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Discover Nature Notes
Published Display Date
Oct 31, 2025
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Tarantulas can live long and prosper in Missouri if they are left alone in their glade habitats. Learn what is fascinating about them from tarantula study researchers Becky Hansis-O'Neill from UMSL and Urban Wildlife Biologist Miranda Wilkinson from MDC.
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Photo by MDC Staff, courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation
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Published Display Date
Oct 29, 2026
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Discover how a tiny bird with a rubber ducky sound and mountain climber worthy skills found its way back to its native landscape. It's a classic if you restore it, they will return, with a little assist from a lot of partners.
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Published Display Date
Jun 12, 2026
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Grab your mask or googles and head into a Missouri stream or creek this spring and early summer and you may just see some colorful tropical looking fish. Discover Missouri’s showy minnows and where you can see them come together around chub mounds in this Discover Nature Note.
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Published Display Date
Aug 22, 2025
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Discover how a massive ancient fish is making a comeback in our big rivers. With a sharklike body, a long snout, and no teeth, Lake Sturgeon live long and travel far and wide. Reports of them spawning in the wild have led to an historic event for MDC Fisheries staff at our Blind Pony Hatchery. Journey underwater in the Osage River, to a spawning site on the Mississippi River and inside the hatchery to see the restoration of a species with a long circle of life in Missouri waters.