Chert Glades Trails
The Chert Glades are a unique habitat type found primarily in southwest Missouri. Chert, also known as flint, is found here in bedrock form. Approximately 60 high-quality acres of this habitat are left in the world; 27 acres are within Wildcat Park. Glades are very dry places with thin soils-- Missouri's own deserts. Spring is a time of much activity as wildflowers and native grasses flourish. Summer is a dry, harsh time on the glades.
The plants found on the glades here are primarily native grasses and wildflowers, with sporadic prickly pear cacti and post oak trees. Some of these oaks are dated over 150 years old yet are stunted due to the thin rocky soil. Lichens dot the rocks and trees and wildflowers like aster and coreopsis sweep the landscape.
Animals such as lizards, snakes, scorpions and tarantulas are closely adapted to the desert-like conditions. Bobcat, fox, white-tailed deer, wild turkey and other wildlife live in the wooded areas and visit the glade to find food. You are likely to see turkey vultures and red-shouldered hawks flying overhead. Cedar waxwings, bobwhite quail and indigo and painted buntings can also be heard singing across the glade. Roadrunners were once a more familiar sight on the glades, but are becoming increasingly uncommon due to shrinking habitat.
Shoal Creek Trails
Shoal Creek is considered a true Ozarkian stream with rolling Ozark hills, high bluff vistas, bedrock riffles, gently eddying pools and long wooded stretches. As the 3rd largest tributary of the Spring River, Shoal Creek holds some of the areas most unique aquatic organisms that as a casual visitor you typically won't see including the rainbow darter, Arkansas darter, western fanshell mussel, Neosho mucket mussel, bluntface shiner and western slim minnow. Look for western painted turtles and softshell turtles basking on the banks and on fallen logs. Deer, fox, raccoon, chipmunks and red-shouldered hawks are common in these shaded woodland areas. Birds like Cooper's hawks, blue jays and pileated woodpeckers can typically be heard calling along the river bottom, while more discreet prothonatory warblers, yellow-crowned night-herons, barred owls, red-eyed vireos and rose-breasted grosbeaks can be seen perched on branches or foraging on the ground and among trees.
For a list of plants, insects and animals confirmed at Wildcat Park, please click on the link below.
No plant or animal collecting is permitted at Wildcat Park at anytime.
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