List of mammals of West Virginia
The state of West Virginia is home to 72 wild
Some mammals which have thrived despite human disturbance include the opossum, which is more abundant and more widely distributed due to human activities. Also doing well are mammals that prefer farm and early successional habitats. The coyote is expanding its range eastward in the United States and now occurs throughout the state.
Many examples of West Virginia's present and former megafauna are on display at the West Virginia State Wildlife Center, a small zoo featuring native animals.
List
The following letters indicate the likelihood of finding each animal in West Virginia:
C | Common | Can be commonly seen in suitable habitat within current range. |
U | Uncommon | Seldom seen because habitat restricted and/or behavior secretive. |
R | Rare | Not often present even in suitable habitat. |
RI | Reintroduced | Reintroduced after being extirpated. |
I | Introduced | Not native to West Virginia, introduced by humans |
X | Extirpated | No longer present in West Virginia. |
In addition, the
Order Didelphimorphia (opossums)
Family
- Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana) C
Order Eulipotyphla (shrews, moles and relatives)
Family
- Northern short-tailed shrew (Blarina brevicauda) C
- North American least shrew (Cryptotis parva) R
- Cinereus shrew (Sorex cinereus) C
- Long-tailed shrew (Sorex dispar) U
- Smoky shrew (Sorex fumeus) U
- American pygmy shrew (Sorex hoyi) U
- Southeastern shrew (Sorex longirostris) U
- American water shrew (Sorex palustris) R
Family Talpidae (moles)
- Star-nosed mole (Condylura cristata) U
- Hairy-tailed mole (Parascalops breweri) C
- Eastern mole (Scalopus aquaticus) U
Order Chiroptera (bats)
Family Vespertilionidae (vesper bats)
- Rafinesque's big-eared bat (Corynorhinus rafinesquii) R
- Townsend's big-eared bat (Corynorhinus townsendii)
- Virginia big-eared bat (C. t. virginianus) R, EN
- Big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus) C
- Silver-haired bat (Lasionycteris noctivagans) U
- Eastern red bat (Lasiurus borealis) C
- Hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus) U
- Gray bat (Myotis grisescens) R, VU[2]
- Eastern small-footed myotis (Myotis leibii) R, EN[3]
- Little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus) C, EN[4]
- Northern long-eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis) U, NT[5]
- Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis) R, NT[6]
- Evening bat (Nycticeius humeralis) R
- Tricolored bat (Perimyotis subflavus) C, VU[7]
Order Rodentia (rodents)
Family
- Northern flying squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus) R
- Virginia northern flying squirrel (G. s. fuscus) R
- Southern flying squirrel (Glaucomys volans) C
- Groundhog (Marmota monax) C
- Eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) C
- Fox squirrel (Sciurus niger) C
- Eastern chipmunk (Tamias striatus) C
- American red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) C
Family Castoridae (beavers)
- North American beaver (Castor canadensis) C, RI
Family
- Woodland jumping mouse (Napaeozapus insignis) C
- Meadow jumping mouse (Zapus hudsonius) U
Family Cricetidae (New World mice and rats)
- Eastern meadow vole (Microtus pennsylvanicus) C
- Rock vole (Microtus chrotorrhinus) U
- Prairie vole (Microtus ochrogaster) R
- Woodland vole (Microtus pinetorum) C
- Southern red-backed vole (Clethrionomys gapperi) C
- Allegheny woodrat (Neotoma magister) U, NT[8]
- Golden mouse (Ochrotomys nuttalli) U
- Muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus) C
- Eastern deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) C
- White-footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus) C
- Eastern harvest mouse (Reithrodontomys humulis) R
- Southern bog lemming (Synaptomys cooperi) U
Family Muridae (Old World mice and rats)
- House mouse (Mus musculus) I
- Brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) I
- Black rat (Rattus rattus) I
Family
- North American porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum) R
Order Lagomorpha (rabbits, hares and pikas)
Family Leporidae (rabbits and hares)
- Snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus) U
- Appalachian cottontail (Sylvilagus obscurus) U, NT[9]
- Eastern cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus) C
Order Carnivora (carnivorans)
Family Canidae (dogs, wolves and foxes)
- Coyote, (Canis latrans) C
- Eastern coyote (C. l. ssp.) C
