Iowa's Changing Wildlife is a layman accessible well written monograph on the changing conservation status of wildlife in Iowa written and annotated by Professor Emeritus James & Dr. Stephen Dinsmore. Released 5th Dec 2023 by the University of Iowa Press, it's 266 pages and is available in paperback and ebook formats.

The authors track the population changes in 60 specific animal populations in Iowa in the last 3 decades (1990-2020). Their methodology includes survey data, personal observation, data from government agencies, and other authors. The species covered include many birds, mammals (including bears, cats, ruminants like bison, and bats), furbearers, and more. Invertebrates are outside the scope of the book.

Interestingly (and usefully), the authors do provide some insights into the legislation and conservation work in the area during the stated time period. Although it's mostly an academically rigorous and well annotated text, the language is perfectly layman accessible, and interested non-scientists will have no problems understanding the material.

There are no photographs included, barring the covers, but the interior chapter headings are enhanced by small pointillist b&w sketches.

Five stars. Well written and interesting, if admittedly quite niche.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.

A wonderful account of the evolution of Iowa's changing wildlife. I live in Iowa, I was born and raised here, so personally I found this book especially riveting.

Thank you to the author for your excellent research and for capturing this fascinating information!

I am a Wisconsinite and am not a real birder, but my sister lives on farmland in south central Wisconsin and while we enjoy the same birds as Iowa, we find their numbers diminishing as well. This work details the results of the hard work it took to get the positive results of increased numbers of each type of fauna which were near to extinction over a hundred years ago. Great work was done but more needs to be done. I seem to have missed reference to the problems we've noticed here, namely herbicides and insecticides. Excellent study with finely detailed drawings and easy to read maps and charts. Very worthwhile read.
I requested and received an EARC from University Of Iowa Press via NetGalley. Thank you!