Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge

Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge is located in northwestern Missouri within the historic Missouri River floodplain. The 7,350-acre refuge was established in 1935 as a resting, feeding, and breeding ground for migratory birds and other wildlife. Many of the original facilities were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration in the late 1930s.

The principal refuge habitats are seasonal and semipermanent wetlands, native warm and cool season grasslands, woodlands, and croplands. The refuge includes loess bluff hills, unusual geologic formations caused by wind-deposited soil, where remnants of the once-vast native prairie still exist.

Squaw Creek is best known for its large concentrations of snow geese, other waterfowl, and bald eagles. The refuge is a major stop-over for waterfowl, with more than one-half million birds in the fall and lesser, but still spectacular, numbers in the spring. The refuge is within the Mississippi Flyway.

Because the refuge contains a diversity of habitats, many wildlife species use Squaw Creek, including approximately 309 species of birds, 33 species of mammals, and 35 species of reptiles and amphibians. Federally listed threatened and endangered species sighted recently include peregrine falcon, piping plover, least tern, and bald eagle. There are a number of Missouri State endangered and threatened species on the refuge, including the Eastern massasauga rattlesnake.

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