Insect-Eating Plants!
Bogs have acidic soils. This means that very little nutrient is available for plants. Some plants have found an alternative: they eat insects!
In Fundy National Park, you can find three kinds of these plants: pitcher plant (shown here), sundew and bladderwort.
You may spot these plants on a walk along the Caribou Plains trail, which winds through sphagnum bogs. There, you will also see dwarfed trees such as black spruce. Even though many of these trees are more than 100 years old, they are no taller than a full-grown person!
A dragonfly that recently emerged from its larval skin, which can be seen below it on the plant.
Because the state-of-being for a wetland lies between that of water and land, wetlands offer unique habitat.
- The wetland ecosystem provides food, water and shelter for all kinds of animals:
- Invertebrates that live all or part of their lives under water, such as mosquitoes and dragonflies.
- Amphibians, such as frogs, that breed, feed and hide from the hard winter weather in the water.
- Reptiles, such as water snakes, that feed on the many other animals that make wetlands their home.
- Mammals, such as muskrats, that feed on wetland plants and use them to build a home for sheltering their young.
- Wetlands provide habitat for many types of plants. These include familiar ones, such as cattails and arrowroots, as well as less-familiar plants, such as carnivorous sundews.
- Wetlands also play an important role in purifying the water. Contaminants settle to the bottom in the slow-moving water. Wetland plants often store contaminants in their tissues, after having drawn them in through their roots along with the water.
A yellow-spotted salamander.
Phalaropes frequent wetlands.
Phalaropes are wetland birds that spin in circles on the water in order to create a small whirlpool. The action draws underwater invertebrate prey, such as tiny crustaceans and small insects, up to the surface.
The bird then plucks the prey with its beak. Or, it uses the water to move food particles along its beak.
Video (29 sec.)
Can you guess which organ of your body is most like a wetland?
Heart
for the pumping of water through river systems
Kidney
for the filtering of contaminants from the water
Brain
for the sending of water where it needs to be
Is It True That Canada Has More
Wetlands Than Any Other Country? 
Freshwater or Marine?
