1.
U.S. Highway 34 (Colorado)
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U. S. Route 34 in Colorado is a segment of U. S. Route 34. Its west end is at U. S. Highway 40 in Granby and its east end is at the Nebraska border east of Laird, the route begins in Granby at US40. It then follows the Colorado River Valley near Granby Lake and enters Arapaho National Recreational Area, after entering Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorados Front Range, US34 follows the North Fork Colorado River through Kawuneeche Valley. It passes over Milner Pass and reaches the Alpine Visitor Center, then it continues east, passing its highest point at 12,183 feet near the Gore Range. It exits the park at US36 at Deer Ridge Junction, US34 here is the highest continuous highway in the United States. This section of US34 requires a $30 national park entrance fee, from here, it passes by Estes Park as Eisenhower Boulevard, has a business route and enters Loveland, becoming a four-lane expressway. Here, it intersects I-25 and U. S. Highway 287, at Greeley, it passes by U. S. Highway 85 in a complex interchange and U. S.34 Business, and crosses the South Platte River. It also has an interchange with SH257, from here, it is no longer an expressway. It intersects SH144 and SH39, then joins I-76 at Wiggins. It leaves, and follows the North Fork Republican River east into Nebraska, where it intersects SH71, SH52, SH63, SH61, SH59, parts of the route were originally designated as US38. US34 was extended into Colorado in 1939, U. S. Highway 34 Business serves Estes Park, Colorado. Both of its termini are at US34, the business route splits from the main route east of the Rocky Mountain National Park Fall River Entrance Station, in the western city limits of Estes Park and enters town on West Elkhorn Avenue. The main route continues around the edge of Estes park on Wonderview Avenue. At Moraine Avenue, It joins US36 in downtown Estes Park and it returns to US34 after about 1.7 miles at an intersection with Wonderview Avenue, Big Thompson Avenue, and North St. Vrain Avenue. The business route was established in 1964, the entire route is in Estes Park, Larimer County
U.S. Highway 34 (Colorado)
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View of US 34 in Rocky Mountain National Park, at an altitude above 11,000 feet
U.S. Highway 34 (Colorado)
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U.S. Route 34
U.S. Highway 34 (Colorado)
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Entrance sign for Estes Park
2.
Rocky Mountain elk
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The Rocky Mountain elk is a subspecies of elk found in the Rocky Mountains and adjacent ranges of Western North America. The winter ranges are most common in forests and floodplain marshes in the lower elevations. In the summer it migrates to the forests and alpine basins. The total wild population is one million individuals. The Rocky Mountain elk was reintroduced in 1913 to Colorado from Wyoming after the extinction of the regional herds. While overhunting is a significant contributing factor, the elk’s near extinction is attributed to human encroachment and destruction of their natural habitats. A year later, twenty-one elk from Jackson Hole, Wyoming were reintroduced to South Dakotas Wind Cave National Park for population increase, Elk numbers continued to increase through the 1990s to the present. All Rocky Mountain elk in Washington are the result of reintroductions conducted in the early 1900s from Yellowstone elk herds and these initial reintroductions have expanded their range and have also been translocated within the State. Not all of these elk have all the habitat to be successful in large numbers, in 1990, feasibility studies were conducted to determine if wild, free-ranging elk still had a place in some of their former eastern haunts. In recent years, elk from Utah have been used to reestablish a population in Kentucky, as of 2010, the Rocky Mountain elk herd has been diagnosed with a serious disorder called Chronic Wasting Disease. CWD affects the brain tissue of infected elk and is similar in symptoms to bovine spongiform encephalopathy, there is no evidence to conclude that elk CWD is transmittable to humans, and research concerning CWD and its effect on the eco-system continues. Environmental and CWD problems in Estes Park, Colorado and, on a scale, throughout the Western U. S. and North America have local, state. The Rocky Mountain National Park and the Estes Park environments are physically disrupted by the migration of the elk, several indigenous butterfly and plant species are harmed, especially the aspen groves that the elk herd of perhaps 3,000 animals decimates in its search for food. The elk population, while taxing the common resources, also adversely affects native species that share the same food supply. Plan for Sharpshooters to Thin Colorado Elk Herd Draws Critics, published, May 28,2006 http, //www. nytimes. com/2006/05/28/us/28elk. html Fibrils in brain of Rocky Mountain elk with chronic wasting disease contain scrapie amyloid. Guiroy DC, Williams ES, Song KJ, Yanagihara R, laboratory of Central Nervous System Studies, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD20892. Guiroy, DC, Williams, ES, Song, KJ, Yanagihara, R, Gajdusek, Fibrils in brain of Rocky Mountain elk with chronic wasting disease contain scrapie amyloid. Neurobiology of Disease, Chronic Wasting Disease of Elk, Transmissibility to Humans Examined by Transgenic Mouse Models, petersen,1 Man-Sun Sy,1 Shu G. Chen,1 and Pierluigi Gambetti1
Rocky Mountain elk
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Rocky Mountain elk
3.
Colorado River
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The Colorado River is one of the principal rivers of the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The 1, 450-mile-long Colorado River drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U. S. starting in the central Rocky Mountains in the U. S. After entering Mexico, the Colorado approaches the mostly dry Colorado River Delta at the tip of the Gulf of California between Baja California and Sonora. Known for its dramatic canyons, whitewater rapids, and eleven U. S. National Parks, the Colorados large flow and steep gradient are used for generating hydroelectric power, and its major dams regulate peaking power demands in much of the Intermountain West. Intensive water consumption has dried up the lower 100 miles of the river, beginning with small bands of nomadic hunter-gatherers, Native Americans have inhabited the Colorado River basin for at least 8,000 years. Most native peoples that inhabit the basin today are descended from groups that settled in the region beginning about 1,000 years ago. Europeans first entered the Colorado Basin in the 16th century, when explorers from Spain began mapping and claiming the area, early contact between Europeans and Native Americans was generally limited to the fur trade in the headwaters and sporadic trade interactions along the lower river. After most of the Colorado River basin became part of the U. S. in 1846, several expeditions charted the Colorado in the mid-19th century – one of which, led by John Wesley Powell, was the first to run the rapids of the Grand Canyon. American explorers collected valuable information that would later be used to develop the river for navigation, lesser numbers settled in the upper basin, which was the scene of major gold strikes in the 1860s and 1870s. Large engineering works began around the start of the 20th century, with guidelines established in a series of international. The U. S. federal government was the driving force behind the construction of dams and aqueducts in the river system, although many state. Most of the dams in the river basin were built between 1910 and 1970, the system keystone, Hoover Dam, was completed in 1935. The Colorado is now considered among the most controlled and litigated rivers in the world, as demands for Colorado River water continue to rise, the level of human development and control of the river continues to generate controversy. The Colorado begins at La Poudre Pass in the Southern Rocky Mountains of Colorado, after a short run south, the river turns west below Grand Lake, the largest natural lake in the state. As it flows southwest, it gains strength from many tributaries, as well as larger ones including the Blue, Eagle. In a few areas, such as the marshy Kawuneeche Valley near the headwaters, arcing northwest, the Colorado begins to cut across the eponymous Colorado Plateau, a vast area of high desert centered at the Four Corners of the southwestern United States. In Utah, the Colorado flows primarily through the slickrock country and this is one of the most inaccessible regions of the continental United States. Here, the San Juan River, carrying runoff from the slope of Colorados San Juan Mountains, joins the Colorado from the east. S
Colorado River
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The Colorado River at
Horseshoe Bend,
Arizona, a few miles below
Glen Canyon Dam
Colorado River
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Map of the Colorado River basin
Colorado River
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The
Kawuneeche Valley, near the headwaters of the Colorado River in
Rocky Mountain National Park
Colorado River
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Colorado River in the Grand Canyon seen from Pima Point, near
Hermit's Rest
4.
