Although most of Iowa is under cultivation, such unusual wild specimens as bunchberry and bearberry can be found in the northeast, where the loess soil supports tumblegrass, western beard-tongue, and prickly pear cactus. Other notable plants are pink lady's slipper and twinleaf in the eastern woodlands, arrowgrass in the northwest, and erect dryflower and royal and cinnamon ferns in sandy regions. More than 80 native plants can no longer be found, and at least 35 others are confined to a single location. The federal government classified five plant species as threatened as of August 2003. Among these are the northern wild monkshood and the eastern and western prairie fringed orchids.
Common Iowa mammals include red and gray foxes, raccoon, opossum, woodchuck, muskrat, common cottontail, gray fox, and flying squirrel. The bobolink and purple martin have flyways over the state; the cardinal, rose-breasted grosbeak, and eastern goldfinch (the state bird) nest there. Game fish include rainbow trout, smallmouth bass, and walleye; in all, Iowa has 140 native fish species.
Rare animals include the pygmy shrew, ermine, black-billed cuckoo, and crystal darter. Listed as threatened or endangered by the federal government in August 2003 were nine species, including the Indiana bat, bald eagle, Higgins' eye pearlymussel, piping plover, Iowa Pleistocene snail, pallid sturgeon, gray wolf, and least tern.