PLANTS AND ANIMALS

Ontario has five main areas of vegetation. There are the Artic Tundra, Subartic Zone, Boreal Forest, Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Forests, and the Broadleaf Foresets. The Artic Tundra has low shrubs, mosses and lichens. The Subartic Zone has black spruce, swamps and muskegs. The Boreal Forest has jack pine, white spruce, and balsam fir. Red Spruce and hemlock can be found in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Forests. In the Broadleaf Forests are beech, hickory and oak. Forests cover about 70% of Ontario.

A variety of animal life is found in Ontario. Large animals include polar bear, white whale, seal, walrus, and caribou. These animals are found in the artic area. In the swamps of Ontario, you can find beaver, muskrat, marten, mink, fox, wolverine, and raccoon. In the Great Lakes Forests are black bear, skunk, deer, moose, wolf, weasel, and smaller mammals such as squirrel, rabbit, and woodchuck. A few game birds found in Ontario include duck, goose, ruffled grouse, heron, loon, woodpecker, warbler, and finch. If you like to fish, you can catch trout, pickerel, pike, perch, whitefish, muskelunge, and bass.

The flower of Ontario is the White Trillium.