Reptiles > Lizards
The Prairie Lizard (Sceloporus consobrinus) is a common, sun-loving spiny lizard ubiquitous across the rocky bluffs, rail fences, and grasslands of the American Great Plains. Famous for its heavily keeled, bristly scales and the brilliant, iridescent turquoise-blue...
Fish > Minnows & Carps
The Fathead Minnow (Pimephales promelas) is one of the most ecologically abundant, commercially utilized, and scientifically important freshwater fishes in North America. Revered by toxicologists worldwide as the gold-standard aquatic model organism for environmental...
Fish > Minnows & Carps
The Red Shiner (Cyprinella lutrensis) is an exceptionally colorful, tough-as-nails minnow native to the prairie streams of North America’s Great Plains. Celebrated for the incandescent breeding plumage of adult males—which blaze with metallic steel-blue flanks,...
Birds > Songbirds
The Eastern Towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus), famously recognized by its distinctive ‘drink-your-tea!’ song and energetic ‘chewink!’ call, is a bold, strikingly patterned sparrow of dense North American brushlands. With his jet-black hood, warm...
Mammals > Rodents
The Meadow Vole (Microtus pennsylvanicus), often called the field mouse, is a chunky, energetic herbivore that serves as the ecological engine of North America’s grasslands. Known for constructing intricate networks of surface runways beneath dense vegetation,...
