Cheetah - Acinonyx jubatus

Ring-necked Pheasant - Phasianus colchicus

The male Ring-Necked Pheasant is hard to confuse with any other bird. All adult males have green iridescent heads with large areas of red, unfeathered skin around the eyes. And of course, they have the distinctive white ring around their necks. The female pheasant can be confused with several species of grouse, except it typically has a longer, pointed tail and bare, unfeathered legs.

The Ring-Necked Pheasant is not native to North America. Instead, it was introduced to this country from Asia in the 1800's. Since then it as successfully spread across most of the northern and western United States.

The Ring-Necked Pheasant is a popular game bird in Minnesota. There is an organization in Minnesota (and many states) called "Pheasants Forever." It is dedicated to the support and conservation of wild spaces so that the bird can continue to be hunted in its natural habitat.

Red-Breasted Nuthatch - Sitta canadensis

Canada Goose - Branta canadensis

Ladybug - Coccinellidae

The ladybug is a beneficial beetle, as it eats other insects, like aphids that feed upon garden plants. It is not native to North America. But because it is such a beneficial insect, it was actually introduced to the United States, several times over. Harmonia axyridis, the "Multicolored Asian" was introduced as late as the 1980s and has since become the most populous in the mid-western states. It has succeeded to the point where it has actually become a bit of a nuisance. Like box elder bugs, they attempt to get inside houses to spend winters, leading homeowners to combat them as pests.

Ladybugs are orange or red with black markings. Some ladybugs have limited yellow markings as well. Ladybugs eat aphids in both their larval and adult stages. A single ladybug can eat over 5,000 aphids in its lifetime.

Black Bear and Cub - Ursus americanus

A female black bear will typically have two or three cubs at a time. Bears have cubs every other year, this gives them nearly two years to get their cubs ready to fend for themselves. The cubs are born in January or February, during the hibernation season.

Recently, there was some controversy in northern Minnesota, when "One Ear", a female black bear decided to hibernate under a vacation cabin. The state Department of Natural Resources, fearing that the bear would be a danger to humans, planned to euthanize the bear and her two cubs. This outraged the community, so instead, the bears were tranquilized and moved to a new hibernation area.

A black bear's size and weight depends on their age and the availability of food, but a healthy male be be up to 500 pounds in a good year. The largest wild, male black bear recorded was 880 lbs.

The black bear can live to be over 30 years old.

Moose - Alces alces

The moose is the largest North American animal in the deer family. This same animal is referred to as an "elk" in Northern Europe.

This is a huge animal. It can be up to 7 or 8 feet in height in northern Canada in Alaska and over 1,200 pounds. Moose found in Minnesota are more typically 1,000 pounds. The moose is dangerous in a couple ways. First of all, they are mostly docile creatures. But a female moose with a calf can be very aggressive when defending her young. Canoers, hikers and hunters in northern Minnesota have been charged when surprising a mother moose.

Also, because of its huge body mass and long, long legs, it is extremely dangerous for a car to hit a moose. The speeding car undercuts the moose's legs and then 1,000 pounds of moose come crashing through the car window without slowing down at the bumper or hood. Do a Google image search for "moose accident" and you'll see how bad it can be.

Moose are good swimmers and are known to dive underwater to get to the water plants that they prefer to eat. Their have splayed, wide hooves, which are good at walking through marshy, boggy areas.

Moose hunting was banned in Minnesota until 1972, but now selective hunting is allowed, keeping moose populations at an estimated 5,000 to 8,000 animals.