What New Animals Did Lewis And Clark Discover

The Lewis and Clark trek resulted in the discovery or observation of more than 300 plants and animals. Beneath is a sampling of those discovered. All excerpts are taken from the actual journals of Lewis and Clark during their three year expedition.

Grizzly Deport	"In the evening we saw a Brown or Grisley beare on a sand beech, I went out with one man Geo Drewyer & Killed the bear, which was verry large and a turrible looking brute, which we constitute verry hard to kill we Shot ten Assurance into him before we killed him, & 5 of those Balls through his lights This animal is the largest of the carnivorous kind I e'er saw we had nothing that could way him, I retrieve his weight may be stated at 500 pounds [227 kilograms].... nosotros had him skined and divided, the oile tried upwards & put in Kegs for use."
American Bison	Bully herds of "buffalow" were noted throughout the journey. The expedition members ofttimes killed and ate bison.
Mountain Panthera leo	May xvi, 1805 - The forenoon was off-white and the 24-hour interval proved favorable to our operations . . . in the early part of the day two of our men fired on a panther, a little beneath our encampment, and wounded it; they informed us that it was very large, had just killed a deer partly devoured information technology, and in the human activity of concealing the ballance as they discovered him.
Coyote	First observed on September eighteen, 1804, in Southward Dakota. Lewis and Clark referred to the Coyote as "Prairie Wolf" "A Prarie Wolf come up near the banking company and Barked at united states of america tonight, we made an attempt but could not git him, the animale barkes like a large ferce dog."
Wolverine	June fourteen, 1805 - (probably a wolverine) In returning through the level lesser of Medecine river and about 200 yards distant from the Missouri, my direction led me direct to an anamal that I at first supposed was a wolf. Simply on nearer arroyo or about threescore paces afar I discovered that it was not. Its colour was a brown yellow; it was standing nearly it's burrow, and when I approached it thus nigh, it couched itself down like a cat looking immediately at me equally if it designed to jump on me.
Elk	Get-go noted: Dec ii, 1805, at the oral fissure of the Columbia River. The trek members frequently killed and ate elk.
Prairie Dog	First noted: September 7, 1804, in Boyd County, Nebraska. "Just above the entrance of Teapot creek on the star'd side there is a big assemblage of the burrows of the Barking Squirrel." Lewis described the their barkings as those of "little toy dogs." He was and then enamored with these creatures that he sent a alive one to Thomas Jefferson in Washington.
Mountain Goat	First Noted: August 24, 1805, in Lemhi County, Idaho. There is simply one recorded sighting of the mountain goat on the trek, called "mountain sheep" by Lewis and Clark. These animals occurred high in the mountains, frequently amdist the forbidding glaciers. Lewis bought the skin of a mountain goat from local Indians well-nigh the Columbia River.
Badger	First Noted: Feb 6, 1804 at Camp Dubois. Lewis chosen the Badger the barking canis familiaris of the prairie. The following description was written at Fort Clatsop on February 26, 1806: "His Shape & Size is like that of a Beaver, his caput mouth &c. is similar a Dogs with Short Ears, his Tail and Hair like that of a Ground Squealer, and longer, and lighter." Lewis was specially impressed with its claws, which he measured at iii/4 of an inch in length.
Whooping Crane	April 11, 1805 - "Saw some big white cranes turn down the river." Lewis and Clark were most certainly describing the Whooping Crane as they traversed the Columbia River. Today, the Whooping Crane is an exceedingly rare sight and is considered critically endangered.
Western Meadowlark	Start Noted: June 22, 1805, at Great Falls, Cascade County, Montana. In his periodical, Lewis compares this newly discovered meadowlark (that he killed) with the eastern meadowlark. According to Lewis, the western meadowlark "much resembles the bird called the oldfield lark with a yellow brest and a black spot on the croop; tho' this differs from ours in the form of the tail which is pointed, being formed of feathers of unequal length; the bill is somewhat longer and more curved and the annotation differs considerably; notwithstanding in size, action, and colours at that place is no perceptable difference; or at to the lowest degree none that strikes my eye.
Lewis' Woodpecker	First Noted: July 20, 1805, near Helena, Montana. A specimen of the Lewis' Woodpecker may exist the only surviving animal specimen from the expedition. According to Lewis, "The Black woodpecker which I have frequently mentioned and which is institute in most parts of the roky Mountains as well every bit the Western and S. Westward. Mountains, I had never an opportunity of examining untill a few days since when nosotros killed and preserved several of them. This bird is well-nigh the size of the distraction woodpecker or the turtle dove, tho' it'due south wings are longer than either of those birds." The species was eventually named for him.
Western Tanager	First Noted: June 6, 1806 in Idaho County, Idaho
White Pelican	"...the boat passed a Island 2 Miles above the petty Scouix R[iver] on the upper point of this Isld Some hundreds of Pelicans were nerveless, they left 3 fish on the Sand" —William Clark
	"I saw several very large grey Eagles today they are half every bit large again as the common bald Hawkeye of this country. I do non retrieve bald Eagle here qu[i]te and then large every bit those of the U' States; the grey Hawkeye is infinitely larger and is no dubiousness a distinct species." —Meriwether Lewis, July 11, 1805 in Montana. At the time, these birds were referred to as Calumet Birds.
Golden Eagle

Source: https://mrnussbaum.com/discoveries-from-the-journal-of-meriwether-lewis

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