Rivers and Streams
Ozark stream
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.
In our rivers, ancient species, such as lamprey, sturgeon and paddlefish, coexist with their more recent relatives, the minnows, shiners and perch. The Mississippi River lowland of the Missouri Bootheel is home to some unusual residents, including two species of freshwater shrimp and the three-toed amphiuma, a 2.5-foot eel-like salamander. Another monstrous salamander, the hellbender, can be found under large flat rocks in Ozark streams.
Nearly one-third of Missouri's fish species are endangered, threatened or decreasing due to declining water quality and a reduction in habitat resulting from dams, levees and channelization. The Conservation Department cooperates with federal agencies and private landowners to protect the habitat that remains.
Missouri Mussels
Surveying a stream
Pistol grip mussel
The Conservation Department enlists research help to survey Missouri's waterways. Southwest Missouri State University biologists have learned that developing mussels must attach to the gills of a certain kind of fish, called a host, until they can filter feed on their own.
To attract the host, some mussel species package the tiny mussels to resemble a small fish. When the host fish bites the "lure," the baby mussels clamp onto the host's gills. Because different mussels require different hosts, each mussel species must mimic a different lure. Without the proper host, the mussel cannot reproduce.
This pistol-grip mussel, named for the handle formed by its shell, is one of 63 mussel species found in Missouri's rivers and streams. Many mussels bear names that describe their distinctive shells, such as fat pocketbook, purple pimpleback, pigtoe and monkeyface.
Eagle Nesting Success
Biologists climb into eagle nests to band young birds
Conservation Department ornithologists, with assistance from the agency's protection agents, locate nests and monitor the progress of the young eaglets. Eagle nesting is on the rise in Missouri, due in part to the 73 eagles the Conservation Department raised and released in Missouri in the 1980s.
Ozark Stream Management
Martin Humphry
Snorkeling biologists
Niagua Darter
In response to dangerously low populations of the endangered Niangua darter, the Conservation Department and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service enlisted the help of more than 400 private landowners, including Martin Humphry. Fisheries managers work with the owners to improve darter habitat, an activity that benefits all stream wildlife. Threats to Ozark stream life include bank erosion, gravel mining and pollution from livestock and pesticides.
Snorkeling fisheries biologists search for the Niangua darter in Tavern Creek, one of only seven streams where the fish still survives.
