|
Cottonwood Canyon Wilderness
Cottonwood Canyon Wilderness is a wilderness area in the US state of Utah. It was designated March 30, 2009, as part of the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009. Located adjacent to the southern edge of the Dixie National Forest, it encompasses and protects a transition zone between the Colorado Plateau to the east and the Mojave Desert to the west. It is bordered by the Cottonwood Forest Wilderness to the northeast and is itself (along with Red Mountain Wilderness to its west) a part of the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area. Vegetation Vegetation in Cottonwood Canyon Wilderness includes pockets of yucca, cholla, and mesquite, as well as riparian vegetation such as Fremont cottonwood along several intermittent streams. Higher up toward the Pine Valley Mountains are pinyon pine and juniper. The endangered purple-spined hedgehog cactus ('' Echinocereus engelmannii'' var. ''purpureus'') may occur in the area. Wildlife A variety of wildlife is found in Cottonwood C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Washington County, Utah
Washington County is a county in the southwestern corner of Utah, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 180,279, making it the fifth-most populous county in Utah. Its county seat and largest city is St. George. The county was created in 1852 and organized in 1856. It was named after the first President of the United States, George Washington. A portion of the Paiute Indian Reservation is in western Washington County. Washington County comprises the St. George, UT Metropolitan Statistical Area. History The earliest settlement was Fort Harmony in 1852. Santa Clara was established in 1854 as a mission to the natives who lived on the Santa Clara River. Hamblin and Pinto were settled along the Los Angeles - Salt Lake Road in 1856, as was Gunlock in 1857. Next came the settlements established as colonies to grow cotton before the beginning of the American Civil War. They were located along the Virgin River, in the warmer climate below the Gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pine Valley Mountains
The Pine Valley Mountains are a mountain range in Washington County, Utah, United States, spanning the county north of the city of St. George. The highest point in the range is Signal Peak at . The mountains are part of Dixie National Forest and are bordered to the south by the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area. Geology The Pine Valley Mountains formed from the Pine Valley Laccolith, the largest laccolith in the United States and perhaps the world. The laccolith was formed during a 20 million-year period of volcanic activity. After 4-5,000 feet of volcanic deposited on the Claron Formation, the magma vents were effectively sealed off. A final surge of magma, unable to find its way to the surface, pushed sideways along the weak seam between the Claron and the overlying volcanic layers. This injected a 3,000 foot-thick layer of monzonite porphyry to form the Pine Valley laccolith. The contact between the top of the Claron and the bottom of the laccolith can be seen in sever ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mourning Dove
The mourning dove (''Zenaida macroura'') is a member of the dove family, Columbidae. The bird is also known as the American mourning dove, the rain dove, and colloquially as the turtle dove, and was once known as the Carolina pigeon and Carolina turtledove. It is one of the most abundant and widespread of all North American birds and a popular gamebird, with more than 20 million birds (up to 70 million in some years) shot annually in the U.S., both for sport and meat. Its ability to sustain its population under such pressure is due to its prolific breeding; in warm areas, one pair may raise up to six broods of two young each in a single year. The wings make an unusual whistling sound upon take-off and landing, a form of sonation. The bird is a strong flier, capable of speeds up to . Mourning doves are light gray and brown and generally muted in color. Males and females are similar in appearance. The species is generally monogamous, with two squabs (young) per brood. Both paren ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gambel's Quail
Gambel's quail (''Callipepla gambelii'') is a small ground-dwelling bird in the New World quail family. It inhabits the desert regions of Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Texas, and Sonora; also New Mexico-border Chihuahua and the Colorado River region of Baja California. Gambel's quail is named in honor of William Gambel, a 19th-century naturalist and explorer of the Southwestern United States. The species is not as widely introduced as the related California quail. It was, however, released on San Clemente Island in 1912 by Charles T. Howland et al., where it is currently still established. Description The ''Callipepla gambelii'' birds are easily recognized by their top knots and scaly plumage on their undersides. Gambel's quail have bluish-gray plumage on much of their bodies, and males have copper feathers on the top of their heads, black faces, and white stripes above their eyes. The bird's average length is with a wingspan of . These birds hav ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Desert Tortoise
The desert tortoise (''Gopherus agassizii''), is a species of tortoise in the Family (biology), family Testudinidae. The species is native to the Mojave Desert, Mojave and Sonoran Deserts of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, and to the Sinaloan thornscrub of northwestern Mexico. ''G. agassizii'' is distributed in western Arizona, southeastern California, southern Nevada, and southwestern Utah. The specific name ''agassizii'' is in honor of Swiss-American zoologist Louis Agassiz, Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz. The desert tortoise is the official state reptile in California and Nevada. The desert tortoise lives about 50 to 80 years; it grows slowly and generally has a low reproductive rate. It spends most of its time in burrows, rock shelters, and pallets to regulate body temperature and reduce water loss. It is most active after seasonal rains and is inactive during most of the year. This inactivity helps reduce water loss during hot periods, whereas winte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chuckwalla
