© Pete Saloutos/Panoramic Images (Washington Title Image Large)
North Cascades Wildlife
The North Cascades are home to many species of animals:
Animal Group | Approx. number of species |
|---|---|
| Mammals | 75 |
| Reptiles and amphibians | 21 |
| Birds | 200 |
| Fish | 28 |
| Terrestrial Insects | over 500 |
| Aquatic Invertebrates | over 250 |
This ecoregion provides important habitat for large mammals such as mountain goats, elk, and black bear. Wide-ranging and rarely seen carnivores, including lynx, gray wolves, grizzly bears, and wolverines, can find a home here because it has experienced less residential development and logging disturbance than other regions of the Cascade Mountains.
The North Cascades host a wide variety of breeding birds, including bald eagles, osprey, harlequin ducks, spotted owls, marbled murrelets, and many species of Neotropical migrants, such as Wilson’s warbler, Swainson’s thrush, and rufous hummingbird.
For details of this ecoregion within Washington, click a subheading in the left column.
View the more general description of this ecoregion in North America
Neotropical migrants: Birds that migrate long distances to North America to nest and breed. They spend the winter in the New World Tropics (or "Neotropics"), generally defined as the tropical regions of Mexico, Central America, and South America that lie south of the Tropic of Cancer. >back
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