What’s usually purple, but sometimes pink,
and in the summer you might want it in a drink?
Creature: Ecosystem Engineers
Creatures that drastically alter environments, such as beavers, corals, elephants, or wolves.
Featured Creature: Kingfisher
What creature often looks blue, but isn’t, is found on every continent but Antarctica, and inspired a train’s design?
Featured Creature: Strangler Fig
What creature grows backwards and can swallow a tree whole?
Featured Creature: ‘Ōhi’a Lehua
What tree has adapted to grow directly in lava rock and is a keystone species of the Hawaiian watershed?
Featured Creature: Stone Pine
What Mediterranean tree is uniquely equipped to withstand wildfires with armor-like bark and high, out of reach, branches?
Featured Creature: Sphagnum moss
What bog-builder can hold 15-20 times its dry weight in water?
Featured Creature: Red kite
What acrobatic raptor was so essential to medieval public health, killing it was a crime and it became the national bird of Wales?
Featured Creature: Moon Snail
What seemingly cute, small creature is, in fact, a terrifying killer that drills a hole into their prey, liquidizes them, and then sucks them out like a smoothie?
Featured Creature: Eastern Emerald Elysia
What creature steals photosynthesis, can go a year without eating, and blurs the animal-plant boundary?
The Eastern Emerald Elysia!
Featured Creature: Cork Oak
What creature is the engine of the Portuguese economy and works hard to delight wine-lovers around the world?
The Cork Oak!
Featured Creature: Blue Whale
Which creature who helps fight climate change has newborns the size of an adult elephant and is not a fan of boats?
The Blue Whale!
Featured Creature: Groundhog
What cute creature is an underground architect and an amateur meteorologist?
The Groundhog!
Featured Creature: American Chestnut
What tree, the “Redwood of the East,” once dominated the forests of the Eastern United States, and the cultural landscape as well?
The American Chestnut!
Featured Creature: Prairie Dog
Have you ever heard of a squirrel that barks?
Featured Creature: Bamboo
What organism can grow up to 35 inches in a day, conduct electricity, and survive an atomic bomb?
Bamboo!
Featured Creature: Pando
What is the heaviest, oldest and one of the largest creatures on the planet?
Featured Creature: Beaver
Which creature fights fires, creates wetlands, recharges groundwater, alters landscapes, and is a climate hero?
Beavers!
Featured Creature: Whale Shark
What creature is the largest of its kind, sports beautiful patterns, and holds a reputation for being a ‘gentle giant’?
The whale shark!
Featured Creature: Banded Mongoose
Which creature enjoys social gatherings, is well adapted to its habitat, and can be very altruistic? The Banded Mongoose is a small mammal with a mass of approximately ≤2kg (or 4 lbs) found in (and indigenous to) various parts of Africa. While most other mongoose species live a solitary life, the banded mongoose is gregarious…
Featured Creature: Giant Barrel Sponge
What creature grows tall and sturdy, cleans up its neighborhood, and defends itself from predators – all without moving a muscle?
The Giant Barrel Sponge, or Xestospongia muta!
Featured Creature: Pacific Salmon
What creatures navigate oceans, climb mountains, feed forests, and motivate us to destroy renewable energy infrastructure?