Colorado Life Zones: Seasons, Plants, & Animals

Step 1: Choose One of the Life Zones or Choices Below

Alpine Life Zone: Seasons, Plants, & Animals

Step 2: Choose a Topic from the Alpine Life Zone & Scroll Down

General Information

Through the Seasons

Altitude Sickness & Sunburns

Awesome Adaptations

Plants

Mammals

Birds

Reptiles & Amphibians

Alpine Life Zone: Awesome Adaptations

Colorado and the Rocky Mountains have many different plants and animals that have made awesome adaptations to live in the different life zones. Here are just a few.

White-tailed Ptarmigan

Elk

Rocky Mountain Columbine

American Pika

Awesome Adaptations: White-tailed Ptarmigan

In late spring, it molts or loses its warm white winter feathers and grows speckled grayish-brown feathers. The new feathers can camouflage or hide the birds so well in the rocks and the ptarmigans can stay so still that hikers may almost step on the birds before they even know the birds are there. Ptarmigans need to eat lots of seeds, flowers, plants, and insects over the short summer to build up a new layer of fat for the next winter. When the snow returns, the ptmarigan grows a brand new set of warm white feathers and molts or loses its grayish brown summer feathers.

Sources of information and to find more information: All About Birds, Nature Works, CSU NDIS

Changing Feathers in the Fall

Winter Feathers

Masters of Camouflage

Masters of Camouflage

Awesome Adaptations: Elk or Wapiti

There are few things that speak for Colorado's wild Rocky Mountains more than the sound of an elk bugling in the cold crisp fall mountain air. Elk, also called wapiti, are truly amazing animals that are well adapted to living in the rugged Rocky Mountians. Elk are one of the largest members of the deer family. They may get 5 to 6 feet tall at the shoulders, 7 to 9 feet long, and male bull elk may weigh up to 1000 pounds. They have strong hooves and can quickly climb the steep mountains. Elk can run really fast, up to 35 miles per hour. If you have ever hiked high in the mountains, you will gain greater appreciation for their speed when you are slowly making your way up in the thin mountain air.

Elk are social animals and live in herds. The herd is usually dominated by one strong male elk, called a bull, with lots of female elk, called cows. In the fall, bull elk use their incredibly large antlers to fight other bull elk for females. Bull elk will make loud bugling and grunting sounds that will carry for many miles away. The elk calls say, "I am here to the other bull elk and cow elk, and I am strong and ready for a challenge." Once the rut or fall mating season is over, elk will move down to the montane and foothills life zones to avoid the deep mountain snow. In spring time, the elk return to the high subalpine and alpine life zones.

What's the difference between an antler and a horn? Bighorn sheep have horns and they keep them their entire life; each year the horns may grow slightly bigger and more curled. Elk have antlers. Each year the elk will lose their antlers in the spring and grow a new set of antlers. There is a fuzzy velvet on the outside of the new antlers that help them grow. In the summer the velvet dies and the antlers become hard and strong. Elk will keep their antlers over winter and shed them in the spring again. So horns stay on the animal for their entire life and antlers are shed and grown new each year.

Thankfully, elk have made an amazing comeback in Colorado. Elk used to roam in large numbers across the land before settlers came from the eastern United States. Elk even lived on the eastern plains. Settlers started hunting and killing elk and other big game animals in large numbers for their meat, fur, antlers, and sport of hunting. When gold, silver, and other minerals were discovered high in the mountains, thousands of people became miners and created mountain boom towns. They needed a large supply of meat to feed the new miners and would often kill most every living creature around the mining towns, including elk, deer, bighorn sheep and other animals. By the early 1900's, the elk population, along with many other big game animals in the state of Colorado, was in danger of becoming extinct. Thanks to conservation minded people, a small population of elk was taken from Yellowstone National Park and added to the small herds that still lived in Colorado. Over time and with strong hunting regulations, the elk population has come back and are now at healthy numbers in the state.

Sources of information and to find more information: CO p of Wildlife , Bear Country U.S.A., Sask. Schools

Awesome Adaptations: Rocky Mountain Columbine

The Rocky Mountain columbine is one of the many flowers that have found a way to paint the high mountains with color in the summer. Soon after the snow has melted, many seeds start growing quickly. They turn the rocky slopes green with new plants. The plants grow many flowers that make lots more seeds. The seeds fall to the ground or blow in the wind and will make more new plants with flowers in the future. The growing season may be short in the high country before the snow returns, but the Rocky Mountain columbine has found a way to return in large numbers each summer.

The beautiful Rocky Mountain columbine is the state flower of Colorado. The flower has some of the same colors that are on Colorado's state flag. The flower has five light blue to purple sepals on the outside that look like large petals. They have five smaller white petals on the inside and a yellow center. On the back of the flower are five long spurs. The combination of blue, white, and yellow make the Rocky Mountain columbine an especially beautiful flower. It is illegal to pick or dig up wild columbines in Colorado.

For more information, click on the following links: SW CO Plants, Denver Plants

Awesome Adaptations: American Pika

The American pika has found a way to live in the steep rockpiles high in the mountains. The American pika may look closer to a mouse, but it is more closely related to the rabbit family. It is about 6 to 8 inches long, has round ears, and has no tail. The pika has thick warm fur. Along with the yellow-bellied marmot, the American pika is well known for their shrill chirps from high mountain rocky scree fields. The larger marmots are much easier to spot than the small pikas. When you get close enough to see the squeaking pika, the pika quickly hides in one of the many cracks and holes around the rockpiles. There may be several pika on a mountain-side and they squeak to each other to protect their rockpiles, find a mate, and communicate danger to other pikas. So even though their shrill chirps may attract predators, the pika has adapted by becoming a fast climber and quick hider.

You will find few animals busier in the summer than the pika. They seem to be constantly running around collecting plants, seeds, and flowers. The pikas hide them all around their rockpile homes. There is a very good reason for this busy habit. Unlike many other animals in the alpine and subalpine, the pika stays active all year round and does not hibernate. The pika lives under the snow in the many holes and cracks in and around the rocks. The snow and warm winter fur shelter them from the strong winds and snowstorms. They eat their stored plants, seeds, and flowers to stay warm and active during the winter.

Sources of information and to find more information: Nature Works, CO p of Wildlife, Utah p of Wildlife