Middleton Prairie, Texas, United States Photograph by Robert Parvin   Southern North America: Southern United States into northern Mexico Tropical and Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas, and Shrublands   About 30,000 square miles (77,000 square kilometers) -- about the size of Maine. Critical/Endangered

· Bobcats and Blue Spring Lizards
· Special Features
· Did You Know?
· Wild Side
· Cause for Concern
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Bobcats and Blue Spring Lizards

The grasslands of the western Gulf of Mexico occur in northwestern Mexico and the southern U.S. and extend in a coastal band along the western Gulf, including many near-shore islands. This tall grass coastal prairie has a distinctly temperate climate moderated by the Gulf of Mexico. With rainfall levels of less than 12 inches (300 cm) per year, the plant species that grow here are predominatly tall bunchgrass and prairie. Species include seacoast bluestem, eastern gamagrass, Gulf muhly, Gulf cordgrass, sedges, rush, and saltgrasses. Occasional shrublands consist of mesquite, huisache, lime prickly ash, and Texas persimmon. This habitat is home to bobcats and colorful, blue spring lizards.

Special Features

Over 700 species of vertebrates have been identified in this region. Scientists estimate 86 are endangered or threatened. Occasional tropical storms come ashore in this area and can greatly modify coastal habitats and reduce populations of some species. Attwater's prairie chicken and the whooping crane are both endangered species in this ecoregion.

	Attwater's prairie chicken is a subspecies of the greater prairie chicken of the Great Plains. Only 68 birds were found in 1995, down from 500 five years earlier. The heath hen of the east coast of the United States was another subspecies, but it is now extinct.

Wild Side

Wildlife is abundant in the Western Gulf Coastal Grasslands. There are many birds, reptiles, and mammals, including eastern cottontails, collared peccaries, least grebes, red-billed pigeons, brown jays, olivaceous cormorants, white-winged doves, and Audubon's orioles. American alligators have been spotted in the Laguna de la Madre, in Mexico. Amphibians making their home here include the Rio Grande chirping frog and the white-lipped frog. Occasionally ocelots, bobcats, and jaguarundis are seen. Other characteristic species are the Mexican spiny pocket mouse, white-tipped dove, and white-collared seedeater.

Cause for Concern

Less than one percent of this community type remains intact. Conversion to row crop and rice production, overgrazing, introduction of tame pasture grasses, urbanization, exotic plant invasion and expansion, and a lack of fire management have all contributed to the loss and degradation of this habitat. Several species have become extirpated, and many more are critically endangered. Fragmentation and woody encroachment are also important causes for concern.

For more information on this ecoregion, go to the World Wildlife Fund Scientific Report.