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Canada

Canada Political system

Canada is a federal state with a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy. The British monarch is considered the country's head of state. He is represented by a Governor General, who is appointed by him on the proposal of the Prime Minister of Canada. The actual legislature, the Canadian parliament, has its seat in the capital Ottawa and consists of the governor general, the upper house ("Senate") and the lower house ("House of Commons"). The House of Lords has 105 senators from the country's provinces and territories. They are installed by the Governor General. The 301 members of the House of Commons are elected every four years on average (for a maximum of five years), with a majority voting system being used.

The executive branch of Canada is based on the British cabinet system. The executive power therefore rests with the Governor General, who however acts exclusively at the behest of the government. This consists of the Prime Minister and other members of the cabinet. Prime Minister usually becomes the leader of the party with the most seats in the lower house. He is also the chairman of parliament and appoints around 25 members as ministers. Together they form the cabinet, which in turn reports to the House of Commons. The executive bodies of the Canadian government are federal ministries, federal agencies, agencies, committees and state-owned companies.

Canada comprises ten provinces and three territories. The latter are administered by the federal government. The provinces, on the other hand, have their own legislative bodies and provincial governments.

Canadian law is essentially based on common law (with the exception of the province of Quebec, here "Quebec Civil Code"). The fundamental rights of Canadian citizens are protected by a catalog of civil and human rights, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This includes, for example, the right to freedom of expression, the right to use one of the two official languages and the protection of multiculturalism. Canada generally values the rights of its citizens and the observance of human rights worldwide. The highest courts are the Supreme Court of Canada and the Federal Court of Canada in Ottawa. Each province also has its own dishes. The Federation is represented in the provinces by a governor-general appointed "

According to Digopaul.com, the official name of the country is:

Provinces and Territories

The information on the areas and population of the provinces and territories of Canada vary slightly between different sources, and they have also been rounded up or down. The following figures are from the Canadian Embassy in Germany.

Provinces

Territories

National anthem

The national anthem of a country is usually a piece of music underlaid with a text, which is intended to express the state, attitude to life or national feeling of a country. It is usually played on particularly festive occasions.

The introduction of the national anthems in most European countries goes back to the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Canada's national anthem "O Canada"was composed in 1880 by the music teacher Calixa Lavallée. The original French text comes from Judge Adolphe-Basile Routhier. The current English version of the text is a translation by Robert Stanley Weir from the year 1908. On July 1, 1980, "O Canada" was declared the country's official anthem and converted into a countered form in February 2018..

In English

English translation

The French anthem is not an exact translation from English.

In French

English translation from French

National flag

The national flag symbolizes certain historical developments or special characteristics of a country. Today every country has its own national flag, which is often supplemented by numerous other flags inside.

Based on flag descriptions by Countryaah.com, several people were involved in the design of the Canadian flag. Jacques St. Cyr provided the stylized maple leaf, George Bist determined the proportions and Gunter Wyszechi determined the coloring. A 15-member parliamentary special committee ultimately decided on its final appearance. On February 15, 1965, the new national flag was adopted by parliament. This date is now officially recognized as Canadian Flag Day.

Canada: Known People

Doctors, scientists working in medicine

Sir William Osler (1849 - 1919)

one of the most famous doctors in the Anglo-Saxon area at the turn of the century; leader in the development of modern medicine; specializes in heart, lung and blood diseases; incorporated elements of today's psychosomatic medicine into his healing art.

