species are discovered each year, and it’s thought that anywhere from five to 80 million exist in total. Of these, Canada has an estimated 140,000, only half of which have been identified. Many of these species find homes in our country’s National Parks, where well-established programs of ecosystem management are dedicated to maintaining the richness of natural life that has come to be known as biodiversity.

Because of milder temperatures and higher precipitation, biodiversity is highest in southern parks like Point Pelee, in Ontario, which is only 20 square kilometres, but contains a wider variety of species – especially of trees, reptiles, and amphibians – than much larger parks that are farther north. In the very far north, parks like the wind-swept, 12,000 square mile polar desert of Aulavik – while home to impressive large mammals like the muskox and caribou and (seasonally) to some 43 species of birds and 150 species of flowering plants – contain a more limited range of species. For one thing, it