Rocky Mountain National Park
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The park is situated between the towns of Estes Park to the east and Grand Lake to the west. The eastern and westerns slopes of the Continental Divide run directly through the center of the park with the headwaters of the Colorado River located in the northwestern region. The main features of the park include mountains, alpine lakes, the Rocky Mountain National Park Act was signed by then–President Woodrow Wilson on January 26,1915, establishing the park boundaries and protecting the area for future generations. The Civilian Conservation Corps built the main route, named Trail Ridge Road. In 1976, UNESCO designated the park as one of the first World Biosphere Reserves, in 2016, more than four and a half million recreational visitors entered the park, which is an increase of about nine percent from the prior year. The history of Rocky Mountain National Park began when Paleo-Indians traveled along what is now Trail Ridge Road to hunt, Ute and Arapaho people subsequently hunted and camped in the area. In 1820, the Long Expedition, led by Stephen H. Long for whom Longs Peak was named, approached the Rockies via the Platte River. Settlers began arriving in the mid-1800s, displacing the Native Americans who mostly left the area voluntarily by 1860, lulu City, Dutchtown, and Gaskill in the Never Summer Mountains were established in the 1870s when prospectors came in search of gold and silver. The boom ended by 1883 with miners deserting their claims, the railroad reached Lyons, Colorado in 1881 and the Big Thompson Canyon Road—a section of U. S. Route 34 from Loveland to Estes Park—was completed in 1904. The 1920s saw a boom in building lodges and roads in the park, prominent individuals in the effort to create a national park included Enos Mills from the Estes Park area, James Grafton Rogers from Denver, and J. Horace McFarland of Pennsylvania. The national park was established on January 26,1915, Precambrian metamorphic rock formed the core of the North American continent during the Precambrian eon 4. 5–1 billion years ago. During the Paleozoic era, western North America was submerged beneath a sea, with a seabed composed of limestone. Concurrently, in the period from 500–300 million years ago, the region began to sink while lime, eroded granite produced sand particles that formed strata—layers of sediment—in the sinking basin. About 300 million years ago, the land was uplifted creating the ancestral Rocky Mountains, fountain Formation was deposited during the Pennsylvanian period of the Paleozoic era, 290–296 million years ago. Over the next 150 million years, the uplifted, continued to erode. Wind, gravity, rainwater, snow, and glacial ice eroded the mountains over geologic time scales. The Ancestral Rockies were eventually buried under subsequent strata, the Pierre Shale formation was deposited during the Paleogene and Cretaceous periods about 70 million years ago. The region was covered by a deep sea—the Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway—which deposited massive amounts of shale on the seabed
Rocky Mountain National Park
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View from
Bear Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park
Rocky Mountain National Park
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A view of a
tundra landscape in Rocky Mountain National Park.
Rocky Mountain National Park
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Longs Peak seen from
Dream Lake trail
Rocky Mountain National Park
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Lord Dunraven (1841-1926), the
Irish nobleman, in later life.
5.
Colorado
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Colorado is a state in the United States encompassing most of the Southern Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains. Colorado is part of the Western United States, the Southwestern United States, Colorado is the 8th most extensive and the 21st most populous of the 50 United States. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the population of Colorado was 5,540,545 on July 1,2016, the state was named for the Colorado River, which Spanish travelers named the Río Colorado for the ruddy silt the river carried from the mountains. The Territory of Colorado was organized on February 28,1861, Colorado is nicknamed the Centennial State because it became a state in the same year as the centennial of the United States Declaration of Independence. Colorado is noted for its landscape of mountains, forests, high plains, mesas, canyons, plateaus, rivers. Denver is the capital and the most populous city of Colorado, residents of the state are properly known as Coloradans, although the term Coloradoan has been used archaically and lives on in the title of Fort Collins newspaper, the Coloradoan. Colorado, Wyoming and Utah are the states which have boundaries defined solely by lines of latitude and longitude. The summit of Mount Elbert at 14,440 feet elevation in Lake County is the highest point in Colorado, Colorado is the only U. S. state that lies entirely above 1,000 meters elevation. The point where the Arikaree River flows out of Yuma County, Colorado and this point, which holds the distinction of being the highest low elevation point of any state, is higher than the high elevation points of 18 states and the District of Columbia. A little less than one half of the area of Colorado is flat, East of the Rocky Mountains are the Colorado Eastern Plains of the High Plains, the section of the Great Plains within Nebraska at elevations ranging from roughly 3,350 to 7,500 feet. The Colorado plains were mostly prairies, but they have many patches of forests, buttes. Eastern Colorado is presently covered in farmland and rangeland, along with small farming villages. Precipitation is fair, averaging from 15 to 25 inches annually, corn, wheat, hay, soybeans, and oats are all typical crops, and most of the villages and towns in this region boast both a water tower and a grain elevator. Irrigation water is available from the South Platte, the Arkansas River, and a few other streams, however, heavy use of ground water from wells for irrigation has caused underground water reserves to decline. As well as agriculture, eastern Colorado hosts considerable livestock, such as cattle ranches. Roughly 70% of Colorados population resides along the edge of the Rocky Mountains in the Front Range Urban Corridor between Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Pueblo, Colorado. This region is protected from prevailing storms that blow in from the Pacific Ocean region by the high Rockies in the middle of Colorado. The Front Range includes Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins, Loveland, Colorado Springs, Pueblo, Greeley and other townships, on the other side of the Rockies, the significant population centers in Western Colorado are the cities of Grand Junction, Durango, and Montrose
Colorado
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The
Elk Mountains near
Aspen, Colorado
Colorado
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Flag
Colorado
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Mountains and lakes near
Breckenridge, Colorado
Colorado
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A view of the arid high plains in Southeastern Colorado
6.
Coyote
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The coyote is a canid native to North America. It is smaller than its relative, the gray wolf, and slightly smaller than its other close relatives, the eastern wolf. It fills much of the ecological niche as the golden jackal does in Eurasia, though it is larger. The species is versatile and able to adapt to environments modified by humans, as human activity has altered the landscape, the coyotes range has expanded. In 2013, coyotes were sighted in eastern Panama for the first time, the coyote is more closely related to the common ancestor of wolves and other canids than the gray wolf. As of 2005,19 coyote subspecies are recognized, the average male coyote weighs 8 to 20 kg and the average female 7 to 18 kg. Their fur color is light gray and red or fulvous interspersed with black and white. It is highly flexible in organization, living either in a family unit or in loosely knit packs of unrelated individuals. The coyotes characteristic vocalization is a made by solitary individuals. Humans aside, cougars and gray wolves are the only serious enemies. Nevertheless, coyotes do sometimes mate with gray, eastern, or red wolves, Most recent studies show that most wolves contain some level of coyote DNA. As with other figures, the coyote uses deception and humor to rebel against social conventions. The animal was especially respected in Mesoamerican cosmology as a symbol of military might, after the European colonization of the Americas, it was reviled in Anglo-American culture as a cowardly and untrustworthy animal. Unlike wolves, which have undergone an improvement of their public image, Coyote males average 8 to 20 kg in weight, while females average 7 to 18 kg, though size varies geographically. Northern subspecies, which average 18 kg, tend to larger than the southern subspecies of Mexico. Body length ranges on average from 1.0 to 1.35 m, the largest coyote on record was a male killed near Afton, Wyoming, on November 19,1937, which measured 1.5 m from nose to tail, and weighed 34 kg. Scent glands are located at the side of the base of the tail and are a bluish-black color. The color and texture of the fur varies somewhat geographically
Coyote
Coyote
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Toltec pictograph of coyote.
Coyote
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Mearns' coyote (C. l. mearnsi) pups playing.
Coyote
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A pack of coyotes
7.
