Part 15. The Great Plains.

Shortgrass prairie, Montana

Mixedgrass prairie, Oklahoma

The eastern parts of the Plains were once occupied by tallgrass prairie. Blaksoil grasslands were optimal for industrial agriculture, and they have been converted into fields everywhere in the world, except Mongolia. The remaining patches of tallgrass prairie in the US are so small that you can see fields and villages from any point. Mixed-grass prairies further west are better preserved, and shortgrass prairies still cover large parts of the Great Plains. Even the tiniest plots of unploughed land in prairie zone can be worth visiting if you are interested in such things as photographing wildflowers or butterflies. There are also forests in the prairie zone, mostly along the rivers, and many forest animals are more easy to see here than in their main range further east.

Tallgrass prairie, Kansas

Tallgrass prairie, Texas

Scotts Bluff, Nebraska.

The Plains are not just a flat grassland. There are isolated mountain ranges, cliffs, and canyons. The northernmost part is covered with aspen parklands and even boreal forests. Groves of Eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana), Niobrara River, Nebraska.

Black Hills, South Dakota.

Salt Plains, Northern Territories

Wood Buffalo Nat'l Park in Canada is a large country of taiga, salt grasslands, pit bogs and willow-covered wetlands, situated at the very crossroads of East and West, at the northern edge of the Great Plains.

Deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) is the most common rodent of the Plains. Wyoming.

Woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou), Peace River, Alberta.

Hay River Falls, Alberta.

Very few people visit it, and almost nobody drives the 1000-mile road to the park. In fact, the road to Wood Buffalo is as interesting as the park itself. This road also provides a chance to see some animals not so easy to find further south, such as great gray owl (Strix nebulosa), lynx, wolverine, fisher (Martes pennantii), marten (M. americanus), silver fox (Vulpes vulpes f.argenteus), wolf and caribou.

Golden eagle, Alberta.

Wolverine (Gulo gulo), High Prairie, Alberta.

Silver fox, Mt.Reinier, USA.

Otter tracks, Frazier Cyn., Brit. Col.

American marten, Fort Smith, N. Terr.

Gray wolf (Canis lupus), Grand Cache, Alberta.

Plains bison, Yellowstone National Park, Wyioming.

Unlike wood bison, Plains bison can now be seen in many places of the West. Plains bison (B. bison bison), Liard River, British Columbia.

Plains bison, Liard River, British Columbia.

Plains bison, Yellowstone, Wyoming.

Rock formations, Toadstool Park, Nebraska.

Old bison trails still crisscross the prairie, and can sometimes be difficult to tell from much older trails left by long-extinct animals millions of years ago, such as rhinoceros trails in a weird place called Toadstool Park. Bison rut, Wind Cave Natl' Park, S. Dakota. Bison trail, Wind Cave, S. Dakota.

26 million year-old rhino trails, Toadstool Park.

Petroglyph, Picture Canyon, Comanche Nat'l Grassland, Colorado.

Petroglyph, Picture Canyon, Comanche Nat'l Grassland, Colorado.

Mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), Comanche Nat'l Grassland.

Brush mouse (Peromyscus boylii), Comanche Nat'l Grassland.

Picture Canyon, Comanche Nat'l Grassland, Colorado.

The southern part of the Plains has a few extinct volcanoes and is crisscrossed by deep canyons. These canyons serve as corridors of more diverse habitat, allowing plants and animals from Eastern and Western parts of North America to penetrate deep into the grasslands and sometimes cross them. Many woodland and rock species can be found in these canyons hundreds of miles from the nearest forest or mountains. Native Americans also used them a lot.

Collared lizard (Crotaphytis collaris), Cimarron Cyn., Oklahoma.

View from Capulin Volcano, New Mexico.

Collared lizard, Cimarron Canyon, Oklahoma.

Grand Mesa Volcano, New Mexico.

Probably the most unique landform of the Plains is an odd volcanic rock called Devil's Tower. Devil's Tower, Wyoming.

Male pronghorn (Antilocapra americana), Wind Cave Nat'l Park, South Dakota.

The most common large mammal of the grasslands is pronghorn antelope, the only surviving member of an ancient family. They are particularly abundant in Wyoming.

Female pronghorn, Thunder Basin Nat'l Grassland, Wyoming.

Pronghorn twins, Como Bluff, Wyoming.

Newborn pronghorn, Como Bluff.