- Eastern wolf (Canis lycaon) X
- Red wolf (Canis rufus) X, CR[10]
- Gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) C
- Red fox (Vulpes vulpes) C
Family
- American black bear (Ursus americanus) U
Family Procyonidae (raccoons and relatives)
- Raccoon (Procyon lotor) C
Family Mustelidae (otters, weasels and relatives)
- North American river otter (Lontra canadensis) RI
- Least weasel (Mustela nivalis) U
- American ermine (Mustela richardsonii) U[11]
- Long-tailed weasel (Neogale frenata) U
- American mink (Neogale vison) U
- Fisher (Pekania pennanti) RI
Family Mephitidae (skunks)
- Striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis) C
- Eastern spotted skunk (Spilogale putorius) U, VU[12]
Family Felidae (cats)
- Bobcat (Lynx rufus) U
- Cougar, (Puma concolor) X
- Eastern cougar (P. c. couguar) EX
Order Artiodactyla (even-toed ungulates)
Family Suidae (pigs)
- Wild boar (Sus scrofa) I
Family
- White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) RI
- Elk, (Cervus canadensis) RI
- Eastern elk (C. c. canadensis) EX
- Rocky Mountain elk (C. c. nelsoni) I
Family Bovidae (cattle, goats and relatives)
- American bison (Bison bison) X, NT[13]
- Plains bison (B. b. bison) X
Introduced species
During colonial times, the black rat, brown rat and house mouse all came to North America, including the future West Virginia, with European settlers and traders.
Wild boar
European wild boar (Sus scrofa scrofa) were introduced into south-eastern West Virginia in 1971 as an additional large game animal for hunting. Populations are located in the counties of Boone, Logan, Raleigh and Wyoming. Since the late 1990s the population of wild boar has been decreasing, primarily due to a combination of habitat loss and competition from the expanding populations of native black bears and whitetail deer.[14]
Recent extirpations
Eastern timber wolf
The
Red wolf
Once native to all of West Virginia, the red wolf (Canis rufus) was extirpated from the state not too long after its relative, the eastern wolf.[17]
North American cougar
The last officially accepted wild cougar kills in both Virginia and West Virginia were in the 1880s and the animal – eastern cougar, or mountain lion, puma or panther (Puma concolor couguar) – was considered totally exterminated in West Virginia by 1900.
In 1936, however, came a last officially confirmed record of cougar tracks in the state; by a
Bison
The American bison (
Many of these paths became the Indian "roads" later used by the pioneering European settlers. Many decades later, the same bison paths would become the routes followed by early turnpikes and government road systems.
Bison in the east were rarely seen by 1800, one was killed near
Recent reintroductions
Virginia (southern) white-tail deer
This subspecies (Odocoileus virginianus virginianus) of
Beaver
North American beaver (Castor canadensis) were almost completely exterminated from the area now known as West Virginia by 1825 due to trapping by early settlers (Swank 1948). The gradual comeback of beaver started in 1933 when 6 beaver were released on Beaver Dam Refuge in Randolph County. In 1935, 40 animals were released with ten placed in Tucker County.[25][26]
Fisher
There were reports of the fisher (Pekania pennanti) – also known as Pennant's marten – being trapped in West Virginia and pelts being sold in the 1870s. They were rare in West Virginia by around 1900, with the last reports coming from the high elevation red spruce forests. By 1912, however, the animals were believed to be rare or completely extirpated. They were reintroduced to the state in the winter of 1969, when 23 fishers were translocated from New Hampshire to two sites within the boundaries of the Monongahela National Forest at Canaan Mountain in Tucker County and Cranberry Glades in Pocahontas County.
River otter
The North American river otter (Lontra canadensis) is a native species in West Virginia but its population declined due to loss of habitat and excessive trapping. The last otter was reported to have been trapped in Tucker County in 1954; then a few were seen on the Greenbrier River in Pocahantas County and elsewhere in the early 1960s.[27] In a restoration effort, a total of 245 river otters were released by the WVDNR into 14 major river systems in West Virginia between 1984 and early 1997[28] Based on otter sightings, sign and trap mortalities, the river otter is known to be successfully reestablished in the state.
