Canada Province Animals

In this list we would like to show you the animals that are symbols of the provinces and territories of Canada and also would like to introduce you to animals that are native to this beautiful country.

Moose
Moose
Provinces and territories

The moose is one of the Canadian national symbols. It occurs on several Canadian coats of arms, including Newfoundland and Labrador, and Ontario. Moose are unique creatures. Despite their large size, they are excellent swimmers and often wade into the water to eat aquatic plants. Moose are the only deer that are capable of feeding underwater! They are able to dive over 5.5 meters (18 ft) to reach plants on lake bottoms. As an adaptation for ...
feeding on plants underwater, the nose of these animals is equipped with fatty pads and muscles that close the nostrils when exposed to water pressure, preventing water from entering the nose. Other species can pluck plants from the water too, but these need to raise their heads in order to swallow. When moose feed on the ground and need to reach high branches, they may bend small saplings down, using their prehensile lip, mouth, or body. For larger trees moose may stand erect and walk upright on their hind legs; this way they are able to reach branches up to 4.26 meters (14 ft 0 in) or higher above the ground!
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Moose
American Beaver
American Beaver
Provinces and territories

The American beaver or also called the Canadian beaver is one of the national symbols of Canada and it is depicted on the Canadian nickel. These animals are excellent swimmers that may remain submerged for up to 15 minutes. American beavers usually remain in the water as much as possible because on land they are more vulnerable. They even construct their homes, which are called "lodges" in lakes, streams, and tidal river deltas. These lodges may ...
be surrounded by water, or touching land, including burrows, dug into river banks. Beavers are best known for their dam-building. They maintain their pond habitat by reacting quickly to the sound of running water and damming it up with tree branches and mud. Early ecologists believed that this dam-building was an amazing feat of architectural planning, indicative of the beaver's high intellect. In fact, the purpose of the dam is to provide water around their lodges that is deep enough that it does not freeze solid in winter. The dams also flood areas of surrounding forest and thus give beavers safe access to an important food supply. In colder climates where their pond freezes over, beavers also build a food cache so they can access it from their lodge by swimming under the ice.
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American  Beaver
Reindeer
Reindeer
Provinces and territories
Newfoundland and Labrador

These deer are native to cold and snowy regions of northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. In North America, they are known as caribou. The caribou is the official provincial animal of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, and appears on the coat of arms of Nunavut. For a very long time, Arctic peoples have depended on these deer for food, clothing, and shelter. Some populations of caribou perform seasonal migrations. During the spring ...
migration, smaller herds usually group together, and my number 50,000 to 500,000 animals. While migrating caribou travel about 19-55 km (12-34 mi) a day. They can run at speeds of 60-80 km/h (37-50 mph) and young calves are even able to outrun an Olympic sprinter when only 1 day old. The knees of many caribou subspecies produce a clicking sound as they walk. These sounds originate in the tendons of the knees and may be heard from several hundred meters away.
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Reindeer
American Bison
American Bison
Provinces and territories
Manitoba

American bison are the closest relatives of domestic cattle native to North America, but they were never domesticated by Native Americans. These massive animals were described as having a "wild and ungovernable temper"; they can jump close to 1.8 m (6 ft) vertically, and run 55-70 km/h (35-45 mph) when agitated. This agility and speed, combined with their great size and weight, make bison herds difficult to confine because they can easily escape ...
or destroy most fencing systems, including even most razor wire. American bison prefer to live in river valleys, and on prairies and plains where they move daily between foraging sites during the summer. One of the favorite habits of these animals is wallowing in a shallow depression in the soil, which they use either wet or dry. Bison roll in these depressions, covering themselves with dust or mud. It is thought that they do this for grooming associated with shedding, male-male interaction (typically rutting), social behavior for group cohesion, play, relief from skin irritation due to biting insects, thermoregulation, or this way they try to get rid of ticks, and lice. Interestingly, bison wallowing has important ecosystem engineering effects and enhances plant and animal diversity on prairies.
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American Bison
Canadian Lynx
Canadian Lynx
Provinces and territories

Canadian lynxes live predominantly in the dense boreal forest of Canada, and they are specialist predators of a Snowshoe hare. Lynxes begin their hunting around twilight or at night when their main prey, comes out to feed. Each day they can cover 8-9 km (5.0-5.6 mi) to procure Snowshoe hares. Canadian lynxes hunt on the ground but may also climb trees efficiently. As nocturnal predators, they rely on their vision and sense of hearing to locate ...
prey. They will roam or wait on certain trails where Snowshoe hares usually gather. Canadian lynxes typically hunt singly but may occasionally hunt in groups when hares are scarce. When the hare populations plummet, lynxes will move to areas with more hares and for that will sometimes cover over 1,000 km (620 mi). An interesting fact is that during such periods lynxes tend not to produce litters, however, when the hares' numbers increase, so does the lynx population.
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Canadian Lynx
North Pacific Right Whale
North Pacific Right Whale
Provinces and territories

