Did You Know?
Did you know that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service manages nearly 150 million acres of wildlife habitat in over 550 refuges? It is the world's premier network of public lands and waters set aside to conserve America's fish, wildlife, and plants.
Here are some interesting and surprising facts about the plants and animals found in our wildlife refuges.
Bald Eagles
Did you know that bald eagles have a wingspan of up to 7-1/2 feet? They may have 7800 feathers, which are made of keratin, like your fingernails. Their wings weigh less than 2 pounds, but for their size they are stronger than airplane wings because each feather is held together by more than 350,000 tiny hooks.
The clear cold water of the Skagit River provides excellent salmon habitat. Each winter hundreds of bald eagles gather to feed on salmon carcasses which wash up on gravel bars.
Katydids
Did you know that the katydid has supersonic hearing? It can hear sounds up to 45,000 vibrations per second. The best a human can hear is about 20,000 vibrations per second.
("Body, Human." The New Book of Knowledge. New York: Grolier, 1967: 285.)
Camels
Camels originated in North America and moved to warmer regions, eventually becoming stranded on the African continent. Fossil remains of camels and other prehistoric animals have been found on the Hanford Reach National Monument near Richland, Washington.
Elk
Rocky Mountain elk can be seen during winter months grazing in areas south of Washington State Highway 240. Elk on the Hanford Reach National Monument sometimes reach 1000 pounds or more. During the fall rut, males spar to compete for possession of a harem.
Starlings
European starlings are jaunty, stocky birds with a jerky, zig-zag walk. For much of the year they wheel through the sky in big, noisy flocks. They are sometimes resented because they are not native, and are agressive and abundant. Starlings are one of our most abundant songbirds. And sing they do! Starlings are known to embed sounds from their surroundings into their own calls, including car alarms, other bird sounds, lawn mowers, water noises, sirens, etc. They can recognize each other by their calls and are the subject of research into the evolution of human language. Myth states that starlings can talk if their tongues are split. The truth is, they talk when exposed to human speech.
Salmon
Salmon raised in hatcheries are protected from many predators found in streams. They don’t compete for food and space like wild fish, and they are usually unaffected by natural disasters like floods and mud slides. But, fish eating ducks and mammals are attracted to hatcheries, and disease is another cause for death of hatchery salmon.
There are three ways migrating salmon juveniles can get past the dams.
- Spill gates
- Fish bypass systems
- Turbine gateways
Going through spill gates is the least harmful to fish. However, water used to provide passage for fish through the spill gates cannot be used to generate electric power.
Fish bypass systems are the second best route. Large screens guide migrating salmon around the turbines and through pipes.
The third and least desirable way around dams is to pass through the turbines. This causes fish to become disoriented and maybe eaten by predators.
A weather pattern called El Nino causes ocean temperatures off the coast to rise, creating warmer ocean waters where salmon live. The warmer water greatly decreases ocean productivity and limits the amount of food for salmon. Warmer water also enables predatory fish normally found in the southern part of the ocean to move north into areas used by young salmon.
Adult salmon returning to spawn in the streams where they were born used fish ladders to get past dams to complete their migration. The fish ladders can be difficult to find, especially in high water flow years. Salmon sometimes make their way around the dams only to fall back and have to try again. Salmon returning to spawning grounds in the Columbia Basin are harvested by Native American and sport fisherman.