James Naismith (1861-1939)

physician and educator; invented the ball game "basketball" in 1891

John James Richard Macleod (1876-1935)

Scottish-Canadian physiologist; important work on diabetes (diabetes mellitus) and carbohydrate metabolism; received the 1923 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (the official name of the prize) together with Sir Frederick Grant Banting

Oswald Theodore Avery (1877-1955)

medical doctor and researcher; together with Colin McLeod and Maclyn McCarty is considered the founder of modern molecular genetics; showed in bacteria that DNA is the carrier of genetic information

Sir Frederick Grant Banting (1891-1941)

pediatrician and pharmacologist; discovered insulin together with Charles Best in the early 1920s; he received the 1923 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Wilder Graves Penfield (1891-1976)

neurologist; explored the brain regions

Herbert Henri Jasper (1906-1999)

neuroscientist; mainly dealt with the EEG

Theodore Brown Rasmussen (1910-2002)

neurologist, especially epilepsy surgery

Ralph Marvin Steinman (1943-2001)

Together with the American Bruce Beutler and the French Jules Hoffmann, he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The award was given to them for their contribution to research into the immune system. Steinman had died a few days before the pancreatic cancer award and was therefore awarded the award posthumously. Since the Nobel Prize Committee knew nothing of his death at the time of the award, the honor was retained, although posthumous honors per se are excluded.

Architects and builders

Arthur Charles Erickson (born 1924)

Architect; Selection of his buildings: Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, Court of Justice in Downtown Vancouver, San Diego Convention Center, Napp Laboratories in Cambridge (England), the Canadian Chancery in Washington DC, California Plaza in Los Angeles

Frank Owen Gehry (actually Frank Goldberg; born 1929)

Architect and designer; leading exponent of deconstructivism in architecture; Selection of his buildings: California Aerospace Museum in Santa Monica, California, Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, American Center in Paris, Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao (1991-1997), Gehry Tower in Hanover

Moshe Safdie (born 1938)

Canadian architect of Israeli origin; built the terrace block Habitat 67 for the world exhibition in 1967 in Montréal, and in 1984 the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa

Carlos Ott (born 1946)

Architect; planned the Opéra de la Bastille in Paris, which was completed in 1989

Visual artist

Emily Carr (1871-1945)

Painter; mixed motifs of Indian culture with European elements, especially of impressionism, in her works

Yousuf Karsh (1908-2002)

Canadian photographer of Armenian origin; The specialty were portrait photos

David Rabinowitsch (born 1943)

sculptor

Jeff Wall (born 1946)

performance artist

Rodney Graham (born 1949)

artist, including artist books, prints, photography, film and video

Luc Courchesne (born 1952)

media artist

Musician

Bryan Adams (born 1959)

Singer and composer and photographer; Mainstream rocker

Paul Anka (born 1941)

Singer and composer

Justin Drew Bieber (born 1994)

Bieber is a pop and R&B singer. Bieber's paternal great-grandfather immigrated to Canada from Germany.

Michael Steven Bublé (born 1975)

jazz singer and actor of Italian descent.

His album named after him made it into the "Top" in 2003 in Canada, Great Britain and Australia

Leonard Cohen (1934-2016)

musician, songwriter and poet. Leonard Norman Cohen was born on September 21, 1934 in Montreal to wealthy Jewish parents.

He started playing the guitar at the age of 13. But music initially played a secondary role for him, as he was aiming for a career as a writer. His first work was a volume of poetry in 1956 entitled Let Us Compare Mythologies.

In the following years he made long trips through Europe until he settled on the Greek island of Hydra and lived with the Norwegian Marianne Ihlen for a few years.

Here he had published the novels The Favorite Game (1963) and Beautiful Losers (1966) as well as the collection of poems Flowers for Hitler (1964). He switched to music in 1967 when he was active as a folk singer and songwriter in New York.

At the time Cohen had lived in the legendary Chelsea Hotel, where many well-known artists had stayed before and afterwards.

He had released numerous albums, the last two being considered his best. His songs, which are also famous in Germany, are Suzanne, Bird on a Wire, Lady Midnight, To night will be fine or So Long Marianne - to name just a few.

Cohen suffered from depression all his life. Not least because of this, he had retired to a Buddhist monastery near Los Angeles for a few years and became a monk in 1996 under the name Jikan (the silent).

Against all odds, he returned to music in 2001 and gave concerts in Canada and Europe in 2008 and in New Zealand, Australia, the USA and Canada in 2009 and again in Europe in the summer of that year.

In 2010 he again went on a world tour and gave five concerts in Germany.

