When you think of wildlife, you may picture herds of Roosevelt elk, an elusive cougar, or maybe even a black bear. All of these large mammals live in Olympic National Park, but they are just the tip of a huge animal iceberg.Many, many more wild animals than elk and bear live in Olympic: from owls, to Lake Crescent''s Beardslee trout, to spiny animals lurking in coastal tidepools. Look carefully and you may find yellow banana slugs, rough-skinned newts, the endemic tiger beetle, a tiny jumping springtail, and if you''re lucky, a creature you''ve never seen or even thought of before.
The concept of the predator-prey pyramid will introduce you to the numerous creatures that thrive in Olympic National Park.
What is the predator-prey pyramid?
All animals need food. The base of the food pyramid consists of vegetation materials born from the sun''s energy. Herbivores feed on this base. These herbivores are then consumed by the first level of carnivores. Those carnivores are then eaten by carnivores higher on the pyramid and so on. Generally, animals feed on life forms found below them on the pyramid.
Why is it shaped like a pyramid?
Food energy is converted into heat energy at each level of the pyramid. By the time the food energy gets to the top level, most of it has turned into heat and fewer upper level carnivores can be sustained. For example, only a few cougars will be found in an area that may sustain hundreds of elk. Elk use energy during their daily lives. They, as well as all other animals, convert food into heat as they grow, move, chew, communicate and even think. A herd of 100 elk could never sustain a population of 100 cougars.Who feeds on the top predators?
Even organisms found at the top of the pyramid have predators. Cougars, bears, eagles, owls and you have predators. Although, these predators may not be so obvious. They are disease, hunger, thirst, and hypothermia.
Amphibians.
Checking Olympic''s pulse is sometimes as simple as monitoring animal and plant populations. Researchers periodically survey populations to look for change - the first clue to a shift in a community''s health. Amphibians are good bio-indicators because they have permeable skin (which allows air, water, and pollutants to move freely into their bodies). If toxins are absorbed, they are stored and concentrated in fatty tissues. Increases in UV radiation may also affect and damage the thin skin of these primitive four-legged creatures.
Researchers all over the world and at Olympic National Park monitor amphibian population to check the health of the world''s environment. Today, researchers are finding a worldwide decline in their populations. Do you know how amphibians are doing near your home? If not, you can monitor your environment''s health simply by remembering to listen to the frogs sing.
Birds.
The birds of Olympic connect Olympic to the world. Surrounded by water on three sides, Olympic may seem physically isolated and disconnected from other North American landscapes, bu many systems tie Olympic to the rest of the world, like migrating birds. Migrating birds depend on Olympic for food, water and shelter as they travel north or south. They need Olympic''s pristine rivers, lakes, forests and coastline for survival during their lengthy travels.
Fish.
Your body transfers nutrients through a network of streams and rivers we call arteries and veins. Arteries and veins feed your cells just like rivers feed Olympic''s forests. Rivers carry nutrients to the forests by way of fish, insects and other animals that live in this aqueous world. These animals are the red-blood cells of Olympic''s rivers. Anadromous fish, such as salmon, play a crucial role in feeding the forests. They spend much of their life at sea building up strength and energy for their return trip home. After two to four years they "smell" their way back upriver to the clean, cool beds of gravel to spawn. After laying thousands of eggs, salmon die. Their carcasses line the riverbanks and supply a wealth of nourishment to forest animals. Thus, the ocean''s bounties are circulated back into the forest community.
Insects.
Thousands and thousands of arthropods species (crustaceans, millipedes, centipedes, insects, spiders) live in Olympic National Park. Some may even have eluded the human eye. Olympic''s arthropods filter leaf debris under river rocks, graze on the tips of a 300'' Douglas-fir trees, pollinate colorful flowers in the alpine, and even search for a meal atop rocks on the park''s highest peaks.
Adapted from 