has a very narrow range of temperatures that it can live in. The warmth of a human hand will kill it! These interesting little animals eat single-celled algae and pollen grains that get trapped in the ice. This picture was taken at the Portage Glacier Visitors Center.
It may look like an animal has died here and spilled blood, but this is actually a type of red algae that grows in the snow. We saw this at Kenai Fjords National Park.
I usually think of asters as being fall-blooming flowers, but this one was blooming in Denali National Park in early July.