Cohen has two children with Suzanne Elrod, son Adam Cohen born in 1972 and daughter Lorca Cohen born in 1974.

He died on November 7, 2016 in Los Angeles.

Addendum

According to many, he would have deserved the Nobel Prize more than Bob Dylan. Be that as it may, here are the first two stanzas of the wonderful song Bird on a Wire - the second stanza in particular is downright touching:

"like a bird on a wire

like a drunk in a midnight choir

I have tried in my way to be free

like a worm on the hook

like a knight from some old-fashioned book

I have saved all my ribbons for thee

and if I have been unkind

I hope that you will just let it go by

and if I have been untrue

I hope you know it was never to you "

Celine Marie Claudette Dion (born 1968)

pop singer

Glenn Herbert Gould (1932 - 1982)

important pianist of the 20th century; internationally known for his recordings of works by JS Bach (e.g. Goldberg Variations)

Diana Jean Krall (born 1964)

jazz pianist and singer

Galt MacDermot (born 1928)

Composer in the fields of rock, jazz and film music

Joni Mitchell - actually Roberta Joan Anderson (born 1943)

Painter and musician. Along with Carole King and Laura Nyro, she is one of the most important songwriters of the so-called first generation.

Alanis Nadine Morissette (born 1974)

Singer, songwriter and painter

Neil Young (born 1945)

rock musician. Neil Percival Young was born on November 12, 1945 in Toronto, Ontario. Neil spent his early years in the small town of Omemee, Ontario.

In 1951 he fell ill with polio, which had led to paralysis on the left side of his body. And that's not all: in the mid-1960s, he also contracted epilepsy and diabetes. She then spent a year in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, to recover. After his parents' divorce in 1957, he moved with his mother to Winnipeg, Manitoba - the easternmost prairie province of Canada.

His musician career began in 1966 with the band Buffalo Springfield, which he and Stephen Stills (born 1945) founded in Los Angeles.

Songs like Mr. Soul, Broken Arrow and On The Way Home came from this time. In 1968 he left the band to pursue a solo career and in the same year he released his first solo album and traveled through North America in 1969. Shortly thereafter, the first album appeared with his band Crazy Horse, which he founded - named after the Indian chief Crazy Horse (1839-1877). He also performed with Crosby, Stills and Nash at the Woodstock Festival in August 1969.

During this time, among others, Helpless and Country Girl and the protest song Ohio appeared. In the following years a number of albums appeared, including Harvest and On The Beach.

In 1982 Neil Young moved to the record label Geffen Records, for which he recorded five albums by 1987.

The album Freedom from 1989 was a great success. In October 1992 the release of Harvest Moon followed.

In 1995 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The soundtrack of Jim Jarmusch's film Dead Man came from him.

In 1996 the Crazy Horse album Broken Arrow was released and in 1997 the live record Year of the Hors 1999 the album Looking Forward came out.

On the occasion of the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, he played the John Lennon piece Imagine solo on the piano. Further stations of his musical work were the album Greendale from 2003 and the 2004 Greatest Hits album. In addition to his numerous illnesses, there was also an aneurysm in the brain in April 2005 - before his operation he had recorded the album Prairie Wind in Nashville. After the operation, which was successful despite complications occurring during the operation, he released the album Living With War in May 2006, which deals critically with the US policy on Iraq in folk rock style. In 2007 he released the album "Chrome Dreams II and 2009 Archives Volume I.

In 2010 the album Le Noise, produced by Daniel Lanois, was released. For the single record Angry World he received a Grammy for the best rock song.

In 2011 the album A Treasure, recorded during the 1985 tour with his band The International Harvesters, was released. In July 2014 he went on a European tour with the group Crazy Horse.

From 1968 to 1970 Young was married to Susan Acevedo and with the actress Carrie Snodgress (1945-2004) he had a relationship from 1971 to 1975. And from 1978 to 2014 he was married to Pegi Morton (born 1952).

Nickelback

The rock band called "Nickelback" was founded in the early 1990s by Chad Kroeger, his half-brother Mike and his cousin Brandon under the name The Village Idiots and renamed in 1995 to today's name Nickelback.

