The Breathtaking Park In Iowa Where You Can Watch Wild Elk And Bison Roam

Neal Smith Wildlife Refuge in Prairie City, Iowa, located just half an hour east of Des Moines, is an excellent place to spend the day for many reasons. It's got a well-organized interpretive center filled with fascinating tidbits about Iowa's history and ecology. It's home to multiple trails that traverse a variety of terrain. But perhaps most remarkable of all, it's one of the few places in Iowa where it's still possible to spot wild elk and bison free ranging on a vast, beautiful, 800-acre prairie.

In the Midwest, bison once numbered in the millions. Elk were even more plentiful than that.

These large herds had a huge, beneficial impact on the long grass prairie ecosystem.

Now, both animal species have almost completely disappeared from these prairie lands, with just a handful of conservation-driven exceptions --including the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge in Prairie City, Iowa.

We're not talking millions anymore, though: the bison herd at Neal Smith consists of 50 to 70 animals. The elk herd is 15 to 20 animals in size. Both are carefully managed by wildlife specialists at the refuge.

How do elk, which grow to reach 500 to 700 pounds, and bison, which can weigh up to 2,000 pounds, help the prairie? In many ways.

Grazing encourages native grass growth, providing even more food and habitat for these herbivores and for other animals. Bison create wallows that collect rain in wet seasons, giving a variety of amphibians and other water lovers more habitats in which to thrive.

Elk graze on shrubs and tender tree branches as well as grass, which helps keep a wider variety of undergrowth in check.

Elk and bison even assist in seed distribution, as seeds hitch rides both on their hide and in their intestines, and these massive animals' waste contributes to fertilizing the prairie.

To learn more about the animals that find a haven at Neal Smith Wildlife Refuge, head over to the refuge's website. There's no guarantee that you'll be able to spot them when you visit Neal Smith, but watch for them on the Neal Smith auto tour route, the Tallgrass and Overlook Trails, and from the Visitor Center. Have you ever seen an elk in Iowa? Here's another rare sight that you can see at Neal Smith Wildlife Refuge, in addition to elk and bison: an Oak Savannah.