As time marches forward, it is common to lament the loss of the past. In the case of many species indigenous to the Ozarks, we are fortunate to see an opposing trend. Whereas in the \u201cgood old days\u201d of a generation or two past, populations of wild animals (deer, red-tailed hawk, bald eagle, fox and rabbit) had all declined severely, largely in response to over hunting, today\u2019s population of wild critters is flourishing. MORE<\/a><\/p>\n The keening call of a red tailed hawk, the persistent rhythm of a woodpecker high up on a now-dead oak, the skittering noises of bats deep within an Ozarks cavern \u2014 these sounds are not exclusive to the Ozark mountains but there is a special resonating natural beauty in the flying critters of our North American world. MORE<\/a><\/p>\n Fish are one of the main reasons Ozark tourism exists. Without the draw to lakes such as Bull Shoals, Table Rock and Taneycomo, it is unlikely the Branson show industry would have gotten started. MORE<\/a><\/p>\n What is it about snakes? Snakes certainly get all the notoriety. As long as there are copperheads and water moccasins in the Ozarks, these reptiles will be associated with the dangerous side of the hills. MORE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ANIMALS Ozark Hill Critters As time marches forward, it is common to lament the loss of the past. In the case of many species indigenous to the Ozarks, we are fortunate to see an opposing trend. Whereas in the \u201cgood old days\u201d of a generation or two past, populations of wild animals (deer, red-tailed hawk,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":6025,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-8727","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8727"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8760,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8727\/revisions\/8760"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Birds & Bats of the Ozarks<\/h2>\n
Ozark Fish & Other Water Critters<\/h2>\n
Snakes & Such<\/h2>\n