The US state of Michigan is in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwest. The state has many lakes, grasslands, waterfalls, and forests. It consists of two discontinuous peninsulas connected at the closest point by the Mackinac Bridge.
The Lower Peninsula takes the shape of a mitten and borders the US states of Indiana and Ohio to the south. The Upper Peninsula border Wisconsin to the west. The rest of Michigan is surrounded by four of the five Great Lakes – Superior, Michigan, Huron, and Erie.
The sparsely populated northern half of Michigan has all kinds of forest-dwelling wildlife and shorebirds and contains most of the state-run parks and wildlife reserves.
Official State Game Animal
White-tailed deer
Official State Bird
American Robin
Official State Fish
Brook trout
Official State Reptile
Painted turtle
The Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park is located by Lake Superior on the Upper Peninsula. It is the largest state park in Michigan. It has the largest stretches of old-growth hardwood forests in North America. Here you can see coyotes, foxes, cougars, river otters, beavers, bears, porcupines, moose, and gray wolves.
Tahquamenon Falls State Park, near the town of Paradise on the Upper Peninsula, is the second largest park in the state. There are winding hiking trails and scenic falls. Animals making their home here are moose, bears, rodents, and deer.
The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on the shore of Lake Michigan is a federally protected area with forests, beaches, dunes, and ancient glacial features. It is home to beavers, otters, muskrats, bears, bobcats, coyotes, hares, plovers, hawks, owls, and different freshwater fish.
The large US state of Texas is home to 29 million people and is one of the largest states in the US by both population and land mass. Its terrain varies from mountain forests to extensive coastlines. Texas has over 800 different habitats, and its vast variety of wild animals includes 540 species of birds and 142 species of mammals, amphibians, and others.
The state of Texas proudly calls itself “the battiest state in the nation” and is home to 32 of 47 species of bats that are native to the US.
Texas large state mammal
Texas longhorn
Texas small state mammal
Nine-banded armadillo
Texas state bird
Northern Mockingbird
Texas flying state mammal
Mexican free-tailed bat
Texas state dog
Blue Lacy
Texas state reptile
Texas horned lizard
Texas state insect
Monarch butterfly
Texas state fish
Guadalupe bass
The biggest predators in the state are wolves, cougars, and ocelots. Its rodents include pocket gophers, tree squirrels, porcupines, and nutria.
The most common forest animals include bobcats, badgers, and black bears.
Among birds, there are kestrels, finches, owls, and bald eagles.
In the mountain areas, you’ll find river otters, flying squirrels, and red-shouldered hawks.
The arid desert areas have many of the world’s rarest amphibians and reptiles, among them the nine-banded armadillo, Texas rat snake, and the short-linked skink lizard.
Texas is also home to the Northern black-bellied whistling duck, the Gulf stone crab, and the Texas blind salamander.
With more than 350 miles of coastline, including South Padre Island, the world’s largest barrier island, many marine animals are making their home here. Among them are fiddler crabs, roseate spoonbills, alligators, and sea turtles.
Bird City Texas is a statewide program that is great for bird lovers. The program encourages birders of all levels in the entire state to create bird sanctuaries and feeding spaces. Visitors can get wildlife and birding tours and get taken to places where they can see such birds as egrets, tanagers, whooping cranes, kingfishers, green parakeets, chachalacas, elf owls, and other of the country’s rarest birds.
The Bracken Cave Preserve, near San Antonio, has the largest bat colony in the world, with over 20 million roosting Mexican free-tail bats. Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin is the country’s largest urban bat colony. There are many official bat-watching sites in the state.
Some of the bats in Texas are the Mexican long-nosed bat, big brown bat, Western mastiff bat, and Southern yellow bat.
Sea Turtle, Inc. is on South Padre Island and was originally formed to preserve Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle. The program has a hatchling release program open to the public.
Prairie Dog Town is a sanctuary for black-tailed prairie dogs. These animals are considered keystone species, which means many members of the same ecosystem depend on them for the proper ecological balance.
Tiger Creek Animal Sanctuary in Tyler, Texas, is a sanctuary for exotic big cats that were unfortunately bought as pets and then abandoned, abused, or neglected.
Among the rarest animal in Texas is the ringtail. It is the size of a cat and has a long raccoon-like tail. They are nocturnal animals and great mousers. They were called “miners’ cats” because they were adopted by miners as pets. Ringtails helped clear the rats out of the mine. Today it is illegal to keep a wild ringtail as a pet.
Among the strangest animals only found in Texas are:
Black-tailed jackrabbit
Texas horned lizard
Lightning whelk
Black-tailed prairie dog
Many different kinds of wildlife make their home in the mountainous parts of Texas. The state has over 2,000 hills, peaks, and mountains. Its largest mountains are West Texas in the Davis, Guadalupe, and the Franklin Mountains. The highest point is Guadalupe Peak, rising 8,751 feet above sea level.
