Iowa's Changing Wildlife: Three Decades of Gain and Loss

by James J. Dinsmore, Stephen J. Dinsmore

Much has changed with Iowa’s wildlife in the years 1990 to 2020. Some species such as Canada goose, wild turkey, and white-tailed deer that once were rare in Iowa are now common, and others like sandhill crane, river otter, and trumpeter swan are becoming increasingly abundant. Iowa’s Changing Wildlife provides an up-to-date, scientifically based summary of changes in the distribution, status, conservation needs, and future prospects of about sixty species of Iowa’s birds and mammals whose populations have increased or decreased in the past three decades. Readers will learn more about familiar species, become acquainted with the status of less familiar species, and find out how many of the species around them have fared during this era of transformation.
 

294 pages, Paperback

Published December 5, 2023

Reviews

[Clara Lindner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Iowa, I love nature, I dream of one day seeing a prairie chicken. Also a grey fox. Also a river otter. Also a bobcat.

[Annie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

Iowa's Changing Wildlife is a layman accessible well written monograph on the changing conservation status of wildlife in Iowa written and annotated by Professor Emeritus James & Dr. Stephen Dinsmore. Released 5th Dec 2023 by the University of Iowa Press, it's 266 pages and is available in paperback and ebook formats.

The authors track the population changes in 60 specific animal populations in Iowa in the last 3 decades (1990-2020). Their methodology includes survey data, personal observation, data from government agencies, and other authors. The species covered include many birds, mammals (including bears, cats, ruminants like bison, and bats), furbearers, and more. Invertebrates are outside the scope of the book.

Interestingly (and usefully), the authors do provide some insights into the legislation and conservation work in the area during the stated time period. Although it's mostly an academically rigorous and well annotated text, the language is perfectly layman accessible, and interested non-scientists will have no problems understanding the material.

There are no photographs included, barring the covers, but the interior chapter headings are enhanced by small pointillist b&w sketches.

Five stars. Well written and interesting, if admittedly quite niche.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

[Karen Trotter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was clearly written by two devoted and earnest scientists who enjoy and appreciate observing wildlife in Iowa. It reads like a deliberately structured scientific paper with a few personal anecdotes at appropriate intervals. I learned that the two ways of tracking animal populations are by counting the harvest of pelts (a methodology I had not thought of) or through infrequent population counts. I applaud the results that show populations have rebounded from the lows of last century.

I found it strangely soothing to read paragraphs that often seemed like a homework description for a student who is learning how to make Excel graphs. Here's an example from p. 149: "The harvest [of red fox pelts] has exceeded 15,000 pelts only once since 1990, in 1991-92 when 15,500 were taken, and since 2004 it has dropped to fewer than 10,000 every year and fewer than 5,000 since 2006. The low was 1,240 taken in 2016-17. The average harvest for the last ten years was 2,650 pelts. Red foxes are both hunted and trapped. The ratio of those two harvest methods has varied yearly, but in recent years more red foxes were trapped (68 percent) than hunted (30 percent). The method used for the other 2 percent was unknown."

[Debra Lowman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a companion book for the earlier written titles by the authors, A Country So Full of Game (1994) and the Iowa Breeding Bird Atlas (I & II, 1996,2000 respectively). I read it as a standalone, and sometimes felt I had missed some information that was in one of the other publications. Although it is quite niche and academic, it is written in an engaging way that was easy for me, a non-scientist, to read and enjoy.

A lot of emphasis was placed on birds, 13 of 24 chapters, and there is a lot of population data regarding the specific gains or losses experienced in this past 30 years, but the authors kept it lighter by contributing personal anecdotes and information about conservation efforts, legislation, or other interesting details that impacted the group they were discussing.

I also wished it had more pictures. There is only one small pen and ink illustration at the beginning of each chapter, and I would have enjoyed more pictures differentiating the types of owls, or waterfowl, for instance.

Overall, this was an engaging read of the animals and birds in Iowa. Who knew there were wolves in Iowa???

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a Wisconsinite and am not a real birder, but my sister lives on farmland in south central Wisconsin and while we enjoy the same birds as Iowa, we find their numbers diminishing as well. This work details the results of the hard work it took to get the positive results of increased numbers of each type of fauna which were near to extinction over a hundred years ago. Great work was done but more needs to be done. I seem to have missed reference to the problems we've noticed here, namely herbicides and insecticides. Excellent study with finely detailed drawings and easy to read maps and charts. Very worthwhile read.
I requested and received an EARC from University Of Iowa Press via NetGalley. Thank you!

[Evan Streeby · Rating 5 out of 5]

There’s something special about an Iowan expert, and this author is no different. I’ve never felt as passionately about my state’s ecology, fauna, and geography as I did while reading this.
Packed with valuable info about Iowa’s native animals, this book detailed many things to be excited about, while keeping us focused on climate change and the human impacts that disrupt (and will do more so) all our wildlife.
I recommend this to anyone who wants a good survey on Iowa fauna, filled with little anecdotes that remind us of this state’s beauty.

[J Kromrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.

A wonderful account of the evolution of Iowa's changing wildlife. I live in Iowa, I was born and raised here, so personally I found this book especially riveting.

Thank you to the author for your excellent research and for capturing this fascinating information!