US Route 34
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U. S. Route 34 is an east–west United States highway that runs for 1,122 miles from north-central Colorado to the western suburbs of Chicago. Through Rocky Mountain National Park it is known as the Trail Ridge Road where it reaches elevation 12,183 feet, the highways western terminus is Granby, Colorado at U. S. Route 40. Its eastern terminus is in Berwyn, Illinois at Illinois Route 43, U. S. Route 34 becomes a toll road for a short distance in Colorado, where it passes through Rocky Mountain National Park. In the state of Colorado, U. S. Route 34 runs north from Granby through Rocky Mountain National Park and it passes through Estes Park, Loveland, and Greeley before entering Nebraska east of Wray. Within Rocky Mountain National Park US34 is known as Trail Ridge Road, Route 34 transverses Fall River Pass and Milner Pass in the Front Range of Colorado. In the state of Nebraska, U. S. Route 34 is a major east–west arterial surface road along the portion of Nebraska. It enters Nebraska west of Haigler and overlaps other routes for the majority of its routing, U. S.34 passes through Hastings, Grand Island, and Lincoln before entering Iowa east of Plattsmouth over the Plattsmouth Bridge. U. S. Route 34 from between Hastings and Grand Island is known as the Tom Osborne Expressway, which is named for the former Hastings resident, Nebraska Cornhuskers football coach, and Congressman. In Lincoln, U. S.34 overlaps with Interstate 180 from its junction with Interstate 80 into downtown where it becomes North 9th/North 10th Streets, then east as O Street. Also, the segment from the Lancaster County/Cass County border to Nebraska Highway 1 south of Elmwood is the Bess Streeter Aldrich Memorial Highway, after the former author and Elmwood resident. In the state of Iowa, U. S. Route 34 is a major east–west arterial surface road across southern Iowa and it enters Iowa west of Glenwood and then passes through Glenwood, Red Oak, and Creston before intersecting Interstate 35 at Osceola. East of Osceola, it continues through Chariton and Georgetown then onto Albia before meeting U. S. Route 63 at a circle in Ottumwa. East of Ottumwa to Burlington, the highway overlaps Iowa Highway 163 and this segment of highway is an expressway with some freeway segments. As of November 12,2008, it bypasses Fairfield and then bypasses Mt. Pleasant, with a portion of this also concurrent with U. S. Route 218 and it then continues southeast towards Burlington bypassing New London and then Danville and Middletown. The freeway segment through Burlington was completed in the 1970s and it then crosses the Mississippi River on the Great River Bridge into Illinois which was completed in the early 1990s. In 2015, a 15-mile segment of U. S. Route 34 in Montgomery, much of this route was originally known as the Bluegrass Highway and parallels tracks of what was originally the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad and is now the BNSF. Amtraks California Zephyr passenger rail service also parallels this route, U. S.34 in the state of Iowa is officially designated the Red Bull Highway in honor of the 34th Infantry Division. In the state of Illinois, U. S. Route 34 enters at the Mississippi River across from Burlington, through much of the Chicago area, the highway is known as Ogden Avenue, after William Butler Ogden, Chicagos first mayor
US Route 34
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View of US 34 in Rocky Mountain National Park, from an elevation above 11,000 feet (3,400 m)
US Route 34
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U.S. Route 34
US Route 34
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US 34 near its junction with US 71,
Montgomery County, Iowa.
US Route 34
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U.S. 34 in western
Illinois
8.
Wapiti
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The elk, or wapiti, is one of the largest species within the deer family, Cervidae, in the world, and one of the largest land mammals in North America and Eastern Asia. This animal should not be confused with the still larger moose to which the name elk applies in British English, apart from the moose, the only other member of the deer family to rival the elk in size is the south Asian sambar. Elk range in forest and forest-edge habitat, feeding on grasses, plants, leaves, male elk have large antlers which are shed each year. Although they are native to North America and eastern Asia, they have adapted well to countries in which they have introduced, including Argentina. Their great adaptability may threaten endemic species and ecosystems into which they have been introduced, Elk are susceptible to a number of infectious diseases, some of which can be transmitted to livestock. Efforts to eliminate infectious diseases from elk populations, largely by vaccination, have had mixed success, some cultures revere the elk as a spiritual force. In parts of Asia, antlers and their velvet are used in traditional medicines, Elk are hunted as a game species. The meat is leaner and higher in protein than beef or chicken and it was long believed to be a subspecies of the European red deer, but evidence from a number of mitochondrial DNA genetic studies beginning in 1998 show that the two are distinct species. Key morphological differences that distinguish C. canadensis from C. elaphus are the formers wider rump patch and paler-hued antlers. The word elk is related to the Latin alces, Old Norse elgr, Scandinavian elg/älg and German Elch, the name wapiti is from the Shawnee and Cree word waapiti, meaning white rump. This name is used in particular for the Asian subspecies, because in Eurasia the name elk continues to be used for the moose, Asian subspecies are sometimes referred to as the maral, but this name applies primarily to the Caspian red deer, a subspecies of red deer. There is a subspecies of elk in Mongolia called the Altai wapiti, members of the genus Cervus first appear in the fossil record 25 million years ago, during the Oligocene in Eurasia, but do not appear in the North American fossil record until the early Miocene. The extinct Irish elk was not a member of the genus Cervus, until recently, red deer and elk were considered to be one species, Cervus elaphus. However, the two species have freely inter-bred in New Zealands Fiordland National Park, where the animals have all. There are numerous subspecies of elk described, with six from North America and four from Asia, populations vary as to antler shape and size, body size, coloration and mating behavior. DNA investigations of the Eurasian subspecies revealed that phenotypic variation in antlers, mane, of the six subspecies of elk known to have inhabited North America in historical times, four remain, including the Roosevelt, tule, Manitoban and Rocky Mountain. The eastern elk and Merriams elk subspecies have been extinct for at least a century, four subspecies described in Asia include the Altai wapiti and the Tianshan wapiti. Two distinct subspecies found in China and Korea are the Manchurian wapiti, the Manchurian wapiti is darker and more reddish in coloration than the other populations
Wapiti
Wapiti
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Elk crossing a rock face
Wapiti
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Illustration of eastern elk
Wapiti
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A herd of Roosevelt elk
9.
Mule deer
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The mule deer is a deer indigenous to western North America, it is named for its ears, which are large like those of the mule. There are believed to be several subspecies including the black-tailed deer, unlike the related white-tailed deer, mule deer are generally more associated with the land west of the Missouri River, and more specifically with the Rocky Mountain region of North America. Mule deer have also introduced to Argentina and Kauai, Hawaii. The most noticeable differences between white-tailed and mule deer are the size of their ears, the color of their tails, in many cases, body size is also a key difference. The mule deers tail is black-tipped, whereas the whitetails is not, mule deer antlers are bifurcated, they fork as they grow, rather than branching from a single main beam, as is the case with white-tails. Each spring, a bucks antlers start to regrow almost immediately after the old antlers are shed, shedding typically takes place in mid-February, with variations occurring by locale. Although capable of running, mule deer are often seen stotting, the mule deer is the larger of the two Odocoileus species on average, with a height of 80–106 cm at the shoulders and a nose-to-tail length ranging from 1.2 to 2.1 m. Of this, the tail may comprise 11.6 to 23 cm, adult bucks normally weigh 55–150 kg, averaging around 92 kg, although trophy specimens may weigh up to 210 kg. Does are rather smaller and typically weigh from 43 to 90 kg, an exception to this is the subspecies, the Sitka black-tailed deer. This race is smaller than other mule deer, with an average weight of 54.5 kg and 36 kg in males and females. In addition to related to available shelter and food, the breeding cycle is important in understanding deer behavior. The rut or mating season begins in the fall as does go into estrus for a period of a few days and males become more aggressive. Does may mate more than one buck and go back into estrus within a month if they did not become pregnant. The gestation period is about 190–200 days, with fawns born in the spring, staying with their mothers during the summer, mule deer females usually give birth to two fawns, although if it is their first time having a fawn, they often have just one. A bucks antlers fall off during the winter, to again in preparation for the next seasons rut. The annual cycle of growth is regulated by changes in the length of the day. For a guide to identify the sex and age class of Rocky Mountain mule deer at various seasons see S1 File, for more information see the main article on deer. The size of mule deer groups follow a seasonal pattern
Mule deer
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Mule deer
Mule deer
Mule deer
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A small herd of mule deer in the
Sulphur Springs Valley of southern Arizona.
Mule deer
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Mule deer grazing in
Zion National Park
10.
Moose
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The moose or elk, Alces alces, is the largest extant species in the deer family. Moose are distinguished by the broad, flat antlers of the males, Moose typically inhabit boreal forests and temperate broadleaf and mixed forests of the Northern Hemisphere in temperate to subarctic climates. Hunting and other activities have caused a reduction in the size of the mooses range over time. Moose have been reintroduced to some of their former habitats, currently, most moose are found in Canada, Alaska, New England, Fennoscandia, Latvia, Estonia and Russia. Their diet consists of terrestrial and aquatic vegetation. The most common predators are the gray wolf along with bears. Unlike most other species, moose are solitary animals and do not form herds. Although generally slow-moving and sedentary, moose can become aggressive and move quickly if angered or startled and their mating season in the autumn features energetic fights between males competing for a female. Alces alces is called a moose in North American English, and that same word elk in North American English refers to a completely different species of deer, the Cervus canadensis, also called the wapiti. A mature male moose is called a bull, a female a cow. The word elk originated from Proto-Germanic languages, from which Old English evolved, the British English word elk has cognates in other Indo-European languages, for example elg in Danish/Norwegian, älg in Swedish, alnis in Latvian, Elch in German, and łoś in Polish. In the continental-European languages, these forms of the word elk almost always refer to the Alces alces, the word moose first entered English by 1606 and is borrowed from the Algonquian languages, and possibly involved forms from multiple languages mutually reinforcing one another. The term moose is a name of North American origin, the animal is known in British English as the elk. The moose became extinct in Britain during the Bronze Age, long before the Europeans discovery of America, the youngest bones were found in Scotland and are roughly 3900 years old. Dictionaries of the 18th century simply described elk as a deer that was as large as a horse, confusingly, the word elk is used in North America to refer to a different animal, Cervus canadensis, which is also called by the Algonkian indigenous name, wapiti. The British began colonizing America in the 17th century, and found two common species of deer for which they had no names, the wapiti appeared very similar to the red deer of Europe although it was much larger and was not red. The moose was a rather strange-looking deer to the colonists, the wapiti is very similar to the red deer of central and western Europe, although it is distinctly different behaviorally and genetically. Early European explorers in North America, particularly in Virginia where there were no moose, called the wapiti elk because of its size, the moose resembled the German elk, which was less familiar to the British colonists
Moose
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Moose
Moose
Moose
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Bull and cow moose
Moose
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Cow moose
11.