Oscar Emmanuel Peterson (born 1925)

jazz pianist

Natural scientist

Donald Olding Hebb (1904 - 1985)

He is considered the founder of cognitive psychobiology; his most famous work "The Organization of Behavior" (1949) deals with neurobiological principles of learning

Arthur Mc.Donald (born 1943)

Nobel Laureate in Physics 2015. Arthur Bruce McDonald was born on August 29, 1943 in Sydney, Nova Scotia (New Scotland), Canada.

In 2015 he received the Nobel Prize for Physics together with the Japanese Takaaki Kajita "For the discovery of neutrino oscillators that show that neutrinos have a mass".

The previously known neutrions are the electron, muon and tau neutrinos. This research facility for evidence of neutrinos lies 2,000 m below a rock layer.The detector consists of 1,000 tons of heavy water (deuterium) and corresponding light detectors to specifically detect electron neutrinos from the sun.

In 1964 he received a bachelor's degree in physics from Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, and a master's degree in 1965. He received his PhD from the California Institute of Technology.

He then worked from 1970 to 1982 as a scientist at the Chalk River Laboratories near Ottawa. From 1982 to 1989 he held a chair in physics at Princeton University - after which he became a professor at Queen's University in Kingston (Ontario). At the same time he became director of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) in 1989.

He was also a visiting scientist at CERN in 2004, at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1981 and at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Bertram Neville Brockhouse (1918-2003)

physicist; Nobel Prize in Physics 1994 together with the American Clifford Glenwood Shull for the development of techniques for the scattering of the uncharged nuclear particles

James Peebles (born 1935)

James Peebles, together with the Swiss Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz, received the Nobel Prize in Physics of the Year 2019 for their contributions to the understanding of the universe and the place of the earth in the cosmos.

Donna Strickland (born 1952)

Donna Strickland received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2018 for her groundbreaking findings in the field of laser technology.

She is the first woman in 55 years to receive the Nobel Prize in Physics.

Richard E. Taylor (born 1929)

physicist; received the 1990 Nobel Prize in Physics together with the Americans Jerome I. Friedman and Henry W. Kendall for demonstrating the substructure of the proton

Politicians and rulers

Tecumseh (actually Tecumtha or Tikamthi, "the crouching mountain lion"; 1768 - 1813)

famous chief of the Shawnee Indians; tried since about 1805 to unite the Indian tribes of the Midwest and Southeast against the advancing white settlers; fought on the British side against the Americans in the war of 1812-1813

Henry Sherwood (1807-1855) - lawyer, officer and politician

Sir John Alexander Macdonald (1815-1891)

first Prime Minister of Canada from 1867 to 1873, later again from 1878 until his death

Sir John Joseph Caldwell Abbott (1821-1893)

lawyer and politician; Canada's first native prime minister 1891/92; Great-grandfather of the actor Christopher Plummer

Sir Wilfrid Laurier (1841-1919)

lawyer by profession; Member of the Canadian Parliament from 1874; from 1887 leader of the Liberal Party; 1896-1911 first French Canadian Prime Minister of Canada; under him the settlement and development of western Canada began

Louis Riel (1844-1885)

famous leader of the Métis in Canada; was instrumental in the admission of Manitoba into the Canadian Confederation; led an uprising of the Métis against the Canadian government in 1884 and was executed for it

William Lyon Mackenzie King (1874-1950)

Liberal Party leader 1919-1948; multiple Prime Minister of Canada (1921-1926, 1926-1930, 1935-1948); under him Canada achieved independence from Great Britain (officially 1931)

Lester Bowles Pearson (1897-1972)

historian and politician; worked in the Foreign Ministry from 1928; Member of the Liberal Party of Canada; 1948-1957 Foreign Minister; was instrumental in founding NATO (1949); actively sought to end the Suez War (1956-1957) and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957; 1963-1968 Prime Minister of Canada

