Animal life

North America has abundant animal life, which varies with the climate and plant life of each region. Caribou, musk oxen, polar bears, seals, snowy owls, whales, and wolverines live in the cold north. Jaguars, monkeys, and colourful birds are found in tropical Central America. Rocky Mountain sheep and goats graze on the slopes of the Rockies. The southwestern deserts have a wide variety of lizards and rattlesnakes. Coyotes and pronghorns--animals that are found only in North America--roam the Great Plains. The forests of Canada and the Eastern United States have beavers, black bears, deer, ermines, minks, moose, muskrats, and porcupines. Canadian geese, ducks, egrets, pelicans, and spoonbills are among the birds that winter in the marshes of the Coastal Lowlands, and alligators live in the coastal waters of the far south.  Raccoons, skunks, and squirrels are common throughout the continent.

The oceans supply commercial fishing crews with valuable catches of cod, flounder, and many other kinds of fish and shellfish. Crabs are plentiful in the northern Pacific, cod and lobsters in the northern Atlantic, and menhaden all along the Atlantic coast. Shrimp and oysters are abundant in the Gulf of Mexico.

Certain kinds of wildlife have decreased sharply in number over the years. These include the bison (buffalo), the whooping crane, and the bald eagle. Game laws and the establishment of protected areas help such animals survive today.

Plant life

The plant life of North America is related to the continent's various climates. Nothing grows on Greenland's icecap. Only grasses, mosses, and lichens survive in the vast cold plains that border the Arctic Ocean. A kind of moss called sphagnum or peat fills the marshes of the Canadian Shield and is an important export from this region. Huge saguaro cactuses and other cactus plants grow in the southwestern deserts. Short grasses and small bushlike plants such as tumbleweed cover the dry Great Plains.

Most of the rest of the continent has forests and level or rolling grasslands called prairies. The prairies stretch across the centre of the continent. The forests cover the continent's western mountain regions, most of Canada, and the eastern half of the United States. A tropical rain forest grows along the Caribbean coast.

The finest North American forests are those along the Pacific coast. The towering redwoods stand there, as well as forests of cedar, fir, hemlock, and spruce.

The Canadian forests include fir, larch, pine, and spruce trees. Hardwood trees such as maple and beech grow in the Northeastern United States. Many of the trees that grow in Canada and the Northeastern United States are processed into wood pulp for newsprint. Hickory, oak, and pine trees fill the forests of the Southern United States. Central America's tropical forests include mahogany and rosewood trees, which are used in making furniture.