Swan River National Wildlife Refuge is a
National Wildlife Refuge in
Lake County of northwestern
Montana
Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...
. It is a unit of the
National Bison Range Complex.
Description
The refuge was primarily set aside to protect prime habitat for various species of birds and particularly waterfowl. The refuge consists of a wide
floodplain
A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...
of the
Swan River, though the river has relocated to the western sections of the refuge due to silt buildup.
171 bird species have been observed at the refuge, including
teal
alt=American teal duck (male), Green-winged teal (male)
Teal is a greenish-blue colour. Its name comes from that of a bird — the Eurasian teal (''Anas crecca'') — which presents a similarly coloured stripe on its head. The word is oft ...
s,
great blue heron and a pair of nesting
bald eagles, the last of which may be due to the abundance of
fish
Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of ...
in the Swan River. Numerous
mammals such as the
white-tailed deer
The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known as the whitetail or Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer native to North America, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia. It has also been introduced t ...
,
elk,
moose
The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult ma ...
,
black bear
Black bear or Blackbear may refer to:
Animals
* American black bear (''Ursus americanus''), a North American bear species
* Asian black bear (''Ursus thibetanus''), an Asian bear species
Music
* Black Bear (band), a Canadian First Nations group ...
,
coyote,
bobcat and
beaver can all be found here. The
grizzly bear may occasionally wander in from surrounding mountains.
[
]
See also
*
*
References
External links
Swan River National Wildlife Refuge
National Bison Range Complex
National Wildlife Refuges in Montana
Protected areas of Lake County, Montana
Wetlands of Montana
Landforms of Lake County, Montana
{{LakeCountyMT-geo-stub