is probably the Stanley Glacier trail, where they are seen in close association with marmots and pikas.
Habitat in the park is described as rough, rocky, or broken ground, usually in mid to high elevations, but occasionally in rocky areas at low elevation. Surprisingly little is known about the timing of breeding and reproduction in golden-mantled ground squirrels in British Columbia. In other areas of western North America, mating occurs in April or early May, shortly after emergence from hibernation, and litters averaging 5 young are produced in May or June. Animals of all ages remain inconspicuous in the spring until the young have emerged, consequently most observations are from late June through early September. Hibernation likely begins sometime in late August or September. The latest date one of these squirrels has been recorded in Kootenay, Yoho, or Banff appears to be an observation from September 26, 2011 at Lake Agnes near Lake Louise.