Chuckwallas are lizards found primarily in arid regions of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Some are found on coastal islands. The six species of chuckwallas are all placed within the genus ''Sauromalus''; they are part of the iguanid family, Iguanidae. Taxonomy and etymology The generic name, ''Sauromalus'', is said to be a combination of two ancient Greek words: ''sauros'' meaning "lizard" and ''homalos'' (ὁμαλός) meaning "flat". The common name "chuckwalla" derives from the Shoshone word ''tcaxxwal'' or Cahuilla ''čaxwal'', transcribed by Spaniards as ''chacahuala''. Extant species Description Chuckwallas are stocky, wide-bodied lizards with flattened midsections and prominent bellies. Their tails are thick, tapering to a blunt tip. Loose folds of skin characterize the neck and sides of their bodies, which are covered in small, coarsely granular scales. The common chuckwalla (''Sauromalus ater'') measures 15 3/4 inches long, whereas insular ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gila Monster
The Gila monster (''Heloderma suspectum'', ) is a species of venomous lizard native to the Southwestern United States and the northwestern Mexican state of Sonora. It is a heavy, typically slow-moving reptile, up to long, and it is the only venomous lizard native to the United States. Its venomous close relatives, the four beaded lizards (all former subspecies of ''Heloderma horridum'') inhabit Mexico and Guatemala. The Gila monster is sluggish in nature, so it is not generally dangerous and very rarely poses a real threat to humans. However, it has a fearsome reputation and is sometimes killed in spite of the species being protected by state law in Arizona. History The name "Gila" refers to the Gila River Basin in the U.S. states of Arizona and New Mexico, where the Gila monster was once plentiful. ''Heloderma'' means "studded skin", from the Ancient Greek words (), "the head of a nail or stud", and (), "skin". ''Suspectum'' comes from the describer, paleontologist Edwa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kit Fox
The kit fox (''Vulpes macrotis'') is a fox species that inhabits arid and semi-arid regions of the southwestern United States and northern and central Mexico. These foxes are the smallest of the four species of ''Vulpes'' occurring in North America and are among the smallest of the vulpines worldwide. It has also been called a North American counterpart of the fennec fox due to its large ears. Taxonomy Some mammalogists classify it as conspecific with the swift fox, ''V. velox'', but molecular systematics imply that the two species are distinct. Interbreeding between the two species does occur where their ranges overlap (eastern New Mexico and western Texas), but this hybridization is quite restricted in scope. Subspecific designations for the species are not fully addressed. As many as eight subspecies have been recognized, although further analyzes have not found support for any subspecies differentiation. However, although there is a clear need for more subspecific clarificat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bobcat
The bobcat (''Lynx rufus''), also known as the red lynx, is a medium-sized cat native to North America. It ranges from southern Canada through most of the contiguous United States to Oaxaca in Mexico. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List since 2002, due to its wide distribution and large population. Although it has been hunted extensively both for sport and fur, populations have proven stable, though declining in some areas. It has distinctive black bars on its forelegs and a black-tipped, stubby (or "bobbed") tail, from which it derives its name. It reaches a total length (including the tail) of up to . It is an adaptable predator inhabiting wooded areas, semidesert, urban edge, forest edge, and swampland environments. It remains in some of its original range, but populations are vulnerable to extirpation by coyotes and domestic animals. Though the bobcat prefers rabbits and hares, it hunts insects, chickens, geese and other birds, small rodents, and deer. Pre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mountain Lion
The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large cat native to the Americas. Its range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere. It is an adaptable, generalist species, occurring in most American habitat types. This wide range has brought it many common names, including puma, mountain lion, catamount and panther (for the Florida sub-population). It is the second-largest cat in the New World, after the jaguar (''Panthera onca''). Secretive and largely solitary by nature, the cougar is properly considered both nocturnal and crepuscular, although daytime sightings do occur. Despite its size, the cougar is more closely related to smaller felines, including the domestic cat (''Felis catus'') than to any species of the subfamily Pantherinae. The cougar is an ambush predator that pursues a wide variety of prey. Primary food sources are ungulates, particularly deer, but it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mule Deer
The mule deer (''Odocoileus hemionus'') is a deer indigenous to western North America; it is named for its ears, which are large like those of the mule. Two subspecies of mule deer are grouped into the black-tailed deer. Unlike the related white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), which is found throughout most of North America east of the Rocky Mountains and in the valleys of the Rocky Mountains from Idaho and Wyoming northward, mule deer are only found on the western Great Plains, in the Rocky Mountains, in the southwest United States, and on the west coast of North America. Mule deer have also been introduced to Argentina and Kauai, Kauai, Hawaii. Taxonomy Mule deer can be divided into two main groups: the mule deer (''sensu stricto'') and the black-tailed deer. The first group includes all subspecies, except ''O. h. columbianus'' and ''Sitka deer, O. h. sitkensis'', which are in the black-tailed deer group. The two main groups have been treated as separate species, but ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sauromalus Ater (3)
''Sauromalus ater'', also known as the common chuckwalla or northern chuckwalla, is a species of lizard in the family Iguanidae. It inhabits the Sonoran and Mojave Deserts of the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. Its range extends from eastern California, Utah, and Nevada south to Baja California and Sonora. Taxonomy The common name "chuckwalla" (or chuckawalla) is derived from the Shoshone word ''tcaxxwal'', or ''caxwal'', the form used by the Cahuilla of southeastern California. Its generic name, ''Sauromalus'', is said to be a combination of two ancient Greek words: ''sauros'' meaning "lizard" and ''omalus'' meaning "flat". The proper ancient Greek word for "flat" is however ''homalos'' (ὁμαλός) or ''homalēs'' (ὁμαλής). Its specific name is ''ater'', Latin for "black" or "dark" The United States populations of the species were previously known as ''Sauromalus obesus''; although that name is no longer officially recognized, it is still very ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
.jpg "Click for more on -> Cottonwood Canyon Wilderness")
.jpg "Click for more on -> Mourning Dove")
.jpg "Click for more on -> Desert Tortoise")