The North Pacific right whale is an extremely rare and endangered baleen whale. It is very large, much larger even than the Gray or the Humpback whale. Like other right whale species, the North Pacific right whale feeds by skimming water continuously while swimming. They do not have pleated throats. Instead, they have very large heads and mouths that allow them to swim with their mouths open in the water with the copepods flowing in, then ...
flowing sideways through the right whale's very long, very fine baleen trapping the copepods, and then out over their large lower lips. To receive enough energy right whales need take millions of tiny copepods. To feed efficiently they must find copepods at very high concentrations, usually greater than 3,000 per cubic meter!
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North Pacific Right Whale
Arctic Wolf
Arctic Wolf
Provinces and territories

Arctic wolves are native to the High Arctic tundra of Canada's Queen Elizabeth Islands. They are social territorial animals that feed predominantly on wild herbivorous hoofed mammals. Like all wolves, they communicate using vocalizations, body postures, scent, touch, and taste. Despite popular belief, they do not howl at the moon but howl to assemble the pack usually before and after hunts, to pass on an alarm, particularly at a den site, to ...
locate each other during a storm, while crossing unfamiliar territory, and to communicate across great distances. Wolf howls can under certain conditions be heard over areas of up to 130 km2 (50 sq mi). Arctic wolves differ from other species of the grey wolf in that they are relatively unafraid of people, and can be coaxed to approach people in some areas. For example, the wolves on Ellesmere Island do not fear humans at all; it is thought to be due to them seeing humans so little, and they will approach humans cautiously and curiously.
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Arctic Wolf
Brown Bear
Brown Bear
Provinces and territories

In North America, the populations of Brown bears are called grizzly bears. They are also known as the North American brown bears or simply grizzlies. They are active animals and usually spend time singly; however, in coastal areas where salmon are forced to leap waterfalls, grizzlies gather in groups at the base of the falls to feed on and catch the fish. Salmon are at a disadvantage when they leap waterfalls because they cluster together at ...
their bases and are therefore easier targets for the grizzlies. They are also very experienced in chasing the fish around and pinning them with their claws.
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Brown Bear
Red Fox
Red Fox
Provinces and territories
Prince Edward Island

The Red fox is the provincial animal of Prince Edward Island. It is the largest of the true foxes and one of the most widely distributed carnivorous mammals. Red foxes have a highly varied diet and consume over 300 animal species and a few dozen species of plants. They have binocular vision, but their sight reacts mainly to movement. They also have an acute sense of hearing, being able to hear Black grouse changing roosts at 600 paces, the ...
flight of crows at 0.25-0.5 kilometers (0.16-0.31 mi), and the squeaking of mice at about 100 meters (330 ft)!
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Red Fox
Arctic Hare
Arctic Hare
Provinces and territories

Arctic hares live in the northernmost regions of Greenland, the Canadian Arctic islands, and Northern Canada. They are highly adapted to living in the Arctic tundra and other icy biomes. They can travel together with many other hares, sometimes with dozens or more. Arctic hares have a very strong sense of smell which helps them find food under deep snow. Despite being herbivorous animals they may occasionally eat meat, including fish, and will ...
eat snow to get water.
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Arctic Hare
Muskox
Muskox
Provinces and territories

Muskoxen primarily live in Greenland and the Canadian Arctic. These animals are noted for their thick coat and for the strong odor emitted by males during the mating season, from which their name derives. Muskoxen live in herds and have a distinctive defensive behavior; when the herd is threatened, the adults will face outward to form a stationary ring or semicircle around the calves. The males are usually the front line for defense against ...
predators, with the females and juveniles gathering close to them. Bulls typically determine the defensive formation during rutting, while the cows decide the rest of the year.
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Muskox
Hoary Marmot
Hoary Marmot
Provinces and territories

Meet the largest North American ground squirrel that is often nicknamed "the whistler" for its high-pitched warning issued to alert other members of the colony to possible danger. Hoary marmots are sometimes called "whistle pigs". The Whistler resort in British Columbia, originally London Mountain because of its heavy fogs and rain, was renamed after these animals to help make it more marketable as a resort. Hoary marmots live in colonies and ...
hibernate 7 to 8 months a year in burrows they excavate in the soil. These animals like to socialize within a colony and frequently play, wrestle, groom each other, and use nose-to-nose touching. They also like to sun themselves on rocks and may spend as much as 44% of their time in the morning doing so. Hoary marmots are also quite vocal animals and many of their calls are used as alarms, alerting other animals to potential predators.
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Hoary Marmot
Polar Bear
Polar Bear
Provinces and territories

