Animals tend to move about in the cool of early morning and evenings with many of them being nocturnal feeders. Smaller or slower moving animals tend to burrow into sandy soil thus avoiding direct heat of sun and getting coolness from the underground earth. Many of the birds are rapid runners on the ground. Fish Are for the most part non-existent except in the few year round streams or lakes. Amphibians are mostly toads and salamanders adapting by having a digging capability added to their appendages, such as the spadefoot toad, or seek shelter in abandoned burrows of other animals.
Insects are mainly ants and beetles with a few butterflies.
Plants Plants and animals have adapted to low moisture conditions by coloring, and physical systems that minimize the loss of moisture. Animals Mammal - chipmunks , ground squirrels , chickaree , pine marten, porcupine, bobcat , black bear and elk . Insects Reptiles Plants Large acreages of forests Subalpine forest extends from the twisted, windblown Limber Pine at treeline down through the dense, moist Fir and Spruce forests to the Lodgepole Pine and Aspen at lower elevations. Wetlands Water bodies and rivers have their own particular ecological environment whether in the plains, foothills, mountains, woodlands, or semi-arid table lands. Plants tend to be aquatic in nature taking root in or near a water source.