Small rivers provide some of the most diverse wildlife habitat in Dane County, and this site along the Yahara River offers a wide assortment of terrestrial and aquatic niches, including dry sand, wet mud, shady forests, cattail marshes, sedge meadows, bushes and brambles, shallow pools, and the river itself. Muskrats, deer, possums, skunks, and raccoons inhabit the area, and signs of river life appear along the shore as crayfish build miniature mud castles, beavers and muskrats burrow holes in the bank, clams leave furrows in the sand and empty shells on the shore, and giant herons and other predatory birds leave white-wash in trees. This rich biological diversity results from two hydrological cycles. In the seasonal cycle, the river deposits new soil across the flood plain when spring rains and melting snow overflow the banks, and as water volume shrinks in summer, new land is exposed to invading plants while temporary ponds become breeding sites for insects, fish, frogs, and toads. The meander cycle created the loop in the Yahara River here as the main current whips back and forth, cutting the bank in one place and depositing soil in another. Over the years, this process also creates small lakes and a variety of wetlands, and the river continually varies the landscape by allowing new trees to sprout on exposed mud or sand while old trees fall where the river swings back and undercuts its banks.