North Park (Colorado basin)
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North Park is a high, sparsely populated basin in the Rocky Mountains in north central Colorado in the United States. The valley receives its name from being the northernmost of the three mountain valleys in Colorado on the western side of the Front Range. The others are Middle Park and South Park respectively, the basin opens out northward into Wyoming, in the direction of flow of the North Platte. On the east side, it is rimmed by the Medicine Bow Mountains, the Never Summer Mountains and Rabbit Ears Range to the south, the continental divide rims the Park along the south and west. The primary economic activities in the valley are cattle ranching and timber harvesting, the largest community in the valley is Walden, the Jackson County seat, that sits near the middle of the valley near the confluence of the Michigan and Illinois rivers. Smaller communities in the include the unincorporated hamlets of Gould. The valley is crossed east-west by State Highway 14, which enters from the east over Cameron Pass, providing a link to the Poudre Canyon and Fort Collins. Highway 14 enters from the west over Muddy Pass which provides access to Steamboat Springs and it is crossed north-south by State Highway 125, which enters from the north along the course of the North Platte. It enters from the south over Willow Creek Pass, providing access to the end of Middle Park near Granby. The valley along the Illinois River is the location of the Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge, the valley floor is underlain by Paleozoic and Mesozoic sedimentary rocks that form a structural basin. The stratigraphy is similar to that in adjacent basins such as the Green River Basin to the west, petroleum has long been produced from anticlinal traps of the Muddy Sandstone at North McCallum and South McCallum oil fields. In 2007, North Park produced 96 thousand barrels of oil and 1.3 billion cubic feet of gas from 153 wells. In 2008 EOG Resources announced great success in drilling and completing horizontal oil wells in the Cretaceous Niobrara Formation, map from North Park-Medicine Bow Mountains Project, USGS Walden/North Park Chamber of Commerce Colorado Historical Society
North Park (Colorado basin)
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Log structure near Rand, Colorado, at the southern end of North Park. The view is southwards towards Willow Creek Pass.
12.
Mountain lion
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The cougar, also commonly known as the mountain lion, puma, panther, or catamount, is a large felid of the subfamily Felinae native to the Americas. Its range, from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes of South America, is the greatest of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere, an adaptable, generalist species, the cougar is found in most American habitat types. It is the second-heaviest cat in the New World, after the jaguar, secretive and largely solitary by nature, the cougar is properly considered both nocturnal and crepuscular, although there are daytime sightings. The cougar is more related to smaller felines, including the domestic cat, than to any species of subfamily Pantherinae. The cougar is a predator and pursues a wide variety of prey. Primary food sources are ungulates, particularly deer, but also livestock and it also hunts species as small as insects and rodents. This cat prefers habitats with dense underbrush and rocky areas for stalking, the cougar is territorial and survives at low population densities. Individual territory sizes depend on terrain, vegetation, and abundance of prey, while large, it is not always the apex predator in its range, yielding to the jaguar, gray wolf, American black bear, and grizzly bear. It is reclusive and mostly avoids people, fatal attacks on humans are rare, but have recently been increasing in North America as more people enter their territories. Intensive hunting following European colonization of the Americas and the human development of cougar habitat has caused populations to drop in most parts of its historical range. In particular, the cougar was extirpated in eastern North America in the beginning of the 20th century, reports of eastern cougars still surface, although it was declared extirpated in 2011. With its vast range across the length of the Americas, P. concolor has dozens of names and various references in the mythology of the indigenous Americans and in contemporary culture. Currently, it is referred to as puma by most scientists, Mountain lion was a term first used in writing in 1858 from the diary of George A. Jackson of Colorado. Other names include catamount, mountain screamer, and painter, lexicographers regard painter as a primarily upper-Southern US regional variant on panther. The word panther is used to specifically designate the black panther, a melanistic jaguar or leopard, and the Florida panther. P. concolor holds the Guinness record for the animal with the greatest number of names, Cougar may be borrowed from the archaic Portuguese çuçuarana, the term was originally derived from the Tupi language susuarana, meaning similar to deer. A current form in Brazil is suçuarana and it may also be borrowed from the Guaraní language term guaçu ara or guazu ara. Less common Portuguese terms are onça-parda or leão-baio, or unusually non-native puma or leão-da-montanha, people in rural regions often refer to both the cougar and the jaguar as simply gata, and outside of the Amazon, both are colloquially referred to as simply onça by many people
Mountain lion
Mountain lion
–
Although large, the cougar is more closely related to smaller felines.
Mountain lion
–
Close-up of face
Mountain lion
–
Cougar skull and jawbone
13.
Trail Ridge Road
–
Trail Ridge Road is the name for a stretch of U. S. Highway 34 that traverses Rocky Mountain National Park from Estes Park, Colorado in the east to Grand Lake, Colorado in the west. It requires access to Rocky Mountain National Park even for local residents, from Kawuneeche Visitor Center at the parks Grand Lake Entrance, Trail Ridge Road follows the North Fork of the Colorado River north through the Kawuneeche Valley. There are several trailheads along this section of the road, notably the Colorado River Trailhead, the road crosses the Continental Divide at Milner Pass and reaches a maximum elevation of 12,183 ft, near Fall River Pass. Near the highest point on the road is another pass, Iceberg Pass, according to construction contracts and park maintenance files the east end of the road is located at the Fall River Entrance, however some guides state that earlier - at Deer Ridge Junction. Trail Ridge is a flat spur range extending east from the main range of the Rockies between Fall River in the North and the Big Thompson River in the South. The road follows Trail Ridge from the Fall River Pass near Alpine Visitor Center to the Deer Ridge Junction, Fall River Road was the first road into the parks high country. It opened in 1921 and quickly proved inadequate for motor travel as a road with steep grades, tight curves. Construction began in 1929 and was complete to Fall River Pass by July 1932, the road was complete through the Kawuneeche Valley to Grand Lake in 1938. The route followed what was known to local Arapaho Indians as the Dog Trail, internal opposition to the construction of a road through the parks alpine tundra was overruled by National Park Service director Horace Albright, who wished to encourage park visitation. The road was designed to intrude as little as possible into the landscape, hidden Valley was a local ski area attraction from 1955 -1991, off of Trail Ridge Road, now in defunct status. Trail Ridge had been used by Native Americans to cross the mountains between their lands in the west and hunting areas on the east side. Arapahoe Indians called the trail located on the ridge as taienbaa because it was so steep that children could not be carried, the Ute tribe crossing the mountains at Forest Canyon Pass marked their route with stone cairns. The present park Ute Trail follows partially that ancient route, on the west side, about 1880, a wagon road was constructed along the Kawuneeche Valley from the town of Grand Lake to the mining camps of Lulu City and Gaskil. The camps were abandoned after a few years when short-lived mining boom ended and later the road was used occasionally by hunters
Trail Ridge Road
–
Trail Ridge Road, with Longs Peak (left of center), Pagoda Peak (center, in sun), Chief's Head (right of center, in shadow), and Mount Terra Tomah (at far right edge, in shadow), from 12,000 feet (3,700 m) above sea level in
Rocky Mountain National Park
Trail Ridge Road
–
Schematic map of the Trail Ridge Road
Trail Ridge Road
–
View of Trail Ridge Road from a hill above the Ute Trail, nineteen miles from the eastern end of the highway
Trail Ridge Road
–
The wooden poles mark the edge of the road for the spring snowplowing. The road is closed through the winter.
14.
United States
–
Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
United States
–
Native Americans meeting with Europeans, 1764
United States
–
Flag
United States
–
The signing of the
Mayflower Compact, 1620.
United States
–
The
Declaration of Independence: the
Committee of Five presenting their draft to the
Second Continental Congress in 1776
15.