Directors and actors

Walter Pidgeon (1897 - 1984)

actor, two-time nominations for the Oscar for best actor ("Mrs. Miniver" 1942 "," Madame Curie "1944)

Leslie Nielsen (born 1926)

actor (among others in "Die nackte Kanone")

Christopher Plummer (actually Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer; born 1927)

actor; played in films like "A Beautiful Mind" (2001) or "The Legacy of the Knights Templar" (2004)

Graham Greene (born 1952)

actor of Native American descent; played in 1990 in the film "Dances with Wolves" and was nominated for an Oscar

Jim Carrey (real name James Eugene Carrey; born 1962)

comedian and actor

Mike Myers (born 1963)

film actor

Keanu Charles Reeves (born 1964)

actor and musician (bassist); received numerous awards

Pamela Denise Anderson (born 1967)

actress

Writer and poet

Francois-Xavier Garneau (1809-1866)

Writer; including "Histoire du Canada" (1845 - 1848), which was characterized by a patriotic attitude with the aim of establishing an independent Canadian-French literature against British rule

Octave Crémazie (1827-1879)

poet

Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942)

Writer; known from the youth book series "Anne of Green Gables"

Gray Owl (actually Archibald Stansfeld Belaney; 1888-1938)

English-born trapper (trappers and fur hunters) and writer; lived a long time with the Ojibway Indians of the Bear Island tribe, from whom he also got his name Gray Owl

Morley Callaghan (1903-1990)

Writer; Short stories; belonged to the circle of modern writers at Montparnasse in Paris at the end of the 1920s

Hugh MacLennan (born 1907)

Writer, including the novel "The watch that ends the night" ("The night of reconciliation", 1959); from 1951 to Professor of English Literature at McGill University in Montréal

Brian Moore (1921-1999)

Writer and screenwriter

Timothy Findley (1930-2002)

Writer; is considered a classic of Canadian literature

Alice Munro (born 1931)

is one of the most famous short story writers

Edna Annie Proulx (born 1935)

journalist and writer; American origin; Pulitzer Prize 1993 for the novel "The Shipping News"

Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born 1939)

Writer; Novels, essays, short stories and poetry; is regarded as one of the most renowned authors in the English-speaking world; Booker Prize 2000 for the novel "The Blind Assassin" ("The Blind Murderer")

Michael Ondaatje (born 1943)

Writer; Dutch-Tamil-Sinhalese origin; Booker Prize 1992 for novel "The English Patient" ("The English Patient")

Jeannette Armstrong (born 1948)

author and founder of the indigenous information and education center En'owkin Center; internationally known for her involvement in environmental initiatives and the anti-globalization movement; first indigenous novel "Slash" 1985

Guy Gavriel Kay (born 1954)

fantasy writer

Douglas Coupland (born 1961)

Writer and artist; wrote the novel "Generation X" (published 1991)

Yann Martel (born 1963)

Writer; Booker Prize 2002 for the novel "Life of Pi" ("Shipwreck with Tiger")

Athlete

Terry Fox (1958-1981)

Terrance Stanley was a Canadian athlete and campaigner in support of therapies for cancer. He became known for his "Marathon of Hope".

At the age of 18 he was diagnosed with bone cancer in his leg (bone sarcoma) - as a result, his right leg was amputated 15 centimeters above the knee.

Given the suffering of other cancer patients he encountered in the course of his treatment, he decided to walk around Canada to raise money for cancer research. He wanted to cover 42 km a day - hence the name of the run "Marathon of Hope". He started on April 12, 1980 in St. John's in Newfoundland to put his plan into practice.

But on September 1, 1980, after a distance of 5,375, his body was so metastatic that he had to stop his run. He died on June 28, 1981 of complications from sarcoma.

On December 23, 1980, he was named Canadian of the Year by journalists for the Canadian print media, television and radio.

