Life Sciences Gallery: A Tour of the Province: Taiga Shield
Thriving on Scarcity
Our first stop is the Taiga Shield ecozone. A short growing season, cold winters, thin soils, and limited moisture make this a harsh place to live, yet many organisms thrive. Some animals have highly specialized diets, while others time their breeding to take advantage of the short, northern summer.
Taiga Summer
This diorama depicts a scene near Patterson Lake in the northeast corner of Saskatchewan. The hill in the distance is Arctic Butte, an upland high enough to support tundra vegetation.
Taiga Summer
As the largest living member of the deer family, Moose need to eat large amounts of food to obtain enough energy and nutrients. In the north, where sodium and other minerals are scarce, Moose forage mainly on sodium-rich water plants in the summer, consuming up to 60 kilograms each day. In the winter, their diet is restricted to twigs and shrubs, which provide them with a rich supply of energy but less sodium. |
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Some displays, including this up-close look at a Sphagnum bog, use models that are 4-12x actual size to illustrate the diversity of life from an insect's perspective. In this scene, a dragonfly is about to catch a mosquito in its "leg basket," a Round-leaved Sundew has trapped a mosquito, and a Fishing Spider is tucked away, waiting for its next prey. |
For further information contact the Curator of Life Sciences.
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