Grand Ditch
–
The Grand Ditch, also known as the Grand River Ditch and originally known as the North Grand River Ditch, is a water diversion project in the Never Summer Mountains, in northern Colorado. It is 14.3 miles long,20 feet wide, the ditch was started in 1890 and wasnt completed until 1936. The ditch diverts between 20 and 40% of the runoff from the Never Summer Mountains, and delivers an average of 20,000 acre feet. It significantly impacts the ecology in the valley below and the National Park Service has fought in court to reduce the amount of diverted water, the Grand Ditch was built by the Larimer County Ditch Company, mostly by Japanese crews, working with hand tools and black powder. The first diverted water flowed east across La Poudre Pass on October 15,1890, Water Supply and Storage Company took over ownership in 1891. The ditch was extended every year, and reached three miles in 1894, after the creation of Rocky Mountain National Park, increasing demand for water led to the creation of Long Draw Reservoir, and the required land was taken away from the park by Congress in 1923. Long Draw reservoir opened in 1930, the Grand Ditch was then lengthened one more time—this also required an act of Congress since it was now in a national park—to 14.3 miles in September 1936. In May 2003 a 100-foot section of the ditch breached about 2.4 miles south of La Poudre Pass, causing the water to cascade down the slopes and into the Colorado River. The flood left a scar on the mountainside,20,000 trees were downed and 47,600 cubic yards of debris ended up in the Lulu Creek. The Water Supply and Storage Company reached a settlement to pay $9 million in damages to Rocky Mountain National Park. Periodic overflows of the ditch, of which the 2003 flood was but one example, has left all over the western side of the valley. The Grand River Ditch was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 29,1976 and it can be hiked starting from the Bowen/Baker Trailhead in Rocky Mountain National Park. CO-32, Grand Ditch, Baker Creek to LaPoudre Pass Creek, Grand Lake vicinity, Grand County, CO,4 photos,6 data pages,1 photo caption page Grand Ditch Breach Restoration Plan, Factsheet 2010
Grand Ditch
–
Grand River Ditch
Grand Ditch
–
Jurisdictions
Grand Ditch
Grand Ditch
16.
Never Summer Mountains
–
The Never Summer Mountains are a mountain range in the Rocky Mountains in north central Colorado in the United States consisting of seventeen named peaks. The range is small and tall, covering only 25 sq mi with a length of 10 mi while rising to over 12,000 ft at over ten distinct peaks. The range straddles the Jackson-Grand county line for most of its length, a panoramic view of the range is available from sections of Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park. One of the northernmost peaks, Nokhu Crags, is visible from the west side of Cameron Pass. The rocks of Never Summer Mountains are younger than most of the mountain ranges. Most of the highest peaks in the range are granodiorite that was uplifted during the Miocene epoch, the ranges highest summit, Mount Richthofen, is the remnant of an andesite volcanic plug. The Nokhu Crags in the north are mostly Pierre Shale dating from Cretaceous times, a large thrust fault underneath the Kawuneeche Valley thrust older Precambrian rocks on top of the younger Cretaceous rocks on the east side of the range. The southern peaks are Miocene-aged granite, and finally Precambrian-aged biotite gneiss, beginning two-million years ago glaciers began carving the jagged peaks of the Never Summer Mountains. Successive waves of glaciation continued to reshape the mountains until the Pinedale Glaciation ended twelve-thousand years ago, the peaks are enormous weathered masses of granitic rock heavily covered with green and orange lichens surrounded on all sides by large fields of talus shed from the original peaks. Many alpine lakes are nestled amongst the peaks, most vegetation is low-growing and stunted. Few trees grow at the altitudes and Krummholz abounds. In 1879 prospectors discovered silver on Mount Shipler, starting a small mining rush, a mining town was platted and given the name Lulu City 40°26′44″N 105°50′53″W. Other small settlements were founded in the area, including Dutchtown, the population swelled as high as 5,000 miners and business owners catering to those miners. However, low grade ore, combined with difficult transportation and lack of a smelter to process the ore conspired against the boom. By late 1883 the mining ended and the miners moved on. The last miners in Dutchtown left by 1884, today remnants of the towns and mines are accessible by hiking trails. In 1890 a project called the Grand Ditch began, the ditch is a 16.2 mi water diversion project. Streams and creeks flow from the highest peaks are diverted into the ditch
Never Summer Mountains
–
Nokhu Crags, at the northern end of the Never Summer Mountains
17.
Rain gutter
–
A rain gutter or surface water collection channel is a component of water discharge system for a building. Water from a pitched roof flows down into a valley gutter, an eaves gutter is also known as an eavestrough, eaves channel, dripster, guttering or simply as a gutter. The word gutter derives from Latin gutta, meaning a drop, guttering in its earliest form consisted of lined wooden or stone troughs. Lead was a liner and is still used in pitched valley gutters. Many materials have been used to make guttering, cast iron, asbestos cement, UPVC, cast, gutters prevent water ingress into the fabric of the building by channelling the rainwater away from the exterior of the walls and their foundations. Water running down the walls causes dampness in the rooms and provides a favourable environment for growth of mould. A rain gutter may be a, Roof integral trough along the edge of the roof slope which is fashioned from the roof covering and flashing materials. Discrete trough of metal, or other material that is suspended beyond the roof edge, wall integral structure beneath the roof edge, traditionally constructed of masonry, fashioned as the crowning element of a wall. A roof must be designed with a fall to allow the rainwater to discharge. The water drains into a gutter that is fed into a downpipe, a flat roof will have a watertight surface with a fall of 1 in 60, or 1 in the case of lead. They can drain internally or to a gutter, which has a minimum 1 in 360 fall towards the downpipe. The pitch of a roof is determined by the construction material of the covering. For slate this will be at 25%, for machine made tiles it will be 35%, water falls towards a parapet gutter, a valley gutter or an eaves gutter. When two pitched roofs meet at an angle, they form a pitched valley gutter, the join is sealed with valley flashing. Parapet gutters and valley gutters discharge into internal rainwater pipes or directly into external down pipes at the end of the run, the capacity of the gutter is a significant design consideration. The area of the roof is calculated and this is multiplied by rainfall which is assumed to be 0.0208 and this gives a required discharge outfall capacity.022 l/s/m²- while one in Cumbria delivers 0.014 l/s/m². Eaves gutters can be made from a variety of such as cast iron, lead, zinc, galvanised steel, painted steel, copper, painted aluminium, PVC and occasionally from concrete, stone. Water collected by a rain gutter is fed, usually via a downpipe, alternatively it would connect via a gulley with 50mm water seal to a combined drain
Rain gutter
–
Rain gutter and downspout
Rain gutter
–
Dripping of water from an open rain gutter in
Telče, eastern
Slovenia
Rain gutter
–
Weeds in roof gutter.
Rain gutter
–
Commercial Box Gutter
18.
Continental Divide of the Americas
–
The Continental Divide of the Americas is the principal, and largely mountainous, hydrological divide of the Americas. The Continental Divide of the Americas begins at Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, the Divide crosses into the United States in northwestern Montana, at the boundary between Waterton Lakes National Park and Glacier National Park. In Canada, it forms the boundary of Waterton Lakes National Park. The Divide crosses into Wyoming within Yellowstone National Park and continues southeast into Colorado where it reaches its highest point in North America at the summit of Grays Peak at 4,352 m. It crosses US Hwy 160 in southern Colorado at Wolf Creek Pass, the Divide then proceeds south into western New Mexico, passing along the western boundary of the endorheic Plains of San Agustin. Although the Divide represents the height of land between watersheds, it not always follow the highest ranges/peaks within each state or province. In Mexico, it passes through Chihuahua, Durango, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes, Jalisco, Guanajuato, Querétaro, México, the Federal District, Morelos, Puebla, Oaxaca, and Chiapas. In Central America, it continues through southern Guatemala, southwestern Honduras, western Nicaragua, western/southwestern Costa Rica, the divide reaches its lowest point in Central America at the Isthmus of Rivas at 47 m in Nicaragua. In North America, another, mainly non-mountainous divide, the Laurentian Divide, secondary divides separate the watersheds that flow into the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River from watersheds that flow to the Atlantic via the Missouri-Mississippi complex. Another secondary divide follows the Appalachian chain, which separates those streams, Triple Divide Peak in Glacier National Park, Montana, is the point where two of the principal continental divides in North America converge, the Great Divide and the Northern or Laurentian Divide. From this point, waters flow to the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean via the Gulf of Mexico, most geographers, geologists, meteorologists, and oceanographers consider this point the hydrological apex of North America. This is not the place on earth where two oceanic divides meet, i. e. where waters from a single point area feed into three different oceans. This status of Triple Divide Peak is the reason behind the designation of Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park as the Crown of the Continent of North America. Sources differ, however, on whether Hudson Bay is part of the Atlantic or Arctic Ocean, Hudson Bays waters flow predominantly to the Atlantic and do not directly contribute to the Arctic Ocean. Another triple divide or triple point occurs in Canada at an unimportant-looking hump on the border between Alberta and British Columbia, on the slope of Snow Dome. At 3,456 metres, the point is higher than Triple Divide Peak, the exact location of the triple point is somewhat indeterminate because the Columbia Icefield and the snow on top of it shift from year to year. The snow that falls on it doesnt really flow downhill as water, ice flowing away from that point down the Athabasca Glacier goes to the Arctic Ocean, via the Athabasca and Mackenzie Rivers. Ice flowing west goes to the Pacific Ocean via Bryce Creek, ice flowing down the Saskatchewan Glacier goes via the North Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan, and Nelson Rivers into Hudson Bay
Continental Divide of the Americas
–
The Continental Divide in the
Front Range of the
Rocky Mountains of north central
Colorado, taken from the
International Space Station on October 28, 2008
Continental Divide of the Americas
–
Principal
hydrological divides of
North America.
