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Faces of the Great Plains

Prairie Wildlife

Photographs and Field Notes by Bob Gress

Text by Paul A. Johnsgard

October 2003
192 pages, 151 color photographs, 9 x 12
Cloth ISBN 978-0-7006-1265-9, $34.95 (t)

book cover imageThe Great Plains are America’s biological melting pot, drawing creatures from surrounding regions to create a rich diversity of wildlife. Here are pronghorn in the shortgrass, rattlesnakes underfoot, and golden eagles soaring skyward. Here, too, pockets of bison can still be found, recalling yesterday’s thundering herds.

In this spectacular book, Bob Gress—one of the region’s preeminent photographers—is joined by the distinguished naturalist Paul Johnsgard to illuminate the enormous variety and uniqueness of prairie wildlife. Gress has selected—from the nearly 600 non-fish vertebrate species found in the Plains—150 of the most interesting, charismatic, and important species, while Johnsgard provides a lyrical text covering the ecology, behavior, and life histories of these creatures. The result is a vivid and striking marriage of image and text.

From meadowlark to prairie dog, here are many creatures one would expect to encounter in the field: characteristic breeding birds, typical mammals, and conspicuous reptiles and amphibians. Grouped by habitat—tallgrass, mixed-grass, and shortgrass prairie, plus sandhills, shrubsteppes, forests, and wetlands—these stunning images also bring you face-to-face with the short-eared owl, black-footed ferret, and six-lined racerunner, as well as other fascinating but overlooked animals on the prairie like the olive-backed pocket mouse, Henslow’s sparrow, narrowmouth toad, and barred tiger salamander.

An unprecedented partnership between two great observers of the region, Faces of the Great Plains provides keen insights into and thoughtful reflections on both prairie wildlife and the art of nature photography. Especially in the wake of increasing threats to the prairie’s habitats, it should foster a new appreciation of the region’s abundant fauna, inviting us all to see the land through new eyes and to join in the preservation of these natural treasures.

“Bob Gress, one of the premier nature photographers in America, and Paul Johnsgard, a recognized Great Plains scholar, have produced a near perfect marriage of image and text. . . . A captivating and welcome addition to the natural history of the Great Plains.”--George Potts, coauthor of Watching Kansas Wildlife: A Guide to 101 Sites

“A unique book that should have a substantial general audience among wildlife enthusiasts, educators, and youngsters who visit or live on the Great Plains.”--Tom White, editor of NEBRASKAland Magazine

BOB GRESS is director of the Great Plains Nature Center in Wichita. His photographs have appeared in Kansas Wildlife, Watching Kansas Wildlife, and Kansas Wetlands, all published by Kansas. PAUL A. JOHNSGARD, emeritus Foundation Professor of Biology at the University of Nebraska, is author of more than forty books, including Great Wildlife of the Great Plains and Prairie Birds: Fragile Splendor in the Great Plains.