Get Outside in February

By MDC | February 1, 2025
From Missouri Conservationist: February 2025
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Learning to Hunt: Small Game

  • Saturday 
  • Feb. 22 
  • 9–11 a.m.
  • Online only
  • Registration required by Feb. 22. To register, call 888-283-0364 or visit short.mdc.mo.gov/4rs.
  • All ages

Join us as we discuss the nuances of small game hunting. We will go over techniques for squirrel and rabbits, but we will discuss various animals in the small game category. The link to join this class will be sent the morning of the class.

Sweetheart Salamanders

February is a month known for sweethearts, and that extends to the animal community, too. 

During autumn rains, eastern tiger salamanders migrate to fishless ponds. Courtship and egg-laying occur in these waters in February, peaking in March. Each female may lay up to 1,000 eggs deposited in small clumps of 23–110. Eggs hatch within several weeks, or up to 40–50 days if water temperatures are cold. 

The eastern tiger salamander is listed as a species of conservation concern due to loss and fragmentation of native prairies and savanna habitat, loss of wetlands, and patchy distribution. Constructing and maintaining shallow, fishless wetlands for breeding is vital to the long-term survival of this species in Missouri.

Woodchuck the Weather Forecaster?

Woodchucks, also known as groundhogs, start to emerge from hibernation in Missouri as early as the first week of February, but severe cold weather may delay them. At first, they come out only for short periods because little food is available, but as the daily temperatures rise and green growth increases, they spend more time aboveground. 

Feb. 2 is also Groundhog Day. Today’s legend says if the groundhog sees its shadow, we’ll see six more weeks of winter. No shadow means an early spring.

Let’s Get Sappy

Sugar maple trees can be tapped for delicious syrup to be used on pancakes and waffles. But humans are not the only ones that enjoy this sweet nectar. In late winter and early spring, yellow-bellied sapsuckers drill small holes through the bark of trees, then drink the sap that flows out of the hole.

Missouri Trappers 2025 Fur Auction

  • Saturday
  • Feb. 22
  • 7:30 a.m.
  • Montgomery County Fairgrounds, 700 S. Sturgeon St., Montgomery City, MO 63361
  • Registration is not required. For more information, call Jim Love, auction chairman, at 636-359-2203 or visit missouritrappers.com/fur-auction.
  • All ages

The Missouri Trappers Association will hold its annual fur auction featuring both green and finished fur. Everyone is welcome to attend, even if you are not selling fur. To get a complete set of rules, visit the website above or call Jim Love.

A Bounty of Berries

From the time acorns and other mast items first become available in September until they are gone, they are preferred by deer for food. In years of poor acorn production, and as a supplement in years of good acorn crops, deer in fall and winter feed on the fruits of woody plants like sumacs and buckbrush. The fruit of buckbrush, also known as coral berry, is not a favorite for most animals, but as they get more desperate, the fruit becomes more palatable.

These berries also provide a service to mammals of the human variety — they offer a welcome spark of color to nature’s otherwise drab palette during the waning days of winter. 

Conservation Nature Centers

Burr Oak Woods

Blue Springs | mdc.mo.gov/BurrOakWoods

Cape Girardeau

Cape Girardeau | mdc.mo.gov/Capecnc

Discovery Center

Kansas City | mdc.mo.gov/DiscoveryCenter

Powder Valley

Kirkwood | mdc.mo.gov/PowderValley

Runge

Jefferson City | mdc.mo.gov/Runge

Shoal Creek

Joplin | mdc.mo.gov/ShoalCreek

Springfield

Springfield | mdc.mo.gov/Springfieldcnc

Twin Pines

Winona | mdc.mo.gov/TwinPines

This Issue's Staff

Magazine Manager – Stephanie Thurber
Editor – Angie Daly Morfeld
Associate Editor – Larry Archer
Photography Editor – Ben Nickelson
Staff Writer – Kristie Hilgedick
Staff Writer – Joe Jerek
Staff Writer – Dianne Van Dien
Designer – Marci Porter
Designer – Kate Morrow
Photographer – Noppadol Paothong
Photographer – David Stonner
Circulation – Marcia Hale