Continental Divide of the Americas
–
Grays Peak, the highest point of the Continental Divide in North America [
citation needed]
Continental Divide of the Americas
–
The CDT often remains above treeline and on the Divide, providing spectacular vistas along its route.
19.
Cache La Poudre River
–
The Cache la Poudre River, also known as the Poudre River, is a river in the state of Colorado in the United States. The name of the river is a corruption of the original Cache à la Poudre or cache of powder and it refers to an incident in the 1820s when French trappers, caught by a snowstorm, were forced to bury part of their gunpowder along the banks of the river. Its headwaters are in the Front Range in Larimer County, in the part of Rocky Mountain National Park. The river descends eastward in the mountains through the Roosevelt National Forest in Poudre Canyon and it emerges from the foothills north of the city of Fort Collins. It flows eastward across the plains, passing north of the city of Greeley, the river is a popular summer destination for fly fishing, whitewater rafting, tubing, and kayaking in the Poudre Canyon. The river has been populated since the 1930s by year-round residences. While a popular destination, the area has residential communities and churches that provide a year-round presence in the rural area. The fish in the Cache La Poudre River include, rainbow, brown, the river is subject to sudden and devastating floods which often impact nearby communities. A flood in 1864 destroyed the military post, Camp Collins, the military relocated the camp and renamed it Fort Collins. Although no fort was built, the current city of Fort Collins was established. From its headwaters downstream, through the city of Fort Collins, the vast majority of trout that live within the river system are brown trout. Anglers pursue these trout most actively in the guise of a fly fisher and dozens, if not hundreds, many locals consider the Cache la Poudre River to be the life blood of the Fort Collins community. As a result, several organizations have been formed in an effort to protect. The heavy pressure from the community and related tourism has tended to negatively impact the wildlife along the river corridor. Anglers seeking success on the Cache la Poudre River can find it in all seasons, fishers in the winter often pursue skittish trout with flies the size of a pinhead at distances of up to forty feet. Spring, Summertime and Fall mark the highest amounts of anglers on the stream, because of increasing fishing and rafting pressures on a finite resource, special regulations have been designated for certain stretches of the Poudre by the Colorado Division of Wildlife. These regulations include the use of flies and lures only and strict catch and this ensures that trout populations are left to thrive naturally and that fish who are caught for sport are released, unharmed, to live on for future generations. As the Cache la Poudre leaves the canyon for the valley to flow through Fort Collins the water quality decreases significantly
Cache La Poudre River
–
Cache La Poudre River as it flows through Fort Collins, Colorado.
Cache La Poudre River
–
Rafters on the Poudre River near the Grey Rock trailhead
Cache La Poudre River
–
View of the Poudre River from the Big South trail
20.
La Poudre Pass
–
La Poudre Pass elevation 10,184 ft is a high mountain pass located in the Rocky Mountains of northern Colorado in the United States. At the pass, the Continental Divide is the boundary between Grand and Larimer counties, and is also the boundary of Rocky Mountain National Park. The pass itself is a broad, flat, swampy area, in the wet meadow just south of the divide, the Colorado River begins its course as a tiny stream. Rocky Mountain National Parks La Poudre Pass Ranger Station is also located in the pass, to visit the pass, follow Long Draw Road south from its junction with State Highway 14 in Poudre Canyon, just east of Cameron Pass. Long Draw Road is unpaved, but can be traveled by regular passenger automobiles, after passing Long Draw Reservoir the road ends at the La Poudre Pass Trailhead parking area. Its a very short walk from here to the pass, which is marked by the sign to Rocky Mountain National Park. At this sign, you are standing on the Continental Divide
La Poudre Pass
–
La Poudre Pass Ranger Station, Rocky Mountain National Park
La Poudre Pass
–
Entrance sign to Rocky Mountain National Park, in La Poudre Pass. This sign also marks the Continental Divide, and the boundary between Grand and Larimer Counties.
21.
Reintroduction
–
Species reintroduction is the deliberate release of a species into the wild, from captivity or other areas where the animal survives. A species that needs reintroduction is usually one whose existence has become threatened or endangered in the wild, however, reintroduction of a species can also be for pest control. For example, wolves being reintroduced to an area because of an overpopulation of elk or deer. Because reintroduction may involve returning native species to localities where they had been extirpated, Reintroduction has been practiced for many years. Reintroduction and translocation are both important tools for population and species management, translocation moves wild-caught animals from one natural location to another, while reintroduction moves captive-born animals into their natural historical range. Much of the research required to obtain reproduction will also be critical for reintroduction. More behavioral research to select the best candidates and prepare them for the different challenges that await them in nature will be essential also. Behaviorists will again play a role in post-release monitoring to determine the behavioral deficiencies that limit the success of reintroductions. There may be no other conservation action where the skills of behavioral researchers are more essential than reintroduction, in situ conservation means on site. In-situ conservation is the conservation of species diversity within normal and natural habitats, the challenge in using in-situ methods is to expand our vision of protected areas to include multiple use and extractive reserves to develop new models for conservation. In-Situ conservation uses innovative proposals such as damaged ecosystems to preserve rare, endangered, ex-situ conservation means literally, off-site conservation. It is the process of protecting an endangered species of plant or animal outside of its natural habitat, capturing and relocating part of a population from a threatened habitat and placing it in a new location where it may have a better chance of survival is one example. Ex-situ conservation should only be used when In-Situ conservation cannot, zoos are one of the most conventional methods of ex-situ conservation. Depending on their size and location, zoos receive between a few tens of thousands to several million visitors annually, zoos provide education to the public about the many endangered species and explain the factors contributing the threats they face in their native habitats. Through ex-situ conservation methods they provide protected specimens for breeding and reintroduction into the wild and it has been suggested that this method should be used only when necessary and when In-Situ conservation is not possible. Reintroduction biology is new and continues to be a work in progress, in other words, successful reintroduction programs should yield viable and self-sustainable populations on the long-term. The IUCN/SSC Re-introduction Specialist Group & Environment Agency, in their 2011 Global Re-introduction Perspectives,184 case studies were reported on a range of species which included invertebrates, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals, and plants. Assessments from all of the studies included goals, success indicators, project summary, major difficulties faced, major lessons learned, the Siberian tiger population has rebounded from 40 individuals in the 1940s to around 500 in 2007
Reintroduction
–
Reserva CIBE
Reintroduction
–
Arabian oryx (oryx leucoryx)
22.