A Terry Fox statue stands in his honor across from "Parliament Hill" in Ottawa

Edward "Ned" Hanlan (1855-1908)

legendary rower; multiple world champion

Nancy Greene (born 1943)

ski racer; 1968 Olympic champion in giant slalom and Olympic runner-up in slalom

Ben Johnson (real name Benjamin Sinclair Johnson; born 1961)

athlete; was convicted of doping in 1988 with a grandiose world record over 100m Olympic champion and then of doping, which is why the gold medal was revoked again

Wayne Douglas Gretzky (born 1961)

ice hockey player; he is considered the best ice hockey player in the world. Not least because of this it was named "The Great One"

Theologians and philosophers

Charles Taylor (born 1931)

philosopher; is considered one of the most influential thinkers in the English-speaking world; Advocate of community-based social theory

Ian Hacking (born 1936)

science theorist and philosopher of language; Representative of entity realism

Others

Sir Sandford Fleming (1827-1915)

important engineer and inventor; was significantly involved in the introduction of the time zone system; Founding member of the Royal Society of Canada

Joseph-Armand Bombardier (1907-1964)

industrialist; Inventor of the snowmobile; founded the company Bombardier Inc. (then L'Auto-Neige Bombardier Limitée) in Valcourt in Québec in 1942, which is now one of the world's largest manufacturers of aircraft and railroad cars.

Peter Charles Jennings (1938-2005)

formerly the leading news anchor for the US broadcaster ABC; hosted the main newscast ABC World News Tonight from 1983; was considered one of the most prominent news journalists in the world.

Margriet Francisca (born in Ottawa in 1943)

Princess of the Netherlands, Princess of Orange-Nassau, Princess of Lippe-Biesterfeld; was born during World War II while the Royal Family of the Netherlands was in exile in Canada

Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980)

Professor of Media Studies.

With the exception of the years 1967 to 1968 at Fordham University in New York, he taught at the University of Toronto and is considered one of the world's most influential media theorists of the 20th century.

He formulated his central thesis as follows: "The medium itself is the message".

Canada: animals

Note

The following illustration is only a small excerpt from Canada's very extensive fauna.

We are grateful for tips on the representation of other animals and will of course take up the suggestions!

Mammals

A Canadian national symbol and heraldic animal is the Canadian beaver, which can be found practically everywhere. It has a reddish-brown fur, is between 90 and 117 cm tall and is always close to water. It is depicted on the Canadian 5 cents coin.

There are three species of bears in Canada. The black bears, which can be found almost everywhere except for the tundra and the southern part of the prairie, the brown bears, which include the Kodiak bears that live on the islands of the same name and the grizzly bears that live in the mountains of western Canada, and the polar bears that live exclusively in the arctic regions occurrence.

Wolves can be encountered in remote areas, but the coyotes related to them are far more common. In addition to Canada, they are found throughout North America and parts of Central America. Their coat color varies between yellow-brown and gray-brown, but the white throat and chest are typical. With a body length of approximately 1.10 m and a height of 50 cm, coyotes are smaller than wolves. They live in dense forests and on prairies where they hunt mice and rabbits. Birds and snakes as well as berries, fruits and also carrion are seldom on their menu.

The bison (buffalo) that used to be widespread across the country can now only be observed in national parks. They are herd animals that were barely able to escape extermination through senseless mass slaughter and are now protected. They can reach heights of up to 3.50 m in length, whereby the males often weigh around 1000 kg. The females, on the other hand, are only half as heavy. The bison is related to the cattle. It has a thick, brown fur and small, slightly curved horns. These occur in both bulls and cows. Its nutritional basis is made up of grasses, mosses, lichens and herbs.

In the country's forests, deer and the moose, which are highly valued by hunters, are not uncommon. The caribou, which is related to the reindeer, only lives in the far north in an area with little vegetation. In the deer family, the caribou is the only animal where both sexes have antlers, even if the females are smaller. The herd animal is perfectly adapted to the cold climate in northern Canada. Its thick, dark brown fur offers the caribou protection from winter temperatures and its hooves allow it to pull out mosses and grasses from under a blanket of snow or ice.

The wapiti (red deer) is also very rare and lives in the Jasper and Bauff national parks. Here you can also meet the mountain sheep. The mountain goats, which are related to the antelopes, live above the tree line.

