Wildlife identification practice questions for Alberta

Wildlife identification questions

1. 1What is the most reliable way to tell a mule deer from a white-tailed deer at distance?

   1. ABody colour
   2. BThe tail and the ears: mule deer have a thin rope-like tail with a black tip and large ears, white-tails have a broad tail raised white underneath
   3. CAntler colour
   4. DWhether it is alone
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   BThe tail and the ears: mule deer have a thin rope-like tail with a black tip and large ears, white-tails have a broad tail raised white underneath

   Colour and behaviour vary with season and individual. Tail shape and ear size are structural and hold up at distance and in poor light.

2. 2Before releasing a shot at a game animal, what must you positively confirm?

   1. AThe species, its sex where the licence requires it, and what lies beyond it
   2. BOnly the species
   3. COnly that it is legal shooting light
   4. DOnly the range
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   AThe species, its sex where the licence requires it, and what lies beyond it

   Identification is not just species. A sex-specific licence makes sex part of the legal identification, and the backstop is part of the shot decision, not separate from it.

3. 3In late summer a bull elk carries antlers wrapped in a soft, fuzzy skin. What is that covering doing?

   1. AInsulating the antler against coming winter cold
   2. BCarrying blood and nutrients to the growing antler until it hardens, after which it is rubbed off
   3. CGrowing on the antler as a fungus
   4. DCollecting shed hair from rubbing on trees
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   BCarrying blood and nutrients to the growing antler until it hardens, after which it is rubbed off

   Antlers are bone, grown fresh every year, and velvet is the living blood supply that builds them. It looks like fur, which makes the insulation answer tempting, but the antler is dropped and regrown rather than kept warm.

4. 4Ducks swing over your decoys in the grey light before sunrise, and colour is impossible to read. Which clues are still usable?

   1. ASilhouette, size, wingbeat, flock shape, and calls
   2. BThe colour of the speculum on the wing
   3. CBill colour
   4. DEye colour
   Show the answer

   ASilhouette, size, wingbeat, flock shape, and calls

   Colour needs light, and your eyes barely register it at that hour, so every colour based answer fails before the birds are in range. Shape, size, and sound still carry, and if they do not add up to a confident identification then the shot does not happen.