Polar bears are considered marine mammals because they spend many months of the year at sea. However, they are the only living marine mammals that are able to cover kilometers on foot and run on land. Polar bears live in areas, known as the "Arctic ring of life; these are habitats with the annual sea ice covering the waters over the continental shelf and the Arctic inter-island archipelagos. To survive in such an environment Polar bears have ...
very large feet that distribute load when walking on snow or thin ice and provide propulsion when swimming; they may measure 30 cm (12 in) across in an adult. The pads of the paws are covered with small, soft dermal bumps, which provide traction on the ice. Being excellent swimmers Polar bears often will swim for days. Their body fat provides buoyancy and the bears swim in a dog paddle fashion using their large forepaws for propulsion. They can swim at speeds of up to 10 km/h (6 mph). When walking, Polar bears usually maintain an average speed of around 5.6 km/h (3.5 mph) but when sprinting, they can reach up to 40 km/h (25 mph).
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Polar Bear
Beluga Whale
Beluga Whale
Provinces and territories

These highly sociable creatures inhabit the Arctic and sub-Arctic waters. Belugas are slow swimmers but can dive to 700 m (2,300 ft) below the surface. They like to hunt in coordinated groups and in the pod they often chase each other as if they are playing or fighting, and they often rub against each other. Often belugas surface and dive together in a synchronized manner, in a behavior known as milling. When they need to communicate with each ...
other belugas use sounds of high frequency that sound like bird songs, so they were nicknamed "canaries of the sea".
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Beluga Whale
Fisher
Fisher
Provinces and territories

The fisher is native to the boreal forests in Canada and the northern United States. It is an agile climber but spends most of its time on the forest floor, where it prefers to forage around fallen trees. Despite its common name, the fisher rarely eats fish; it hunts various small animals and occasionally eats fruits and mushrooms. Fishers have highly mobile ankle joints that can rotate their hind paws almost 180°; this allows them to maneuver ...
well in trees and climb down head-first. By the way, the fisher is one of the relatively few mammals that can descend trees head-first.
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Fisher
Arctic Fox
Arctic Fox
Provinces and territories

These fluffy inhabitants of Canadian boreal forests are well known for their beautiful warm fur that also helps them blend with the snow and hide from predators. Arctic foxes live in large dens with complex systems of tunnels. They usually select dens that are easily accessible with many entrances, and that are clear from snow and ice so that it is easier to burrow in. Arctic foxes build and choose dens that face southward towards the sun ...
because it makes the den warmer. Their dens typically exist for many decades and are used by many generations of foxes. Each year pairs may raise up to 25 kits in their warm dens and sometimes other family members assist in raising their young.
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Arctic Fox
Mountain Goat
Mountain Goat
Provinces and territories

Mountain goats are native to eastern North America but the world's population of these sure-footed climbers lives in the mountainous areas of British Columbia. These are the largest mammals found in their high-altitude habitats, which can exceed elevations of 13,000 ft (4,000 m). Their feet are well-suited for climbing steep, rocky slopes with pitches exceeding 60°; this is possible due to the inner pads that provide traction and cloven hooves ...
that can spread apart. The tips of their feet have sharp dewclaws that keep them from slipping. Mountain goats also have powerful shoulder and neck muscles that help propel them up steep slopes.
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Mountain Goat
Walrus
Walrus
Provinces and territories

Walruses are social, relatively long-lived animals and they are considered to be a "keystone species" in the Arctic marine regions. They are not deep divers and prefer shallow shelf regions and forage primarily on the seafloor, often from sea ice platforms. They eat more than 60 genera of marine organisms, but favor the most benthic bivalve mollusks, especially clams; for these the walrus forages by grazing along the sea bottom, searching and ...
identifying prey with its sensitive vibrissae and clearing the murky bottoms with jets of water and active flipper movements. The foraging method of walruses has an important impact on benthic communities. They disturb the seafloor, releasing nutrients into the water column and thus encouraging the mixing and movement of many organisms and increasing the patchiness of the benthos.
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Walrus
Wolverine
Wolverine
Provinces and territories

In Canada, wolverines live primarily in isolated arctic, boreal, and alpine regions. It is prevalent in stories and oral history from various Algonquian tribes and figures prominently in the mythology of the Innu people of eastern Quebec and Labrador. There the wolverine is known as Kuekuatsheu, a conniving trickster who created the world. The story of the formation of the Innu world begins long ago when Kuekuatsheu built a big boat similar to ...
Noah's Ark and put all the various animal species in it. There was a great deal of rain, and the land was flooded. Kuekuatsheu told a mink to dive into the water to retrieve some mud and rocks which he mixed together to create an island; this island is the world that is presently inhabited by wolverines along with all the animals.
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Wolverine