In the mountains, you can find wildlife like black bears, mountain lions, porcupines, mule deer, barn owls, bobcats, elk, and others.
The US state of Oklahoma has a humid subtropical climate. Its various geographic zones let a variety of wildlife make their homes here.Official State Animal American Bison
Official State Game Animal
White-tailed Deer
Official State Bird Scissor-tailed FlycatcherOfficial state Raptor Red-tailed HawkOfficial state Game Bird Wild TurkeyOfficial state Flying Mammal Mexican Free-tailed BatOfficial State Reptile Collared LizardOfficial State Amphibian BullfrogOfficial State Butterfly Black SwallowtailOfficial State Insect Honeybee
Large Mammals
The large mammals living in Oklahoma include the American bison and the plains bison. There are white-tailed deer, mule deer, and elk, In the prairies of the panhandle, you can find pronghorn antelope and there is also the wild boar.
Small Mammals
Among the small mammals in the state are rabbits, including the Eastern cottontail and the swamp rabbit. There are armadillos, skunks, raccoons, weasels, ferrets, the American mink, and the American badger. In the canyons and rocky areas of Oklahoma the ringtail cat, a nocturnal cousin of the raccoon, can be seen. There are also several species of shrews and moles.
Bats
Bats making their homes here are the little brown bat, the hoary bat, the western and eastern pipistrelle, the Seminole bat, and the Yuma myotis.
Rodents
In Oklahoma, the most common creatures are rodents. There are the hispid pocket mouse, the plains pocket mouse, and the meadow jumping mouse. Other rodents include kangaroo rats, wood rats, brown rats, black rats, voles, squirrels, chipmunks, ground squirrels, prairie dogs, and groundhogs.
Larger rodents include the North American beaver and the North American porcupine. There are gophers and nutria and the marsupial Virginia opossum.
Predators
Among the predators, the most common is the alligator. There is the bobcat and the American black bear. Smaller predators include bats, amphibians, certain fish, and shrews.
Other wild animals are the eastern or common mole and the southern flying squirrel.
Birds
Migratory birds spend their winters in Oklahoma before moving on. Among the permanent birds are waterfowl like swans, geese, ducks, cranes, stilts, avocets, gallinules, pelicans, storks, and coots.
Among shorebirds, there are sandpipers, curlews, godwits, and knots.
Seabirds like gulls, terns, and skuas over winter here and are found near lakes and rivers.
Songbirds include the blue and rose-breasted grosbeak, buntings, cardinals, tanagers, and pyrrhuloxia, a relative of the cardinal.
Downy Woodpecker
Other birds are warblers, wrens, starlings, orioles, blackbirds, crows, ravens, grackles, meadowlarks, sparrows, juncos, finch, and thrushes, including robins and all three species of bluebird. There are also waxwings, thrashers, nuthatches, hummingbirds and woodpeckers, swallows, jays, chickadees, shrikes, vireos, and flycatchers.
Birds of prey include ospreys, eagles, kites, falcons, hawks, vultures, and owls.
Reptiles and Amphibians
Besides alligators, there are skinks and other lizards, among them the colorful collared lizard and the Texas horned lizard. There is the western slender glass lizard which is legless and resembles a snake.
Among turtles, there are the three-toed box turtle, the stinkpot, and the snapping turtle.
There are many different snakes, among them the speckled kingsnake, the western worm snake, the rough green snake, coachwhips, racers, milk snakes, garter snakes, and bull snakes. Oklahoma also has many venomous snakes, including the copperhead, the cottonmouth, and several species of rattlesnake.
Since amphibians require lots of moisture, they can be found in eastern Oklahoma. One of the rarest and most unusual is the three-toed amphiuma, which resembles an eel, but is a 30-inch long nocturnal salamander. Another strange creature is the siren that spends its days in the muddy bottoms of torpid streams.
Among the more familiar ones are species of salamanders, toads, and frogs, including the Kiamichi slimy salamander, the bird-voiced tree frog, and the Cajun chorus frog.
Insects
In Oklahoma, you can find many varieties of butterflies and moths. There are honeybees, wasps, hornets, beetles, and true bugs. Others are cockroaches, cicadas, grasshoppers, katydids, dragon and damselflies, weevils, ants, termites, and fireflies.
Other Arthropods
Other arthropods include spiders, wolf spiders, black widows, brown recluse spiders, orb weavers, and cat-faced spiders, tarantulas, ticks, millipedes, and centipedes.
Fish
Oklahoma is a landlocked state, but it is known for the bounty found in its rivers and lakes. There are over 177 types of fish in Oklahoma, and they include bass, shiners, chubs, gars, sturgeons, shads, minnows, buffalos, darters, madtoms, catfish, sunfish, perch, and trout. Both the rainbow trout and the brown trout were introduced and aren’t native to the state.
Animals are Wonderful 