Mammal Checklists of the United States

Mingo National Wildlife Refuge

Puxico, Missouri

MAMMALS

The 21,673 acre Mingo National Wildlife Refuge contains a variety of habitats from lowland forests and swamps to upland fields, forests, and rock bluffs. This variety of habitats supports a variety of wild mammals.

Many mammals are abundant but seldom seen. However, you can tell they are there by evidence such as the grass tunnels of mice or the lodges of beavers. Other mammals are more easily seen. If you canoe or walk quietly through the refuge, you may see squirrels, rabbits, or perhaps a raccoon. Look for deer along the roads or in fields as you drive around the refuge.

MARSUPIALS. Few members of the pouched mammal group are found outside of Australia. Only one, the familiar opossum, lives in Missouri.

___ Opossum

INSECT EATERS. Worms and insects are the main foods for these small mammals. The mouse-like shrews and moles are the best known members.

___ Shorttail Shrew
___ Least Shrew
___ Eastern Mole

BATS. These are the only true flying mammals. You can often see bats at dusk, flitting about after flying insects.

___ Little Brown Bat
___ Red Bat

RABBITS. These jumping relatives of rodents are often seen on the refuge. Swamp rabbits, larger, darker cousins of cottontails, were once common in Southeast Missouri, but today Mingo is one of the few places they are seen.

___ Eastern Cottontail
___ Swamp Rabbit

RODENTS. Rodents are the most common mammals in the world. They are so successful partly because of their ability to adapt to a variety of habitats including water (beaver), forest floor (deer mouse), trees (squirrels), fields (woodchuck), and bluffs (chipmunks).

___ Woodchuck
___ Eastern Chipmunk
___ Eastern Gray Squirrel
___ Eastern Fox Squirrel
___ Southern Flying Squirrel
___ Beaver
___ Rice Rat
___ Western Harvest Mouse
___ Deer Mouse
___ White-footed Mouse
___ Cotton Mouse
___ Golden Mouse
___ Hispid Cotton Rat
___ Eastern Woodrat
___ Southern Bog Lemming
___ Prairie Vole
___ Pine Vole
___ Muskrat
___ Norway Rat
___ House Mouse

FLESH EATERS. This group of animals varies from the huge grizzly bear down to the the tiny least weasel. Although primarily carnivores, they will eat other things such as fruit. Carnivores help keep the population of rodents and rabbits in check.

___ Coyote
___ Red Fox
___ Gray Fox
___ Raccoon
___ Longtail Weasel
___ Mink
___ Striped Skunk
___ River Otter
___ Bobcat

EVEN-TOED MAMMALS. Many of our domestic stock, including sheep and cattle, belong to this group. However, the only wild member of this group in Missouri is the white-tail deer. You can often see deer browsing in refuge fields in the early morning or evening.

___ White-tail Deer

For additional information contact:

                 Refuge Manager
                 Mingo National Wildlife Refuge
                 24279 State Highway 51
                 Puxico, Missouri 63960

This resource is based on the following source:

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  No date.  Mammals of Mingo National Wildlife 
     Refuge, Puxico, Missouri.  U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  1 page.

This resource should be cited as:

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  No date.  Mammals of Mingo National Wildlife 
     Refuge, Puxico, Missouri.  U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  1 page.
     Jamestown, ND: Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center Online.
     http://www.npwrc.usgs.govmingomam.htm 
     (Version 22MAY98).

Return to Bird Checklist of Mingo National Wildlife Refuge