The caribou, featured on our 25-cent coin, is in danger. In Québec, there are three ecological species (subspecies) of this northern cervid: the barren-ground caribou (of the tundra), the woodland…

In French, the name of the familiar Christmas carol is (translated) “My beautiful fir, king of the forests”. Why such praise? If you choose a natural tree at Christmastime, chances…

Rest assured, bats don’t get tangled in your hair, there are no vampire bats in these northern latitudes, and while these little mammals sometimes carry the rabies virus, the risks…

People often confuse the muskrat and beaver because the two animals share the same habitat and both are semi-aquatic. But there are significant differences. Weighing less than 1.5 kg, the…

You have good reason to be wary of the wasps and hornets whose smooth stinger can be used several times without becoming detached from the creature’s abdomen. Bees, however, are…

Motionless in the tall grasses, a great blue heron (Ardea herodias) gazes fixedly at the surface of the water, patiently awaiting a prey. With a rapid movement, it spears the…

Every good fisher recognizes a brook trout (Salvelinus fortinalis), also known as the eastern speckled trout. This sport fish is the most widely distributed geographically in Quebec and probably the…

As summer approaches, a good number of birds chased south by our cold winters return to brighten our surroundings. This annual migration is caused by a desire to return to…

Seen more and more frequently in southern Quebec, the wood duck (Aix sponsa), dazzles the observer with its plumage and fascinates with its tree-related activities. This close relative of the…

The eastern cottontail rabbit, which is present in much of the United States, moved into southern Ontario in the 1860s. Since then, it has moved progressively north, taking advantage of…