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 on the inside of this back cover.

Lake Sturgeon

On the back cover and right is a lake sturgeon by Noppadol Paothong. The largest of Missouri’s three sturgeons, it is rare and endangered in our state. One way to identify it is by its conical (not shovel-nosed) snout. And despite its name, in our state this fish is almost always found in big rivers—not lakes. MDC continues to study sturgeon and develop management practices to prevent overharvesting and improve conditions for this fish. To learn more about lake sturgeon, visit MissouriConservation.org/node/1003.