This is a trivia puzzle that deals with plants and animals likely to be seen in the general area where the cache is hidden. Not every animal is seen year-round, and plants, of course, have flowers and/or seeds at certain times. You may already know some of the answers; any you don't know can be easily researched, for free, on-line as well as in libraries and bookstores, and maybe even in your own home.
This is an acrostic-type puzzle, but with a twist or two. An acrostic has a list of clues; when you get an answer for a clue, you put it in a grid of some sort, usually one letter per box or space. Each space or box has a number below it. A second grid has boxes or spaces with numbers below them. The letters in the first grid are transferred to the second grid, number to number.
in this particular puzzle, the clues are pictures; to get the answers, you will need to identify the plants and animals in each picture. You are looking for both the English name and the scientific name. The twelve pictures are given in a block. "Number" them in the usual way: left to right, and top to bottom. All pictures are either public domain/WikipediaCommons, or are our own photos.
For each picture, we have given you the first letter of each word of the English name, and then a string of dashes that has the exact number of letters needed to complete the name. Example: if an answer is "German Shepherd", we will give you "G----- S-------".
Next to each English name is a string of dashes with little numbers below them. These are the *real* answers you will need to solve this puzzle. You will need the scientific (Latin) binomial names for each animal or plant; in other words, the genus and species. An example is the common house cat, which binomial name is Felis catus. Do not worry about any subspecies. In one case, we have told you that the picture shown is a female; the male looks dramatically different. Three names (picture #1, #7 and #11) have hyphens; these are shown as single dashes with spaces on each side, to distinguish them from answer dashes. Picture #12 has two common (English) names. Be aware that some scientific names change over time, for various reasons. We have tried to use the most-current nomenclature. Be flexible; if an answer isn't working (especially with the insects), do more research. When you figure out each name, put it on the dashes, one letter per dash. You might want to use a pencil. UPDATE: due to the changes we needed to make (as noted at the top), we added to two simple "questions", which allowed us to eliminate a few doubled-up letters.
Below this is a grid of nothing but dashes with numbers below them. Transfer the letters from the picture answers to the corresponding number under this "Final Answer" grid. Some letters are used more than once in each grid. A few letters in the picture answers are not used in the "Final Answer" grid. NOTE: there are no spaces between words in the final grid; the spaces will be obvious after the grid is filled up, and even as you work on it. As you solve, you may be able to solve some words and can use this information to help answer any pictures with which you are having trouble. When you finish the puzzle, the grid will tell you what to do to get the final coordinates.
NOTE: each grid is clickable, to allow you to print each one separately. The files are jpeg. There are also links below the grids; clicking each one will call it up in a PDF reader, if you have one installed.
A geo-checker is provided to verify your final coordinates, although if you solve this properly, you should not need one. The "Final Answer" grid has a Hint; the geo-checker only verifies your final coordinates. There is good parking within a half-mile or so of the Final, and more parking a mile or so away.
Good Luck! We hope that this is both fun and educational 
Word List PDF
Answer Grid PDF
Lastly, many thanks to Webfoot, good friend and frequent caching partner, for his invaluable help in testing this puzzle 