Pronghorn family, Bullion Butte, N. Dakota.

Male pronghorn without antlers, Wyoming.

Pronghorn actually have antlers, not horns, and shed them every year. They are also among the few ungulates who have twins more often than single calves.

Male pronghorn, Wyoming.

Desert cottontails (Sylvilagus audubonae), Boulder, Color.

Eastern cottontail (S. floridanus), Black Kettle Nat'l Grassland, Oklahoma. Small mammals, particularly rodents, are surprisingly diverse in the Great Plains, and are essential for normal functioning of prairie ecosystem. I have a special page about prairie rodents, their friends and enemies. Baby striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis), Nebraska Nat'l Forest.

White-tailed jackrabbits (Lepus townsendii),Thunder Basin.

Courtship of white-tailed jackrabbits, Thunder Basin National Grassland, Wyoming.

Black-tailed jackrabbit, Denver, Colorado.

Of the two Plains hare species, only white-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus townsendii) turns partially white in winter. The more southern species, black-tailed jackrabbit (L. californicus) stays more or less the same year-round. White-tailed jackrabbit is now becoming rare, probably because it is too easy to spot in snow-less winters caused by global warming.

Black-tailed jackrabbit, Limon, Colorado.

In southern parts of the range, white-tails don't turn white. Sangre de Cristo Mts., New Mexico.

Nests and chicks of Great Plains birds, left to right: horned lark (Eremophila alpestris), rock wren (Salpinctes obsoletus), barn swallow (Hirundo rustica), mourning dove(Zenaida macroura).

		Birds are less diverse, but some are endemic and very interesting, especially the prairie-chicken.
Piping plover (Charadrius melodus), Ogallala, Nebr.			Piping plover chicks, Ogallala, Nebraska.

	Birds of the Great Plains, upper row, left to right: yellow-breasted chat (Icteria virens, 2 photos), red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus), Eastern kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus), American goldfinch (Carduelis tristis); middle row: McCown's longspur (Calcarius mccownii), lark bunting (Calamospiza melanocorys); bottom row: lark sparrow (Spizella grammacus), house wren (Troglodytes aedon), common nighthawk (Chordeiles minor), Swainson's hawk (Buteo swainsoni), Northern flicker (Colaptes auratus).

Every spring, hundreds of thousands of sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis) stop at Platt River on their way north.

Sandhill cranes of Nebraska are also a popular tourist attraction. Dancing sandhill cranes, Platt River, Nebraska.

They are just one of dozens of bird species that use the Great Plains flyway. This route is particularly important for waterbirds and waders.

Northern water snake (Nerodia sipedon), Ovid, Colorado.

Reptiles and amphibians are more numerous in the southeastern part of the prairie zone, while only a few species make it to the Northern Plains. Even widespread snakes, lizards, and toads can be rare and very difficult to find. Some amphibians only briefly show up on the surface after spring rains.

Lesser earless lizard (Holbrookia maculata), Elkhart, Kansas.

Grasshoppers of Southeastern Colorado, left to right: Brachystola magna, Dactylotum bicolor, Tropidolophus formosus.

Lady beetles (Hippodamia convergens), Boulder, Colorado.

Insects, however, are everywhere. In late summer you can sometimes count up to ten species of grasshoppers within one square meter (10 sq. feet). They, too, were originally more diverse in the eastern part of the Plains, but now many tallgrass species became rare due to habitat loss, pesticides, and replacement of native plants by introduced species.

Variegated fritillary (Euptoieta claudia), Boulder.

	Despite the losses, beautiful wildflower displays can still be seen in parts of the Plains.
Prickly pear cacti of Pawnee Nat'l Grassland, Colorado, left to right: Opuntia fragilis, O. strigii, O. polyacantha.

	Plants of theColorado shortgrass prairies, native and introduced, top row, left to right: Cichorium intybus, Abronia iragrans, Calochortus nuttallii (2 photos), Argemone polyanthemus; second row: Camissonia sp., Oenothera sp. , O. deltoides, Rosa carolina, Euphorbium sp.; third row: Yucca glauca (2 photos), Smelowskia sp. with Machaeranthera sp. (middle photo); fourth row: Helianthus laetiflorus, H. petiolaris, Leucocrinum montanum, Chrysanthemum sp., Grindelia squarosa; bottom row: Penstemon sp., Liatris punctata, Nuttalia decapetula, Circium discolor, C. pumilio.

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