Wyoming
–
Wyoming /waɪˈoʊmɪŋ/ is a state in the mountain region of the western United States. The state is the tenth largest by area, the least populous, Wyoming is bordered on the north by Montana, on the east by South Dakota and Nebraska, on the south by Colorado, on the southwest by Utah, and on the west by Idaho. Cheyenne is the capital and the most populous city in Wyoming, the state population was estimated at 586,107 in 2015, which is less than the population of 31 of the largest U. S. cities. The Crow, Arapaho, Lakota, and Shoshone were some of the inhabitants of the region. Southwestern Wyoming was included in the Spanish Empire and then Mexican territory until it was ceded to the United States in 1848 at the end of the Mexican–American War. The region acquired the name Wyoming when a bill was introduced to Congress in 1865 to provide a government for the territory of Wyoming. The territory was named after the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania, with the name ultimately being derived from the Munsee word xwé, wamənk, the mineral extraction industry—especially coal, oil, natural gas, and trona—along with the travel and tourism sector are the main drivers behind Wyomings economy. Agriculture has historically been an important component of the economy with the main commodities being livestock, hay, sugar beets, grain. The climate is generally semi-arid and continental, being drier and windier in comparison to the rest of the United States, except for the 1964 election, Wyoming has been a politically conservative state since the 1950s, with the Republican party winning every presidential election. Wyoming is one of three states to have borders along only straight latitudinal and longitudinal lines, rather than being defined by natural landmarks. Wyoming is bordered on the north by Montana, on the east by South Dakota and Nebraska, on the south by Colorado, on the southwest by Utah, and on the west by Idaho. It is the tenth largest state in the United States in total area, from the north border to the south border it is 276 miles, and from the east to the west border is 365 miles at its south end and 342 miles at the north end. The Great Plains meet the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming, the state is a great plateau broken by many mountain ranges. Surface elevations range from the summit of Gannett Peak in the Wind River Mountain Range, at 13,804 feet, to the Belle Fourche River valley in the states northeast corner, at 3,125 feet. In the northwest are the Absaroka, Owl Creek, Gros Ventre, Wind River, in the north central are the Big Horn Mountains, in the northeast, the Black Hills, and in the southern region the Laramie, Snowy and Sierra Madre ranges. The Snowy Range in the central part of the state is an extension of the Colorado Rockies in both geology and appearance. The Wind River Range in the west central part of the state is remote and includes more than 40 mountain peaks in excess of 13,000 ft tall in addition to Gannett Peak, the highest peak in the state. The Big Horn Mountains in the central portion are somewhat isolated from the bulk of the Rocky Mountains
Wyoming
–
Wind River Canyon
Wyoming
–
Flag
Wyoming
–
Thunder Basin National Grassland close to
Douglas, Wyoming
Wyoming
–
Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge
23.
Utah
–
The Utah Railway is a class III railroad operating in Utah and Colorado, and owned by Genesee & Wyoming Inc. The Utah Railway Company was incorporated on January 24,1912, with the name of Utah Coal Railway, shortened to Utah Railway in May of the same year. It was founded to haul coal from the mines to Provo, Utah, in reaction to company disappointment in the service and route of the existing Denver. In addition, the Utah Railway was the first to equip its air brakes with fourteen-pound tension springs instead of the standard seven-pound springs and these gondolas were known to the railroads employees as Battleships. Parent company Mueller Industries, a manufacturer of products, sold the Utah Railway in 2002 to Genesee & Wyoming Inc. a railroad holding company. As of January,2017, the no longer hauls coal. The Utah Railway also owns a railroad, the Salt Lake City Southern Railroad. In addition, switching services are provided in Ogden and elsewhere, the earliest logo was simply the words Utah Railway Company, spelled out on the locomotives and cabooses, and Utah Coal Route on the drop-bottom gondolas. On paper, however, the logo for many years was a circle with a white background. The wording and image in these circular logos changed over the years, the 1948 logo included the words Utah Railway surrounding a gondola with the initials U. C. R. The 1999 logo was an oval with an image of an SD diesel locomotive, in later years the symbol of the Utah Railway Company was the beehive, which is also the Utah state symbol. Genesee & Wyoming corporate website Trainwebs Utah Railway UtahRails. net Utah Railway page
Utah
–
Former Union Pacific CA-1
Caboose on display in
Helper. The Utah Railway purchased eight of these cabooses from the UP between 1918 and 1927.
Utah
24.
Medicine Bow Mountains
–
The Medicine Bow Mountains are a mountain range in the Rocky Mountains that extend for 100-mile from northern Colorado into southern Wyoming. The northern extent of this range is the sub-range the Snowy Range, in Wyoming, the range sits west of Laramie, in Albany and Carbon counties to the route of the Union Pacific Railroad and U. S. The mountains often serve as a symbol for the city of Laramie, the range is home to Snowy Range Ski Area. The highest peak in the range is Clark Peak, located in Rawah Wilderness and is along the end of the range in Northern Colorado. Much of the range is located within the Medicine Bow National Forest in Wyoming, the highest peak on the Wyoming side is Medicine Bow Peak. The range is drained along the flank by the Michigan and Canadian rivers. On its eastern flank it is drained by the Laramie River, another tributary of the North Platte, the Medicine Bow Mountains resulted from continental compression during the Laramide Orogeny. Beginning about 70 million years ago, the Rockies began uplifting along thrust faults that broke up the Precambrian granite of Earths crust, by 50 million years ago, all of Wyomings major mountain ranges were elevated and the major basins defined. Rocks exposed along the flanks and peaks of the Medicine Bow Mountains span the Precambrian to modern and this rock was once a shallow marine sand deposit that has since been compressed and heated during burial, forming the metamorphic rock, quartzite. What may be traces of animals are preserved in this rock. The Cheyenne belt, the 1. 78–1.74 billion year old suture between the Wyoming craton and the Yavapai province that formed as North America was assembled, is exposed in the Medicine Bow Mountains. Brook and rainbow trout as well as grayling and golden trout are found in the streams, a disjunct population of arctic fairy shrimp has been documented in a few lakes in the northern part of the range. Since 1987, the Glacier Lakes area of the Snowy Range has been home to the Glacier Lakes Ecosystem Experiments Site, a field unit of the Rocky Mountain Research Station, United States Forest Service. Areas of scientific inquiry at the site include atmospheric pollutant deposition, forest carbon and water vapor cycling, effect of insect outbreaks, the site is 642 ha in extent and hosts facilities for the National Atmospheric Deposition Program, the National Dry Deposition Network and AmeriFlux. This mountain range is home to some of the remains of a Douglas DC-4 aircraft. The aircraft crashed into Medicine Bow Peak on October 6,1955, killing all 66 people on board
Medicine Bow Mountains
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Snowy Range from
Bellvue, Colorado, ca. 1902.
25.
Uinta Mountains
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The Uinta Mountains /juːˈɪntə/ are an east-west trending chain of mountains in northeastern Utah extending slightly into southern Wyoming in the United States. As a subrange of the Rocky Mountains, they are unusual for being the highest range in the contiguous United States running east to west, and lie approximately 100 miles east of Salt Lake City. The range has peaks ranging from 11, 000–13,528 feet, with the highest point being Kings Peak, the Mirror Lake Highway crosses the western half of the Uintas on its way to Wyoming. The Uinta Mountains are Laramide uplifted metasedimentary rocks deposited in a basin in southwest Laurentia during the time of the breakup of the supercontinent Rodinia. The marine and fluvial metasedimentary rocks in the core of the Uinta Mountains are of Neoproterozoic age and consist primarily of quartzite, slate and these rocks comprise the Uinta Mountain Group, and reach thicknesses of 4 to 7.3 kilometres. Most of the peaks are outcrops of the Uinta Mountain Group. Many of the peaks are ringed with bands of cliffs, rising to form broad or flat tops. The mountains are bounded to the north and south by reverse faults that meet below the range, on the north by the North Flank fault and on the south by the Uinta Basin boundary fault. The Uinta Mountain Group from oldest to youngest includes Uinta Mountain unidivided quartz arenite, overlain by the Moosehorn Lake, Mount Watson, Hades Peak, and Red Shale formations. The east-west orientation of the Uintas is anomalous compared to most of the ranges of the Rocky Mountains, it may relate to changing stress patterns and rotation of the Colorado Plateau. The high Uintas were extensively glaciated during the last ice age, permafrost occurs at elevations above 10,000 feet and at times forms large rock glaciers. In between the summits and ridgelines are wide, level basins, with some 500 small lakes, one of the most popular lakes is Mirror Lake because of its good fishing, scenic views, and easy road access. The south and east sides of the range are largely within the Colorado River watershed, including the Blacks Fork and the Duchesne River, the Green is the major tributary of the Colorado River and flows in a tight arc around the eastern side of the range. The Bear and Weber rivers, the two largest tributaries of Great Salt Lake, are born on the west slope of the range. The Provo River, the largest tributary to Utah Lake, begins on the side of the range and flows west to Utah Lake. Large portions of the mountain range receive over 40 inches of precipitation annually, the high Uintas are snowcapped year-round except for late July through early September. The Uinta Mountains have more than 400 miles of streams and 1,000 lakes, the Uinta Mountains are part of the Wasatch and Uinta montane forests ecoregion. Nearly the entire range lies within Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest and Ashley National Forest, the highest peaks of the range are protected as part of the High Uintas Wilderness
Uinta Mountains
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This view of
Kings Peak and the Henry's Fork Basin shows the cliff bands and basins typical throughout the Uintas.
