Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Alooncandiveasdeepas200feetforafull10minutessearchingforaquaticdel-
icacies. When it wants air, it “sprints” across the water surface for almost a quarter
mile,gatheringspeedforflight.Ferociouslyterritorial,onlyonenestingpairofloons
will occupy a lake, except for unusually large lakes, which might have two.
Scientists have classified loon “speak” into four categories: wails, hoots, tremo-
los, and yodels. The former two are what you'll probably hear at your campsite. The
wails and hoots both indicate either concern or interest. The latter two are defensive
cries.
Four major vegetation types cover Wisconsin:
boreal forest,
a subarctic coniferous
spreadnearLakeSuperior;
deciduous forest
makesupthesecond-largestswathofWiscon-
sin woodlands;
mixed forest,
consisting of species of both, is found throughout the state;
and nonforest and
grasslands
are found throughout the southern third of the state and up
into west-central Wisconsin along the Mississippi River.
In settlement periods, Wisconsin had a huge expanse of wetlands, including more than
10,000 acres along Green Bay alone. Today, that amount has dwindled by more than half
but still constitutes the largest amount remaining on the Great Lakes—a pathetic indication
of rapacious development and overuse.
Fauna
Wisconsinlieswithinthreewell-defined“lifezones”conducivetospeciesdiversity:theCa-
nadian, the transition, and the upper austral (or Carolinian). The Canadian, not surprisingly
the coldest, features small mammals such as the snowshoe hare but also the state's primary
large mammals, the deer and the black bear. The warmest zone, the Carolinian, falls in the
southern tier of the state and lacks big game mammals. In total, Wisconsin has 73 species
of mammals, 339 native bird species, and more than 200 species of amphibians, reptiles,
frogs, bats, butterflies, and insects.
Of Wisconsin's two large mammals, the ubiquitous
white-tailed deer
is a traffic (and
garden) nightmare. The other resident big mammal, the
black bear,
is still relatively com-
mon in the North Woods and has also been seen in central and—gasp—southern counties.
Wisconsin lies smack in the middle of several migratory waterfowl flyways, so birding
isabigactivityinthestate.
Tundra swans, sandhill cranes,
and
Canada geese
arethreeof
the most conspicuous species. The latter are so predominant at the Horicon Marsh National
WildlifeRefugethatornithologistsmakepilgrimagesthereeachspringand,especially,fall.
