Back Cover

What is it?

Our photographers have been busy exploring the intricacies of the Missouri outdoors. See if you can guess this month’s natural wonder. The answer is revealed below.

Prairie Chicken

On the back cover and right is a greater prairie chicken by Noppadol Paothong. Prairie chickens once numbered in the hundreds of thousands in Missouri. Fewer than 500 birds remain. The Conservation Department, in cooperation with its Missouri Grasslands Coalition partners, has a recovery program aimed at improving prairie chicken habitat and eventually removing the species from the State Endangered Species list. For more information, visit the links listed below.