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A Wolf Hunt in Chicago in the Early Days. |
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The Chicago Academy of Science, the Matthew Laflin Memorial Building. Businessman and philanthropist Matthew Laflin was the primary funder for a new building, which opened on October 31, 1894, in Lincoln Park. |
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An Illinois Home Where the Buffalo Roam. |
The river is also said to have contained what is now known as the American beaver, and many of them were caught in the Calumet region. There were also otters, and black bears were not uncommon. Deer were killed as late as the 1870s in Chicago. Among the other smaller animals were the shot-tailed shrew, the silvery mole, the star-nosed mole, the white and grey wolf, the red and grey fox, brown and black minks, the common skunk, raccoon, opossum, Western fox squirrel, gophers striped and grey, woodchuck or groundhog, the ground rat, and common mouse, prairie mouse, meadow mouse, muskrats, and grey rabbit.
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Yea, Yea... I'm a Titmouse!!! Small size ● Big attitude |
Of reptiles, there was a large and various assortment. There were rattlesnakes, copper heads or cottonmouths, spotted adders, king snakes, black snakes, garter snakes, spotted snakes, leather snakes, pilot snakes, grass snakes, hog-nosed snakes, and spreading adders, and water snakes galore.
Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.
It's hard to imagine Buffalo roaming about Michigan Ave. However I have stood in the forest preserves and thought, this is what Chicago must have looked like 200 years ago.
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