Photo by John Magera

Habitat

With its gypsum karst topography and unusually diverse wetlands a variety of plant and animal communties thrive on the refuge. Native grasslands, vegetated sand dunes, brushy bottomlands, and red-rimmed plateaus provide a sharp contrast to the marshlands of the refuge.

Photo by Dave Goudy

Straddling the Pecos River the Refuge consists of an assortment of water habitats. Numerous seeps and free-flowing springs, oxbow lakes, marshes and shallow water impoundments, water-filled sinkholes, and the refuge namesake, Bitter lake, make up these unique environments.

Photo by John Magera

Scattered across the land are over 70 natural sinkholes of different shapes and sizes. Created by groundwater erosion these water habitats form isolated communties of fish, invertebrate, amphibians and other wildlife.

Fish Abundance in Desert Sinkholes