COMO’s Fauna From A to Z

When it comes to humans and wildlife, just who invaded whom? Photos by Dennis Smarr and The Missouri Department of Conservation

A coyote suddenly appears. Or was it already there, stealthily entering your subdivision under the cover of darkness? Just a mile away, someone nervously posts on social media that a dog screamed out — an awful, horrific sound — “probably being attacked by a fox.” A great-horned owl hoots, and an alert homeowner checks to be sure her outdoor cat is taking cover. Stepping out the door, she’s immediately breathless, certain that the snake slithering across her patio — probably a copperhead — is going to chase and bite her. Elsewhere, at a local quarry, an angler pulls in a net that is teeming with snakes. A “nest” of cottonmouth water moccasins?  

Now let’s check those scenarios.  

If your house is in a subdivision that is near or was once a wooded forest or open field, the coyote has been there quite a while. And that describes most of Columbia. The screaming dog being attacked by a fox? In all likelihood, it was a fox. Their bark is a piercing scream. And they do not prey on dogs.  

The hooting owl? Either calling for a mate or letting all the other critters around know that it saw the coyote. Your kitty is not the feathered hunter’s preferred dish. As for that snake on the patio, the one that you’re sure is a venomous copperhead? First, it’s not going to chase you. No matter what your grandma told you — God bless those old wives’ tales — people are not prey for snakes. There’s a good chance it’s a prairie kingsnake which, by the way, eats copperheads.  

The quarry cottonmouths? They’re harmless though nasty-tempered common water snakes, and they do not “nest.” Quarries are not suitable habitats for cottonmouths, and the big-bodied venomous reptiles are rarely seen north of the Missouri River. They prefer spring-fed streams in the southeast part of the state. And one peer-reviewed herpetological atlas noted in 2020 that zero cottonmouths had been positively identified in Boone County since 1987, and the unofficial census showed the number was zero for several decades prior to that date.  

Dispelling myths and misidentification of the wild things that are increasingly living among us in Boone County and Columbia is a regular part of the job for Conservation Agents Brandon Cotter and Adam Doerhoff. Their message for all of us is that wildlife hasn’t invaded our spaces.  

We have moved into theirs.  

“When we’re able to get up in a helicopter and look around Boone County, often during deer season looking for wildlife crimes like baiting deer, you’ll see that Columbia is quite rural,” Cotter said. “It’s a beautiful, beautiful place. So many parks and trees and wildlife. It’s incredibly inviting for a lot of these animals. And as Columbia expands and grows, we are invading their space — and they’ve been here longer than we have.”  

Some creatures are becoming more common because of successful conservation efforts and the innate ability of animals to adapt to human environments. That’s how coyotes have managed to proliferate even in New York City. In Missouri, the black bear population is well established in southwest and southern Missouri.  

“Our bear population has exploded down south in the Mark Twain National Forest,” Cotter added. He hasn’t had any reports of bears in Boone County in his two years on the job, but he’s confident that will change.  

“In years to come, we will start seeing more and more of them,” he said. “They’re just going to expand [to the] north.”  

Doerhoff has been a Boone County Conservation Agent since 2012. He said armadillos are a prime example of adaptability and expansion. Not long ago, an armadillo anywhere in Missouri was a rare sighting. But now, they claim most of Missouri as their habitat, and even managed to get across the Missouri River — and occasionally into residential lawns in Columbia, where they can be especially destructive.  

Doerhoff said most of us can’t recall a time when white-tailed deer, bald eagles, and wild turkeys were rarely seen, even though those creatures are native to Missouri.  

“In our parents and grandparents’ lives, they were a lot less common,” he noted. Overharvesting, the indiscriminate use of now-banned pesticides, and habitat loss led to catastrophic population declines for many animal species. Since the establishment of the Missouri Department of Conservation in 1937, those declines were reversed and, in some cases, animals that were extirpated in Missouri — elk and river otters, for example — were reintroduced or have recolonized.  

Making a definitive A to Z list of animal species in Boone County isn’t too challenging: Armadillo, bobcat, coyote, deer, elk, fox, gray squirrel, honeybee (hey, let’s give our land- and air-loving invertebrates some love, too), indigo bunting, junco, killdeer, little brown bat, muskrat, North American river otter, oriole, prairie lizard, quail, raccoon, skunk, turkey buzzard, underwing moth, Virginia opossum, woodchuck (groundhog), xainthotype geometers (you’ve seen this moth’s “inchworm” caterpillars), yellow warbler, and zebra mussel.  

Wait a minute … elk? Zebra mussels? And why isn’t mountain lion on the list? Doerhoff explains.  

A deer hunter shot an elk just north of Hallsville in 2017. The closest elk in Missouri is at Peck Ranch Conservation Area, 200 miles away in southeast Missouri, where the first herd of elk was reintroduced to the state in 2011.  

“There’s absolutely no way an elk from our Ozark herd would make it to Boone County,” he said, noting that the Peck Ranch elk are collared and their movements are tracked. “Did it come from the Rocky Mountains? Did someone have an elk penned, and it got loose? We don’t know.”  

Zebra mussels are an invasive, non-native, and teeny, tiny creature that can clog water intake pipes and smother native mussels, leading to significant damage to both aquatic ecosystems and human infrastructure. The mussels have been found in the Missouri River. Doerhoff said it’s crucial to keep them out of local lakes.  

Think of zebra mussels as the invasive bush honeysuckle, callery (Bradford) pear, and multiflora rose of aquatic systems.  

“If you get some on your boat and you go to Finger Lakes, you might be the one who transports them there,” he added, encouraging boaters to let their boat completely dry out and rinse it with soap and water before moving from one body of water to another.  

And what about mountain lions? The increasing popularity of trail cameras and bird feeder cameras has ratcheted up reported sightings of all sorts of critters. Conservation agents know it’s a touchy subject, because while sightings have increased, the Conservation Department has no conclusive evidence to determine that mountain lions have an established presence in Missouri.  

In 1996, the department started the Mountain Lion Response Team to investigate reoprts and evidence of mountain lions. The team has confirmed 120 sightings as of May 2025, but most reported sightings and tracks turn out to be bobcats or large dogs. There have been two confirmed sightings in Boone County in the last ten years — one by a trail cam near Rocheport and the other more recently in the Sturgeon area, confirmed by a trail camera.  

“We confirm what we can,” Doerhoff said. “I’ve had people show me pictures and videos of what is 100 percent a house cat. They get very angry with me when I don’t agree it’s a mountain lion.” Both Cotter and Doerhoff dismiss a common myth that the department is “covering up” the existence of mountain lions in Missouri.  

But what about coyotes, foxes, hawks, eagles, and owls being a threat to pets and children?  

“The likelihood of a kid or a pet being attacked — it’s possible, but it’s highly, highly unlikely,” Doerhoff said.   

Cotter, who grew up in Kansas, said his mother often warned him that a red-tailed hawk might come and snatch up his little dog.  

“I’ve actually never heard of that happening,” he said. “But, just like us, [animals] want food to be as convenient as possible, so they’re going to be opportunistic.  

However, foxes and coyotes are prolific mouse and rodent hunters  

“They would rather eat 200 mice than try to get your dog,” Cotter said, “because the more of a mismatch it is, they’re guaranteed to win and not get injured.”