The Canadian lynx is found almost exclusively in Canada. The nocturnal animal lives as a loner in secluded forest areas, which means that an encounter with humans is rather rare. He belongs to the cat family and is not only a very good climber, but also an excellent swimmer. The Canadian lynx feeds mainly on mountain hares, which they can also follow successfully on the snow thanks to their large paws.

The skunk, however, also known as the skunk, is widespread. It lives in forests, in city parks and can also be encountered in residential areas on the outskirts. However, this acquaintance can quickly become uncomfortable if the animal thinks it has to defend itself. The only thing that helps against the stinking secretion from his anal glands is a bath in tomato juice, if at all. If the secretion comes into contact with the mucous membranes, vomiting and headaches are possible consequences. Contact with the eyes can even cause temporary blindness.

The approximately 90 cm long porcupine is also common in forests across Canada. It mainly feeds on the tree bark and young shoots. Raccoons, muskrats, badgers, martens and foxes are also among the more common forest residents.

Reptiles without poisonous snakes

In the west of the country there are individual specimens of river crocodiles, and the short-crested iguana is said to have been sighted several times. There are also some species of lizards, creeps and skinks in Canada. The short-horned toad lizard, around 15 cm long, is found in southern Canada. The flattened body with the short tail is typical of all toad lizards and is completely covered with short spines that resemble horns in the head area. The main food of the toad lizard is ants, although they occasionally rely on other insects and sometimes on snails and smaller snakes.

The native turtles include four species of sea turtles, including the largest living turtle, the leatherback turtle, which can grow up to 2 m in length. Unlike other turtles, their shell is covered with a rubbery skin. The sea turtle makes its nests in sandy coasts. There are such nests on the Atlantic coast in North America, in the coasts of the Caribbean and Central America, as well as in South America, Africa and the coasts of the Indian Ocean. However, the stock is endangered by fishing as the animals get caught in the nets. The eggs are coveted as a delicacy and are taken directly from the nests on the beach, which endangers the populations.

The amphibians found include salamanders, frogs and toads, all of which can be found in large numbers in swamps and bodies of water.

There are numerous non-poisonous snakes in Canada such as the garter snake, signet ring snake, brown snake, black rat snake, black snake, and thorntail snake. The North American sand boa is also one of the non-venomous snakes in Canada.

Poisonous snakes

In certain regions, rattlesnakes such as the eastern chain dwarf rattlesnake,

the forest rattlesnake or the prairie rattlesnake are not uncommon.

Birds

The most common waterfowl in northern Ontario are the loons, but many other seabirds also fly around.

The largest birds in the country are the great blue herons, which are sensitive to disturbance and live mainly in quiet marshland. They build their nests out of twigs in trees at a height of about 40 m. In addition to fish and frogs, they also feed on invertebrates and occasionally small mammals.

The European heron will only be found brooding in small numbers. Canada geese and the mallard, which occurs almost everywhere, are common. The colorful wood duck native to northern Canada is particularly beautiful to look at.

Razorbills and the 30 cm large puffin can be found on the coast of Canada. The latter has little in common with the parrots, but belongs to the family of the alken. The name comes from the brightly colored, parrot-like beak, while the bird is colored black and white. The bird can be seen brooding between June and July. It is unusual that the clutch of these beautiful and cute birds consists of just one egg. The puffin is also found in Norway and Iceland.

Birds of prey include the bald eagle, osprey, and owls. There are also numerous songbirds in Canada. These include sparrows, bullfinches, blue jays, tits and the blood cardinal. The latter is a 20-23 cm tall bird that owes its name to the almost exclusively scarlet plumage of the males.

It is characterized by black coloring around the bird's beak.

The breeding area of the Thoroughbred is limited to the northern edges of Canada, where the gyrfalcon can also be observed. The rare whooping crane lives in Wood-Buffalo National Park.

insects

The monarch butterfly is only found in the north of Canada, but it migrates to the south to overwinter. The butterfly catches the eye with its bright black-white-yellow markings, which indicates that it is inedible. This is not a delusion, since it mainly feeds on the poisonous swallow root plant and accumulates the toxins. So birds would do better to leave him alone.

