Amazing Oklahoma animals
Our first foray into seeking out Oklahoma state symbols involved a trip to the Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Gardens. This visit gave us an easy glimpse at several state symbols. Three bison, Oklahoma’s state animal, are in residence at the OKC Zoo. “Big, big kitty!” proclaimed my 2-year-old granddaughter. She wasn’t very scientific about the animals’ classification but she was right about their size. Note that they are not buffalo; those are native to Africa and Asia. The bison is North America’s largest and heaviest land animal. A walk through the Oklahoma Trails exhibit, an 8-acre naturalistic habitat that interprets the 11 different life zones of the state and features more than 100 species of mammals, birds, reptiles and fish, provided plenty of information about bison and the state’s other symbolic animals. Seeing the bison up close in the zoo was great but I wanted to give the kids a feeling of how these magnificent animals roamed the prairies. We took a trip to the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge just outside of Lawton. It’s an easy hour’s drive down I-44. We grabbed delicious burgers and fixins in the town of Meers, just outside the Refuge, and enjoyed an al fresco meal inside the park before our visit to the Museum of the Great Plains, which has great exhibits detailing the history and ecology of the region. Once in the Refuge, we spotted the bison herd from the road. They were sunning themselves on a hilltop about a quarter mile away. The binoculars helped us get a good look at the state’s most famous animal. Museum staff told us more than 650 bison comprise this herd, one of the largest in America. I explained to our grandkids that before European settlers came, more than 30 million bison roamed the North American Great Plains from the Appalachians to the Rocky Mountains and stretching from Texas into Canada. Bison provided food, clothing, footwear, shelter, tools, fire and more to the Indigenous people who lived on the plains. A lot of other animals live in the Refuge as well. We drove to the top of Mount Scott, elevation 2,464 feet above sea level, and used our binoculars to see a herd of elk. Even from far away, these magnificent animals are an impressive sight. The prairie dog village was an unexpected treat. The toddlers were entranced with these energetic critters. They squealed every time a prairie dog popped out of its hole. As we watched the sun set over the Wichita Mountains, red-tailed hawks, Oklahoma’s state raptor, soared on the updrafts of warm air from the prairie below. Were they hunting for a bedtime snack or just stretching their wings and enjoying their status as the state’s favorite avian predators?
ABOVE: BISON ROAM AT THE WICHITA MOUNTAIN WILDLIFE REFUGE IN LAWTON. PHOTO BY USFWS STAFF. BELOW: DON’T MISS THE REFUGE’S PRAIRIE DOG VILLAGE.
Eating Oklahoma style The following Sunday the family enjoyed part of the state’s official meal. We couldn’t fit it all into one sitting and our belts definitely would need loosening if we ate it all at once. We decided to have both an official Oklahoma brunch and plan an Oklahoma supper at a later date. Brunch consisted of biscuits and sausage gravy, strawberries, grits, eggs and chicken-fried steak. The next weekend (it took us awhile to work off the brunch!) we enjoyed barbecue pork, corn, blackeye peas, fried okra, squash, cornbread and pecan pie. One thing you can say about Oklahomans – we know how to set a table.
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