Life of a River - Biology
Remaining refuges

The existence of streams and rivers becomes especially important in altered and developed landscapes. In urban and agricultural areas, the floodplain of a river is sometimes the only stretch of remaining native habitat for birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles and invertebrates. Under such circumstances, the wooded streamside may have the best or only available cover for large mammals, such as fox, raccoon, and deer.

According to Fred Harris, Plant Ecologist, the Minnesota River Valley is an important corridor of native plant communities that supports some of the state's rarest plant species and noteworthy concentrations of animals in a mostly agricultural or urban part of Minnesota.

In the southeastern corner of Minnesota, forested bluffs with steep stream drainages and rocky cliffs that escaped logging and cultivation provide habitats for many of the state's rarest reptiles and amphibians. Remnant populations of timber rattlesnakes survive on the bluffs of the Mississippi River, while the five-lined skink occurs among forested rock outcrops in the Mississippi and Minnesota River valleys.

Pictured animals: Fox, badger, white-tailed deer, timber rattlesnake, black bear