Though at first glance this landscape appears inhospitable and barren, it is home to a great variety of creatures and plants. Rainfall, scanty though it is, nourishes the grasses that cover the land. And when the wildflowers bloom in bright profusion, they add their vibrant colors to the reds, browns, and greens of earth and grass. At home here, too, are more than 200 species of birds, many of which are songbirds. We can thrill to their songs today as much as Roosevelt did. "One of our sweetest, loudest songsters," he wrote, "is the meadowlark." "The Plains air seems to give it a voice and it will perch on top of a bush or tree and sing for hours in rich bubbling tones." Both mule deer and whitetail deer inhabit the park. The whitetails prefer the river woodlands, and the mule deer like the more broken country and the uplands. Prairie dogs, historically a staple food source for many predators, live in towns in the grasslands. Through careful management some animals that nearly became extinct are once again living here. Bison and elk. for example, were reintroduced in 1956 and 1985, respectively. Keep your eyes open; there is a lot to see here!

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