Brown Bears

The brown bear lives in the forests of northern North America , Europe and Asia. It is the worlds most widely distributed bear. These animals tend to be solitary except for females and cubs but will occasionally congregate. Many bears can be seen at prime Alaskan fishing spots when salmon swim upstream for the spawning season. In the autumn a brown bear may eat up to 40 kg of food each day.

Brown bears dig dens for hibernation in the winter usually in a suitable hillside. She-bears will den while pregnant and give birth to a pair of cubs normally in the winter. Cubs stay with the mother for 2 and a half years so females will only give birth once every 3 years.


They eat  nuts , berries , roots , fruit , leaves , rodents and moose. The worlds largest brown bears are found in coastal British Columbia and Alaska. Although they are large in size they have been know to reach speeds of 30 mph. They can be dangerous to humans especially if they are startled or if a human gets between a female and her cubs.

Rock Hopper Penguins

Rock hopper penguins are very small reaching a height of 50 cm . They are easily recognizable by the bright yellow and orange feathers on their heads. They have blood red eyes , pink webbed feet and a red-orange beak.

They can be found bounding rather than waddling as most penguins do along the craggy windswept shore lands of the islands north of Antarctica from Chile to New Zealand.

During the annual breeding season they roost in noisy colonies of up  to a thousand penguins. They construct burrows in the tall grasses along the shore. They return to the same breeding ground every year and will try to seek out the same mate.

Both parents take turns to incubate the eggs and will viciously peck anything ; big or small that gets too close.
Rock hoppers swim using their rudder like flippers to propel themselves through the water. Usually they swim in shallow water , however they are able to dive 330 ft in pursuit of  fish , squid , crustaceans and krill.

These penguins are among the most numerous on the planet but their population is declining. Colonies on the Falkland islands were really  large ; with commercial over fishing , pollution and other factors have cut the numbers down to 90%.

Cotton tail rabbits

There are several types of  cotton tail rabbits however the eastern one is the most common. It can be found from Canada to South America and in the United States from the east coast to the great plains. They range from reddish brown to grey. However they all have the distinctive white cotton tail.

Their main habitat is open spaces and the fields , meadows and farms . They browse on grasses during the night and will also eat peas and lettuces. In the winter the diet will consist of bark , twigs and buds. During the day they remain hidden in vegetation. If they spot danger they will  run in a zigzag pattern sometimes reaching speeds of up to 18 mph.


Females give birth to young in shallow holes in the ground. When they are born the young rabbits are so weak that many will not survive the first year. Rabbits produce a litter of 3-4 up to 4 times a year.