A beaver dam or beaver impoundment is a dam built by beavers; it creates a pond which protects against predators such as coyotes, wolves and bears, and holds their food during winter. These structures modify the natural environment in such a way that the overall ecosystem builds upon the change, making beavers a keystone species and ecosystem engineers. They build prolifically at night, carrying mud with their forepaws and timber between their teeth.
Beaver dam at Algonquin Park in Ontario, Canada
North American beaver (Castor canadensis), one of two species of beaver
Beaver dam in Lassen Volcanic National Park
Beavers use rocks for their dam when mud and branches are less available as seen on Bear Creek, a tributary to the Truckee River, in Alpine Meadows, California
Salmon is the common name for several commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the genera Salmo and Oncorhynchus of the family Salmonidae, native to tributaries of the North Atlantic (Salmo) and North Pacific (Oncorhynchus) basins. Other closely related fish in the same family include trout, char, grayling, whitefish, lenok and taimen, all coldwater fish of the subarctic and cooler temperate regions with some sporadic endorheic populations in Central Asia.
Pacific salmon leaping at Willamette Falls, Oregon
Life cycle of Pacific salmon
Eggs in different stages of development: In some, only a few cells grow on top of the yolk, in the lower right, the blood vessels surround the yolk, and in the upper left, the black eyes are visible, even the little lens.