Elk
Substantial eastern elk (Cervus canadensis canadensis) populations did not long survive the advance of European settlement into western Virginia in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The last individual in the region around what became Doddridge County was killed by settler Winter Hutson (1814–1895) shortly after he arrived there in 1837.[29] Elk survived longest in the rugged Alleghenies to the east. In about 1843, three were killed in Canaan Valley, Virginia, by members of the Flanagan and Carr families, local settlers who habitually hunted there. These were long thought to be the last elk found wild in the region that later became West Virginia.[22] Sporadic elk sightings were again reported, however, near the headwaters of the Tygart and Greenbrier Rivers as late as 1875. If this is accurate, they were nonetheless certainly gone by 1880 when the subspecies as a whole is considered to have been completely exterminated.
The neighboring state of Kentucky actively reintroduced Rocky Mountain elk (C. c. nelsoni)[30] to their eastern woodlands in 1997, and by 2009 the population had increased to over 10,000 animals. This expanding population began to enter western Virginia and the southwestern counties of West Virginia. In 2011, the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (WVDNR) drafted an Elk Management Plan to encourage the passive reintroduction of elk to the state.[31] As of 2021, the reintroduction process is ongoing.[32]
Ice Age (Pleistocene) mammals of West Virginia
- Fossil site(s) indicated in parentheses.[33]
Megafauna:
- Megalonyx jeffersonii, or Jefferson's ground sloth (first found in 1796 in Haynes Cave, Monroe County)
- Mammuthus spp., mammoths, including the woolly mammoth(M. primigenius); 12 specimens known in state
- Mammut americanum, American mastodon
- Brooke County)
- Rangifer tarandus, caribou
- Platygonus vetus, peccary
- Smilodon spp., saber-toothed cat (Greenbrier and Pendleton Counties)
- Miracinonyx inexpectatus, a cheetah
- Panthera onca augusta, Pleistocene North American jaguar (Pendleton County)
- Aenocyon dirus, dire wolf
- Arctodus pristinus, a giant bear
Small mammals:
- Dasypus bellus, a Pleistocene armadillo (first found in the state in Organ Cave, Greenbrier County; now also known from Berkeley County (1995))
- Desmodus spp., a vampire bat
- Sorex arcticus, Arctic shrew
- Synaptomys borealis, northern bog lemming
- Atopomys salvelinus, Trout Cave vole (Trout Cave, Pendleton County, etc.)
- Plesiothomomys spp., Cumberland Cave pocket gopher (first found in Cumberland Bone Cave)
- Pitymys cumberlandensis, Cumberland Cave vole
- Peromyscus cumberlandensis, Cumberland Cave mouse
See also
- Lists of mammals by region
- West Virginia State Wildlife Center, a small zoo featuring native West Virginia animals
- Fauna of West Virginia
- List of West Virginia wildlife management areas
References
Citations
- ^ "State Symbols". West Virginia Legislature. Retrieved 2 September 2011.. Selected as West Virginia's official State Animal by a poll of students, teachers and sportsmen conducted by the WV Division of Natural Resources in 1954–1955. It was officially adopted by the State Legislature during the 1973 Regular Session with the approval of House Concurrent Resolution 6.
- . Retrieved 7 May 2023.
- . Retrieved 7 May 2023.
- . Retrieved 7 May 2023.
- . Retrieved 7 May 2023.
- ^ Arroyo-Cabrales, J. & Ospina-Garces, S. 2016. Myotis sodalis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T14136A22053184. https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/14136/22053184. Downloaded on 29 October 2018.
- . Retrieved 7 May 2023.
- ^ Linzey, A.V. & NatureServe (Hammerson, G., Whittaker, J.C. & Norris, S.J.) 2008. Neotoma magister. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2008: e.T14581A4446084. https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/14581/4446084. Downloaded on 29 October 2018.
- . Retrieved 7 May 2023.
- . Retrieved 7 May 2023.
- ^ "Ermine or Short-tailed Weasel | American Society of Mammalogists".
