Fauna
This coast is rich in wildlife with 700 species of birds, animals and reptiles have been counted here although many are now threatened or endangered. This coast is a critical habitat for the Attwater's Prairie Chickens (Tympanuchus cupido attwateri), over one million of which inhabited the prairie in Texas and Louisiana in the 19th century, but extreme reduction of their habitat put them on the U.S. endangered species list in 1967. Another endangered bird of the coast is the Whooping Crane (Grus americana) while other birds include Least Grebe, White-collared Seedeater (Sporophila morelleti), Red-billed Pigeon (Columba flavirostris), Brown Jay (Cyanocorax morio), Neotropic Cormorant, White-winged Dove (Leptotila verrequxi) and Audubon's Oriole (Icterus graduacauda).
Mammals of the area include Ocelot (Leopardus pardalis), Gulf Coast Jaguarundi (Puma yagouaroundi cacomitli), Southern Yellow Bat (Lasiurus ega), Mexican Spiny Pocket Mouse (Liomys irroratus), Bobcats, Collared Peccary and Eastern Cottontails. Rancho Nuevo beach in Tamaulipas is the only nesting site in the world for the Kemp's Ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys kempii) while other herpetofauna of the ecoregion include Río Grande Chirping Frog (Eleutherodactylus cystignathoides) and Mexican White-lipped Frog (Leptodactylus fragilis).
Read more about this topic: Western Gulf Coastal Grasslands
Famous quotes containing the word fauna:
“The whole fauna of human fantasies, their marine vegetation, drifts and luxuriates in the dimly lit zones of human activity, as though plaiting thick tresses of darkness. Here, too, appear the lighthouses of the mind, with their outward resemblance to less pure symbols. The gateway to mystery swings open at the touch of human weakness and we have entered the realms of darkness. One false step, one slurred syllable together reveal a man’s thoughts.”
—Louis Aragon (1897–1982)