Animals & Plants of Lassen Volcanic National Park
The 17 animals, plants, and fungi you can find at Lassen Volcanic National Park, with sizes, diets, and whether you should worry. See the full park guide at Lassen Volcanic National Park.
Lassen is a working volcano landscape: steam vents and mud pots beside ponderosa pine forest. Black bears and mule deer work the timber, and in late spring snow plants, bright red stalks with no leaves, push up through the duff. The dry slopes hold northern Pacific rattlesnakes while Pacific chorus frogs own the wet meadows.
Turn this into a game: Play Lassen Volcanic National Park Bingo →Common questions
Which Lassen animals should kids never reach for?
At Lassen Volcanic National Park, give space to American black bear, Northern Pacific rattlesnake, Coyote, and Mule deer. American black bear: Black bears are usually shy and would rather leave than meet you. Northern Pacific rattlesnake: This is the only rattlesnake in these parks, and it is venomous, so give it real respect, not panic. Coyote: Coyotes almost always run from people. Mule deer: Mule deer look calm and tame, but they are wild animals with sharp hooves, and bucks have antlers in fall. (per NPS species pages).
What do the volcanic-country residents of Lassen eat?
At Lassen Volcanic National Park, the most interesting eaters are American pika, Clark's nutcracker, Coyote, and Mule deer. American pika eats grasses, wildflowers, leaves, mountain plants. Clark's nutcracker eats pine seeds, whitebark pine seeds, insects, berries, small animals. Coyote eats mice, rabbits, lizards, insects, fruit, whatever it can find. Mule deer eats grasses, leaves, twigs, flowers, nuts, berries. (per NPS species pages).
Which Lassen species is the strangest of them all?
The strangest true thing about Lassen Volcanic National Park: Northern Pacific rattlesnake: This is the only rattlesnake species found in Lassen Volcanic, Lava Beds, and Redwood, a much shorter list than the half-dozen rattlesnake species at the desert parks farther south. Southern alligator lizard: NPS Lassen Volcanic notes it is fairly common in the park but much more reclusive than other lizards there, staying under rocks and logs rather than basking in the open. (per NPS species pages).
Anything here that bites?
Venomous
- Northern Pacific rattlesnake: This is the only rattlesnake in these parks, and it is venomous, so give it real respect, not panic.
Keep away
- American black bear: Black bears are usually shy and would rather leave than meet you.
- Bobcat: Very low.
- Coyote: Coyotes almost always run from people.
- Mule deer: Mule deer look calm and tame, but they are wild animals with sharp hooves, and bucks have antlers in fall.
Don't touch or eat
- Western toad: Harmless to touch, but the two glands behind its eyes ooze a thick white poison meant to deter predators, so wash hands after handling and don't touch your eyes or mouth first.
Bites if handled
- American pika: Pikas are harmless.
- Douglas squirrel: Harmless if left alone.
- Pacific marten: None.
- Southern alligator lizard: This lizard is not venomous and can't hurt a person seriously.
Everything else on this page is harmless. What each group means.
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Mammal American black bear
Ursus americanus
The bear you're most likely to meet east of the Rockies, a strong tree-climber that eats mostly plants and comes in black, brown, or cinnamon.
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Mammal American pika
Ochotona princeps
A small round cousin of the rabbit that lives in mountain rock piles at Rocky Mountain, Mount Rainier, and North Cascades, and never sleeps through winter.
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Mammal Bobcat
Lynx rufus
A small wildcat about twice the size of a house cat, common but rarely seen, that can bring down prey many times its own weight.
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Bird Clark's nutcracker
Nucifraga columbiana
A pale-gray, black-winged cousin of the crow that hides tens of thousands of pine seeds each fall and remembers where to find them again.
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Mammal Coyote
Canis latrans
The wild dog you're most likely to hear at a national park — a coyote, at home in the desert, the mountains, and the edges of towns.
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Mammal Douglas squirrel
Tamiasciurus douglasii
A small, loud tree squirrel of West Coast conifer forests, known for cutting green cones by the hundred and scolding every hiker who walks under its tree.
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Plant Douglas-fir
Pseudotsuga menziesii
One of the tallest trees on Earth, not actually a true fir, whose cones carry little three-pointed flaps a Native story calls the tails and legs of hiding mice.
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Plant Indian paintbrush
Castilleja miniata
A scarlet mountain wildflower that steals water and food from its neighbors' roots, and whose bright color comes from leaves, not petals.
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Mammal Mule deer
Odocoileus hemionus
A western deer named for its big mule-like ears, common along canyon rims and desert washes in Grand Canyon, Zion, Yosemite, and Saguaro.
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Reptile Northern Pacific rattlesnake
Crotalus oreganus
The only rattlesnake in these Northern California volcanic parks, born fully venomous but silent, with a single button instead of a working rattle.
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Amphibian Pacific chorus frog
Pseudacris regilla
A two-inch frog that shifts between green and brown and calls the ribbit Hollywood dubs onto night scenes everywhere, from sea level to alpine ponds.
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Mammal Pacific marten
Martes caurina
A tree-climbing weasel relative of the old-growth canopy, whose coastal population was feared extinct for 50 years before a trail camera caught one in 1996.
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Plant Ponderosa pine
Pinus ponderosa
A tall western pine whose sun-warmed bark smells like butterscotch and vanilla, and which drops its low branches so ground fire can pass safely beneath it.
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Plant Snow plant
Sarcodes sanguinea
A bright red, leafless stalk that pushes up through melting spring snow in the conifer forests of Lassen Volcanic, and makes no food of its own.
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Reptile Southern alligator lizard
Elgaria multicarinata
A long, keeled-scale lizard that bites and holds on when grabbed, hunts black widow spiders, and can drop its tail and grow a new one.
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Bird Steller's jay
Cyanocitta stelleri
A deep-blue mountain jay with a black crest and a loud voice, the campground bird that will eye your sandwich at Yosemite, Sequoia, and Crater Lake.
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Amphibian Western toad
Anaxyrus boreas
A stout, warty toad that walks instead of hopping, with poison glands behind each eye, ranging from lowland ponds to mountain lakes across the Cascades.