Habitats
Different Kinds of Wildlife Need Different Kinds of Habitat
Love Missouri's many different kinds of wildlife? Then you gotta love Missouri's different kinds of habitats, too. They're what makes wildlife diversity possible. Get to know Missouri's glades, prairies, savannas, caves, forests, wetlands and other kinds of natural communities.
Missouri harbors an abundance of distinct natural communities—nearly 200, in all. About 3,000 kinds of plants and nearly 20,000 types of insects, mammals, fish and other creatures populate our natural communities.
The habitat of many of these species is diminishing or endangered, but careful conservation and management can bring them back. Learn about Missouri's many different kinds of habitats and the diverse wildlife that depend on them for survival.
Missouri has more than 6,300 caves that support over 900 species of animals. Cave-dependent species have always been rare because their habitat is limited. Protecting the fragile balance of cave environments is critical to the survival of these communities.
Browse topics about Missouri's forests, including our forest history, the structure of a leaf, why leaves change color and forests for the future.
Confined mostly to the Ozark region, glade communities are determined by the type of rock below, such as limestone, igneous or sandstone. Distinguished by shallow, rocky, dry soil conditions, glades support many species adapted to a desert-like existence, including prickly pear cacti, scorpions, tarantulas, collared lizards and the Missouri bladderpod, a plant restricted to the Ozarks.
From the muddy Missouri to the swift and clear Jacks Fork, Missouri's rivers and streams snake across more than 56,000 miles of the state—more than twice the distance around the earth—and support one of the world's most diverse freshwater communities.
Before people attempted to tame the rivers with dams, channelization and dikes, water followed the path of least resistance through the floodplains.
