North American Elk (Cervus canadensis), is the second largest species of deer in the world. Elk can also be referred to as Wapiti, which is from the Native American word waapiti, or "white rump" used by the Shawnee.

Elk and other members of the deer family belong to a group of animals called ungulates, the Latin word for "hoof." All ungulates have hooves. Like other ungulates, elk are herbivores -- they eat only plants. Their diet may include grasses, forbs (low-growing, short-stemmed plants), shrubs and trees (including limbs and bark).

Most elk that live in mountainous country migrate to lower elevations as snow covers the higher elevations, then return as snow retreats in the spring and summer.

Elk have a unique mating ritual in which males perform posturing, antler wrestling and especially bugling, a loud series of screams designed to help attract females and to establish dominance over other males.

Mule Deer (Odocoileus hemionus) is a deer whose habitat is in the western half of North America. It gets its name from its large mule-like ears. Its closest relative is the black-tailed deer. The two species often share natural habitats, and can be mistaken for one another.

The most noticeable differences between the two are the color of their tails and their antlers. The mule deer's tail is black tipped. Mule deer antlers "fork" as they grow rather than growing and expanding forward. Each year a buck's antlers start to grow in spring and are shed after mating season from mid-January to mid-April. Mule bucks also tend to grow somewhat larger than their white-tailed counterparts, particularly in cold climates, and have somewhat more prominent ears.

Instead of running, mule deer move with a bounding leap (stotting) with all four feet coming down together. Adult male mule deer are called bucks, adult females are called does, and young of both sexes are called fawns.

American Black Bear (Ursus americanus) is the most common bear species native to North America.

It lives throughout much of the continent, from northern Canada and Alaska south into Mexico, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This includes 40 of the 50 U.S. states and all Canadian provinces except Prince Edward Island. Populations in the east-central and southern United States remain in the protected mountains and woodlands of parks and preserves, though bears will occasionally wander outside the parks' boundaries and have set up new territories, in some cases on the margins of urban environments in recent years as their populations increase.

Although there were probably once as many as two million black bears in North America long before European colonization, the population declined to a low of 200,000 as a result of habitat destruction and unrestricted hunting culls. By current estimates, more than 800,000 are living today on the continent