Did You Know…..?
ABOUT THE Mammals ON STARK MOUNTAIN
Mad River Glen is known for its natural terrain and beautiful winding trails. But Stark Mountain isn’t just for skiers and hikers. It is also home to a wide variety of animals and birds. Many of the trails are named after animals who live on Stark Mountain and are native to Vermont. Snowshoe hares, porcupines, chipmunks, black bears, and red foxes are visitors to our beautiful mountain. Through the sharing of information about mammals on the mountain, we want to instill a desire to look for these animals and care for the natural habitats as they also enjoy the beauty of Stark Mountain.
Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes)
Adult Length: 35-41”
Adult Weight: 8-15 lbs.
Red foxes are typically reddish with a white belly, chest, chin, and throat, and black on their prominent pointy ears, lower legs, and feet. They have a very bushy tail with a white tip.
This species has the widest geographic distribution of any terrestrial carnivore in the world. In the US, they are found in every state except Hawaii.
Opportunist eaters, foxes will eat a wide range of food including vegetation, corn, acorns, berries and fruits, insects, rodents, carrion, and birds. They will store extra food for later in a hole they then hide with dirt and grass.
A female fox is called a vixen.
Red foxes are most active at night, relying on caution, cat-like stalking, a keen sense of hearing and smell. They have running speeds up to 33mph.
Black Bear (Ursus americanus)
Adult Length: 50-80”, averaging 4.5’ long
Adult Weight: Females weigh 125-300 lbs, males up to 500 lbs.
Black bears are found in a wider range of color than any other North American mammal! Fur can range from black and brown to more rare colors such as cinnamon, blond, or blue-gray.
They are omnivores, eating seasonally available foods such as grasses, berries, beechnuts, acorns, and bees. They may also take from farm crops, garbage, and bird-feeders.
Black bears do not truly hibernate. They sleep deeply and their heart-rate, breathing, and body temperature drop. They can wake up, unlike true hibernators, in warm weather or due to disturbance.
They are generally solitary, though cubs will stay with their mother for 18 months or so.
Bears are typically active during the day, with the most activity happening around dusk and dawn.
Porcupine
(Erethizon dorsatum)
Adult Length: Up to 3’ long, plus 8-10” of tail
Adult Weight: 21-35 lbs.
Porcupines have soft hair and up to 30,000 sharp quills. Quills aren’t thrown, but detach easily as a protection when they touch a predator. The barb at the end of each quill sticks in an animal’s face or bodies – an excellent deterrent against continued and future attacks.
They are herbivores, using their large front teeth to strip bark and stems from trees, as well as eating fruit, leaves, and spring buds.
Porcupines are mainly solitary and spend significant amounts of their awake time in the canopy of trees.
They do not hibernate but may remain protected in dens during bad weather in rock walls, caves, hollow trees, or brush piles.
Mainly nocturnal, porcupines spend their nights feeding and their days sleeping.
Snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus)
Adult Length: 16-20”
Adult Weight: 2-4 lbs.
Snowshoe hares are named for their large “snowshoe” like feet that let them easily move about in deep snow.
The snowshoe hare changes color with the seasons. They are mostly white in winter and molt to a soft brown in summer.
They are herbivores, eating grasses, clover, dandelion, berries and ferns in the summer, and the soft stems of spruce, fir, birch, and other saplings in the winter.
Snowshoe hare do not hibernate. They are active year-round, with activity focused on dusk through dawn.
They can reach speeds up to 50 mph to escape from predators or when otherwise threatened, jumping 10-12’ in a single bound.
Eastern Chipmunk (Tamias striatus)
Adult Length: 5-7”, plus a 3-4” hairy (but not bushy) tail
Adult Weight; 1-5oz.
Chipmunks have huge cheek pouches used to carry food to their caches. These pouches are also useful to carry dirt away from their burrows to hide their entrance.
They are omnivores, eating a wide range of food including insects, nuts, berries, seeds, fruit, and grain. They hide food during the warmer months to sustain them through winter.
A chipmunk is mainly solitary, living and feeding alone.
They spend their winters sleeping in dens made underground, in rock walls, or hidden areas near objects or buildings.
Chipmunks are most active during the day, particularly early morning and late afternoon.
Thank You to Beth, Jacey and Owen Marchand!
Mammals of the Mountain was researched by Beth, Jacey and Owen Marchand. Stark Mountain Foundation would like to acknowledge their hard work and enthusiasm for learning about these mammals. This information will allow each of us to better preserve and protect animal habitats on and around General Stark Mountain.