Wildlife Notes

Arguably one of North Dakota's more entertaining upland game species is the sharp-tailed grouse. In the spring these grouse can be found on leks (dancing grounds) where males display to attract mates.

Lowhead dams can be great locations for fishing, but they can also present real safety hazards. Find out more in this short video from a 2018 North Dakota Outdoors program.

Spiny and smooth softshell turtles can be found in the southern portions of the Missouri River System in North Dakota.

Snapping turtles are common throughout North Dakota. These big turtles can live 40-50 years or more in the wild and can grow to around 65 pounds (though most are in the 10-35 pound range). 

Did you know that porcupines have three types of fur? Learn more in this Wildlife Note post.

Have you ever been driving down a back road during the spring and seen tubes of dirt meandering along a ditch? These tubes are created by northern pocket gophers.

Did you know that sagebrush lizards (found in the North Dakota badlands) can drop their tail to distract an attacking predator? They escape while the predator goes after their still twitching tail. Later their tail grows back.

Sights and sounds of spring advancing across our North Dakota

One strategy sharp-tailed grouse use to survive winter is to burrow into the snow. Find out more in this post.

Plains gartersnakes can be found across North Dakota and can be identified by three stripes, with the middle stripe often being bright orange or yellow. 

All birds molt - shedding their old, weathered feathers with new ones. Some birds molt once per year, others two or three times per year. Sometimes the molt process is simultaneous, such as with waterfowl when they lose all of the primary feathers at once, leaving them flightless for 3-4 weeks. You’ve probably seen them this time of year in a wetland doing a breast-stroke swim to escape to cover.

Burrowing owls nest underground. Learn more in this Wildlife Notes post.

For humans, sleeping involves closing their eyes and drifting away into a state of rest for the mind and body. In the safety and warmth of their home, this is typically accomplished in about eight hours. For teenagers, sometimes it takes much longer.

On the northern Great Plains, seasonal movements of white-tailed deer are highly variable. Find out more in this Wildlife Notes post.

To the Lakota, the sharp-tailed grouse was called “Cansiyo” or the “Fire Bird”, because of its need for fire to keep the grasslands open. Learn more about this iconic bird in the Wildlife Notes post.

The western prairie fringed orchid is North Dakota's only federally listed plant under the Endangered Species Act.

How do you tell the difference between mountain lion and coyote tracks? Watch this short video for some tips.

Red-eyed vireos typically sing high in tree canopies in short little bursts of 2-4 syllables, altering back and forth between ascending and descending tones so it sounds like a 90's Valley Girl on the phone saying, "Hello?" "Where are you?" "That's cool" "I'm up here." "Totally."

Moose are tall, gangly creatures that normally eat from the trees. When a food source is on the ground things get challenging. Learn more in this post.

In the summer, American tree sparrows can be found nesting (on or near the ground, not in trees as their name might imply) in the far northern regions of Canada and in Alaska.

Getting to watch an adult monarch butterfly emerge from its chrysalis is something most of us never get the opportunity to do, so we thought we’d share these photos.

While rare hybrids in North Dakota sage grouse and sharp-tailed grouse occasionally occur. Learn more in this video depicting sage, sharptail and hybrid grouse.