- . Retrieved 7 May 2023.
- ^ Aune, K., Jørgensen, D. & Gates, C. 2017. Bison bison (errata version published in 2018). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2017: e.T2815A123789863. https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/2815/123789863. Downloaded on 29 October 2018.
- ^ "Big Game Bulletin – 2010" (PDF). West Virginia Department of Natural Resources. p. 21. Retrieved 1 August 2011.
- ^ "Efforts to restore wolves to the northeastern United States have been confounded by a new taxonomic proposal: that the wolf historically inhabiting this region was not, as previously thought, a subspecies of gray wolf commonly called the eastern timber wolf (Canis lupus lycaon), but rather a separate species closely related to the red wolf (Canis rufus) of the southeast United States. This hypothesis raises numerous biological, legal, policy, and management questions about potential wolf restoration." From: Fascione Nina, Lisa G.L. Osborn, Stephen R. Kendrot, and Paul C. Paquet (July/August 2001), "Canis soupus: eastern wolf genetics and its implications for wolf recovery in the Northeast United States" on BNET.
- ^ Brooks, Fred E. (1911), "The Mammals of West Virginia", West Virginia State Board of Agriculture Quarterly Report; 20; 9–30.
- ^ "NatureServe Explorer 2.0". explorer.natureserve.org. Retrieved 4 November 2022.
- Globe Pequot, pg 93.
- ^ Kellog, Remington (1937), Annotated list of West Virginia Mammals, Proceedings of the United States National Museum, 84:443–479.
- WVDNRDistrict Biologist Ray Knotts, two mountain lions were sighted. One was killed and one was captured. It was determined that the two large cats were "quite friendly" and had been raised in captivity.
- ^ USF&WS (2 March 2011), "U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Concludes Eastern Cougar Extinct" [Press release].
- ^ a b Maxwell, Hu (1898). The History of Randolph County, West Virginia, From its Earliest Settlement to the Present, The Acme Publishing Company, Morgantown, W.Va. (Reprinted, McClain Printing Company, Parsons, W.Va., 1961). p. 300.
- ^ Trefethen, James B., "The Return of the White-tailed Deer" Archived 18 October 2010 at the Wayback Machine; American Heritage, February 1970; Volume 21, Issue 2.
- ^ Lesser, Walter A. and Jack I. Cromer, Unpublished MS: Historical Review of Wildlife Management in Canaan Valley and Surrounding Area Archived 11 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine, West Virginia Division of Natural Resources.
- ^ Lesser and Cromer, Op. cit.
- ^ Swank, W. A. 1948. Beaver Ecology and Management in West Virginia. Final Report P-R Project W-16-R. Conservation Commission of West Virginia, Charleston, West Virginia. 70 pp.
- ^ Clarkson, Roy B. (1964), Tumult on the Mountains: Lumbering in West Virginia 1770–1920; Line drawings by William A. Lunk; Parsons, West Virginia; McClain Printing Company, pg 12.
- ^ Allen, T. J. 1997. River Otter Translocation and Status. Final Report, P-R Project W-48-R-13. West Virginia Division of Natural Resources. Charleston, West Virginia. 10pp.
- ^ Compton, Mildreth Hutson, "Trails of Our Hutson Heritage", In: Hutson, Rex (1996), John Hutson and Some Descendants, Delaware, Ohio: Mid-Ohio Printing, pg 22.
- ^ "Elk Restoration and Management Options for Southwest Virginia" (PDF). Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. 2010. p. 45. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 January 2011. Retrieved 1 August 2011.
- ^ "Draft: West Virginia Elk Management Plan, 2011–2015" (PDF). West Virginia Department of Natural Resources. Retrieved 31 July 2011.
- ^ "West Virginia's Elk Reintroduction is Well Underway". Outdoor Life. 25 March 2021. Retrieved 2 July 2021.
- ^ Garton, E. Ray (2012), "Fauna of the Ice Age", Wonderful West Virginia, pp 11–13 (January issue).
Other sources
- Mammals of West Virginia: A Field Checklist (2001); West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, Wildlife Resources Section; Accessed 18 September 2010.