Features
Delaware County Cave Crayfish
This species occurs in subterranean pools, streams, moist passageways, and is associated with ground-water aquifers and caves.
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Ozark Big-eared Bats
The Ozark big-eared bat is appropriately named! Its ears are nearly 1.5 inches long, one third of their total body length.
Nature's pesticide
Ozark Cavefish
These fish live in total darkness. They depend on sensory organs on their head, body and tail to find food.
In the dark...
Gray Bats
These fast flying bats can eat thousands of insects in one night and like to forage over streams and lakes.
Insect eaters
In 1903 President Theodore Roosevelt established the Pelican Island Bird Reservation, the first of 53 federal reserves he would create during his time in office and the roots of what is today known as the National Wildlife Refuge System. The 26th president was a dedicated naturalist throughout his life and is considered by many to have been the country’s “Conservationist President.” It was in the infancy of the Refuge System when President Roosevelt said, “There are no words that can tell the hidden spirit of the wilderness, that can reveal its mystery, its melancholy, and its charm.”
National Wildlife Refuge SystemAbout the NWRS
The National Wildlife Refuge System, within the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, manages a national network of lands and waters set aside to conserve America’s fish, wildlife, and plants.
Learn more about the NWRS
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The key geologic feature common throughout the Ozark Plateau is the karst geological formations, which include underground caverns, sinkholes and streams, some of which resurface as natural seeps or springs. Many of the plants and animals found here are not only unique to the Ozark Plateau but to the specific cave or spring in which they are found.
Wildlife and Habitat
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A Karst Landscape
Below the surface, carved by water and time, an underground labyrinth is home to a myriad of species living in dark passages hidden and undisturbed.
Page Photo Credits — Maternity colony of Ozark big-eared bats / USFWS, All photos courtesy of USFWS unless otherwise noted.
Last Updated: Feb 28, 2013