Uinta Mountains
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Hayden Peak and
Mount Agassiz seen from
Bald Mountain
Uinta Mountains
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Gilbert Peak seen from lake 151
26.
Grand Teton National Park
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Grand Teton National Park is a United States National Park in northwestern Wyoming. At approximately 310,000 acres, the park includes the peaks of the 40-mile-long Teton Range as well as most of the northern sections of the valley known as Jackson Hole. It is only 10 miles south of Yellowstone National Park, to which it is connected by the National Park Service-managed John D. Rockefeller, in the early 19th century, the first White explorers encountered the eastern Shoshone natives. Between 1810 and 1840, the region attracted fur trading companies that vied for control of the beaver pelt trade. U. S. Government expeditions to the commenced in the mid-19th century as an offshoot of exploration in Yellowstone. Efforts to preserve the region as a national park commenced in the late 19th century, against public opinion and with repeated Congressional efforts to repeal the measures, much of Jackson Hole was set aside for protection as Jackson Hole National Monument in 1943. The monument was abolished in 1950 and most of the monument land was added to Grand Teton National Park, Grand Teton National Park is named for Grand Teton, the tallest mountain in the Teton Range. The naming of the mountains is attributed to early 19th-century French-speaking trappers—les trois tétons was later anglicized and shortened to Tetons. At 13,775 feet, Grand Teton abruptly rises more than 7,000 feet above Jackson Hole, almost 850 feet higher than Mount Owen, the second-highest summit in the range. The park has numerous lakes, including 15-mile-long Jackson Lake as well as streams of varying length, though in a state of recession, a dozen small glaciers persist at the higher elevations near the highest peaks in the range. Some of the rocks in the park are the oldest found in any U. S. National Park and have been dated at nearly 2.7 billion years. Grand Teton National Park is an almost pristine ecosystem and the species of flora. More than 1,000 species of plants, dozens of species of mammals,300 species of birds, more than a dozen fish species. Grand Teton National Park is a destination for mountaineering, hiking, fishing. There are more than 1,000 drive-in campsites and over 200 miles of hiking trails provide access to backcountry camping areas. Noted for world-renowned trout fishing, the park is one of the few places to catch Snake River fine-spotted cutthroat trout, Grand Teton has several National Park Service-run visitor centers, and privately operated concessions for motels, lodges, gas stations and marinas. Paleo-Indian presence in what is now Grand Teton National Park dates back more than 11,000 years, along the shores of Jackson Lake, fire pits, tools and what are thought to have been fishing weights have been discovered. One of the tools found is of an associated with the Clovis culture
Grand Teton National Park
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The John Moulton Barn and Teton Range
Grand Teton National Park
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A
Shoshone encampment in Wyoming, photographed by W. H. Jackson, 1870
Grand Teton National Park
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The enigmatic Colter Stone, with the inscription "John Colter", was found in a field in eastern Idaho in 1931.
Grand Teton National Park
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"The Three Tetons" as seen from west of the Teton Range by members of the Hayden Geological Survey of 1872. One of the earliest photographs of the Teton Range taken by William Henry Jackson in 1872.
27.
Habitat
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A habitat is an ecological or environmental area that is inhabited by a particular species of animal, plant, or other type of organism. The term typically refers to the zone in which the organism lives and it is the natural environment in which an organism lives, or the physical environment that surrounds a species population. Every organism has certain habitat needs for the conditions in which it will thrive, habitat types include polar, temperate, subtropical and tropical. The terrestrial vegetation type may be forest, steppe, grassland, the word habitat has been in use since about 1755 and derives from the Latin third-person singular present indicative of habitāre, to inhabit, from habēre, to have or to hold. Habitat can be defined as the environment of an organism. It is similar in meaning to a biotope, an area of environmental conditions associated with a particular community of plants. Generally speaking, animal communities are reliant on specific types of plant communities, some plants and animals are generalists, and their habitat requirements are met in a wide range of locations. The small white butterfly for example is found on all the continents of the world apart from Antarctica and its larvae feed on a wide range of Brassicas and various other plant species, and it thrives in any open location with diverse plant associations. Disturbance is important in the creation of biodiverse habitats, in the absence of disturbance, a climax vegetation cover develops that prevents the establishment of other species. Lightning strikes and toppled trees in tropical forests allow species richness to be maintained as pioneering species move in to fill the gaps created. Similarly coastal habitats can become dominated by kelp until the seabed is disturbed by a storm, another cause of disturbance is when an area may be overwhelmed by an invasive introduced species which is not kept under control by natural enemies in its new habitat. Terrestrial habitat types include forests, grasslands, wetlands and deserts, within these broad biomes are more specific habitats with varying climate types, temperature regimes, soils, altitudes and vegetation types. Many of these habitats grade into each other and each one has its own communities of plants. A habitat may suit a particular species well, but its presence or absence at any particular location depends to some extent on chance, on its dispersal abilities, freshwater habitats include rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, marshes and bogs. Although some organisms are found across most of these habitats, the majority have more specific requirements, similarly, aquatic plants can be floating, semi-submerged, submerged or grow in permanently or temporarily saturated soils besides bodies of water. Marine habitats include brackish water, estuaries, bays, the sea, the intertidal zone. Further variations include rock pools, sand banks, mudflats, brackish lagoons, sandy and pebbly beaches, the benthic zone or seabed provides a home for both static organisms, anchored to the substrate, and for a large range of organisms crawling on or burrowing into the surface. A desert is not the kind of habitat that favours the presence of amphibians, with their requirement for water to keep their skins moist, nevertheless, some frogs live in deserts, creating moist habitats underground and hibernating while conditions are adverse
Habitat
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This
coral reef in the
Phoenix Islands Protected Area is a rich habitat for sea life.
Habitat
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Few creatures make the
ice shelves of
Antarctica their habitat.
Habitat
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Subdisciplines
Habitat
–
General
28.
Rio Grande
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The Rio Grande is one of the principal rivers in the southwest United States and northern Mexico. The Rio Grande begins in south-central Colorado in the United States, along the way, it forms part of the Mexico–United States border. According to the International Boundary and Water Commission, its length was 1,896 miles in the late 1980s. Depending on how it is measured, the Rio Grande is the fourth- or fifth-longest river system in North America. The river serves as part of the border between the U. S. state of Texas and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León. A very short stretch of the river serves as part of the boundary between the U. S. states of Texas and New Mexico. Since the mid–20th century, heavy consumption of farms and cities along with many large diversion dams on the river has left only 20% of its natural discharge to flow to the Gulf. Near the rivers mouth, the heavily irrigated lower Rio Grande Valley is an important agricultural region, the Rio Grande is one of 19 Great Waters recognized by Americas Great Waters Coalition. The Rio Grandes watershed covers 182,200 square miles, many endorheic basins are situated within, or adjacent to, the Rio Grandes basin, and these are sometimes included in the river basins total area, increasing its size to about 336,000 square miles. The Rio Grande rises in the part of the Rio Grande National Forest in the U. S. state of Colorado. The river is formed by the joining of several streams at the base of Canby Mountain in the San Juan Mountains and it then continues on a southerly route through the desert cities of Albuquerque, and Las Cruces to El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. In the Albuquerque area, the river flows past a number of historic Pueblo villages, including Sandia Pueblo, below El Paso, it serves as part of the border between the United States and Mexico. The official river border measurement ranges from 889 miles to 1,248 miles, a major tributary, the Rio Conchos, enters at Ojinaga, Chihuahua, below El Paso, and supplies most of the water in the border segment. Other well-known tributaries include the Pecos and the smaller Devils, which join the Rio Grande on the site of Amistad Dam. Despite its name and length, the Rio Grande is not navigable by ocean-going ships, in New Mexico, the river flows through the Rio Grande rift from one sediment-filled basin to another, cutting canyons between the basins and supporting a fragile bosque ecosystem on its flood plain. From El Paso eastward, the flows through desert. Although irrigated agriculture exists throughout most of its stretch, it is extensive in the subtropical Lower Rio Grande Valley. The river ends in a small, sandy delta at the Gulf of Mexico, during portions of 2001 and 2002, the mouth of the Rio Grande was blocked by a sandbar
Rio Grande
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The Rio Grande at
Big Bend National Park, on the Mexico–U.S. border
Rio Grande
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Island within the Rio Grande from the
North Valley in
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Rio Grande
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The Upper Rio Grande near
Creede, Colorado
Rio Grande
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Railway Bridges and the Great Customs Smelter (postcard, circa 1916)
