Cool Fact: Ermine can reach speeds of eight miles per hour, and they can jump as high as six feet.
Creature Feature
The Natural Resources Council of Maine works to protect important wildlife habitat for our vast array of animals that live in our state. Our Creature Feature is a way to highlight those animals and share "cool facts" and other important information about them.
NRCM's Creature Feature highlights birds, fish, mammals, and other wildlife that play an important role in the nature of Maine. We have featured "creatures" that are directly affected by our work to protect our clean waters (sea lamprey, Atlantic salmon, lobsters, etc.) and protect wildlife habitat in Maine's North Woods, including in our new Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument (moose, Canada lynx, black bear, etc.)
Creature Feature: American Marten
Many cultures consider marten to be symbolic of luck, bravery, or kinship.
Creature Feature: American Shad
Shad look like the “perfect” fish: forked tail, tapered body, and silvery all over, with a dark spot just behind the gill.
Creature Feature: Black Bear
The American black bear (Ursus americanus), one of three bear species native to North America, is the only bear that lives in the eastern United States.
Creature Feature: Wild Turkey
Did you that know Wild Turkeys have good eyesight, strong hearing, and are very good runners?
Creature Feature: Atlantic Puffin
The Atlantic Puffin is among the most recognizable birds, and one of Maine’s favorites. Did you know that their nickname is “clowns of the sea”?
Creature Feature: American Woodcock
To many Mainers, spring hasn’t officially arrived until we’ve heard the “peent” of a woodcock.
Creature Feature: Spruce Grouse
The Spruce Grouse is one of many “boreal specialties” for which Maine is famous among birders.
Creature Feature: Brook Trout
Mainers are lucky. Very lucky. Almost all of us live within a bike ride of streams or ponds where brook trout live.