You can also often find huge swarms of mosquitoes, bees, wasps, bumblebees or ants and ticks here.

Canada: plants

Trees

There are eight different vegetation zones in Canada. South of the treeless tundra in the north, a boreal coniferous forest grows, mainly of white and black spruce, balsam and rock mountain pines, bank and pine trees, the most typical vegetation in Canada.

A mixed forest of conifers and deciduous trees grows near the Great Lakes and the St. Lorenz River. Here are the large white pines, spruces, maples, oaks and birches.

A Canadian landmark is the sugar maple, whose five-lobed leaf is also depicted on the Canadian flag.

Since Canada has the richest maple forests in the world, it is also one of the most important crops in the country.

Angels' spruces, aspens and rotary pines are found in the Rocky Mountains. Huge trees such as the giant trees, douglas firs, hemlocks and sitka spruces line the eastern part of the Pacific coast. Some of the trees are already around 1000 years old.

Giant life trees, for example, reach a maximum height of 67 m, but reach a trunk diameter of 6-7 m at chest height. An age of 1000 years is not uncommon for these trees. The pineapple scent of their needles is characteristic.

Rainforests build up along the western Pacific coast as well as on Vancouver Island. Hemlocks and red cedar trees grow along the Kooleney River, Fraser River, and the Thompson River.

Crops

Numerous grain fields spread across the prairie with Manitoba, Saskachewan and Alberta. The best-known crop is undoubtedly the sugar maple, which provides the popular maple syrup. The tree can be up to 41 m high and 400 years old. The maple syrup is made from the high-sugar bleeding sap of the tree, which is obtained by drilling into the trunk. The wood of the sugar maple is used in furniture production.

Walnut, hickory, and fruit trees grow in southeastern Canada.

Medicinal plants

The spruce asparagus is said to bring relief from fever, dizziness and nervous complaints. The trefoil is a very potassium-rich plant and is particularly suitable for losing weight due to its detoxifying effect.

Poisonous plants

Sumac grows in the southern forests. Some species of this plant are not poisonous and are widely used as a spice.

They can be recognized by the red berries. However, if the sumac produces white berries, you should stay away from it, as it is extremely poisonous in this case.

The poison ivy, which also belongs to the sumac family and is also known as poison sumac, is widespread. The plant is a climbing shrub that can grow to 2-3 m tall. The toxic latex in the leaves and all other parts of the plant causes severe skin irritation on contact. The result is itching and reddening of the skin, which spread to the surrounding areas of skin after several days. Eventually, blistering occurs while the severe itching persists. The healing process can take several months. Contact with the eyes should be avoided at all costs, as it can lead to severe conjunctivitis and corneal inflammation and can even lead to blindness. Ingesting the poison is just as dangerous. The consequences are diarrhea,

More plants

In the north of the country is the arctic tundra, where there is practically no vegetation other than lichens, mosses, shrubs and small wild flowers. In contrast, subtropical vegetation, including cacti and palm trees, characterizes the Okanagan Valley.

The water lilies are a common sight in the eastern parts of the country, but the carnivorous trumpet leaf also grows almost everywhere, as well as berries such as raspberries and blueberries.

Purple loosestrife grows on roads, ditches and swamp meadows, while lupins can mainly be found in fields.

The flower symbol of the province of Ontario is the trefoil. It is a very rare genus, but it also grows in North America.

Spruce asparagus is also very rare and unusual. It is about 15-25 cm tall and has a pale yellowish stem that turns black with age. Since it does not have any chlorophyll-containing leaves, it depends on the symbiosis with fungi, which supply it with nutrients via the roots. In return, the spruce asparagus releases vitamins to the fungus that it cannot produce itself.

Orchids are common in Canada. To date, around 200 different types of orchid have been counted.

The home of the giant tree of life was originally western North America.

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