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travel / great places / canadian snapshots / cape breton
| Snapshots |
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Cape Breton Islands
Flora and Fauna
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Sunrise Valley along the Cabot Trail |
The elevation of the northern highlands makes for a harsh climate
with extreme winds and a short growing season. A combination
of dense spruce, blanket bogs and barrens dominates the vegetation,
providing habitats for boreal species such as moose, snowshoe
hare and lynx. Larger carnivores such as black bear and cougar
survive within a large range of undisturbed habitat. The bogs
and barrens are home to small mammals such as the common shrew
and red-backed vole. Although breeding birds are not abundant,
they include greater yellowlegs (a member of the sandpiper family)
and the grey-cheeked thrush, a songbird.
The Cape Breton coastal lowlands are dominated by spruce
and fir trees due primarily to the cool, wet, acidic conditions.
The major influences on the regional vegetation are the marine
climate and extensive disturbances by fire and cutting.
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