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Mammals Of Iowa: Holocene To The End Of The 20th Century, John B. Bowles, Daryl L. Howell, Richard P. Lampe, Howard P. Whidden

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

This review of Iowa's mammal fauna at the close of the 20th century summarizes changes in distributional patterns following Euroamerican settlement in the early 1800s. Data from historical records, museum specimens, and presettlement late Holocene fossils indicate presence of 69 resident mammals at that time. Hunting pressures and the conversion of prairie and forest to agricultural fields reduced the populations and ranges of many state mammals, and 14 species were extirpated by 1900. An additional 15 species are either uncommon or rare today, and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources lists four species as endangered, three as threatened and one …