Species Ecology

Knowledge about life history, taxonomy, ecology, and basic biology of terrestrial and aquatic animals is critical to management of their habitat. A great deal of information can be found in books, but this knowledge is increasingly available on public web sites.

To aid land managers and land owners in the South who want to manage wildlife species, the Southern Region, Forest Service, in cooperation with The Nature Conservancy has produced a set of guides:

• The Land Managers Guide to the Birds of the South(Hamel 1991).
• The Land Managers Guide to the Amphibians and Reptiles of the South (Wilson 1995).
• The Land Managers Guide to the Mammals of the South (in press).

These guides contain information about biology and distribution of individual species. Portions of these guides that relate to species found in the southern Appalachians are excerpted here:

• Birds
• Amphibians and reptiles

The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (VDGIF), at its Virginia Fish and Wildlife Information Service (VAFWIS) web site, provides detailed descriptions of animal species found in the state, including information on:

• Taxonomy
• Status
• Life History
• County Distribution Map
• County Distribution
• Other Distribution
• County Abundance
• Management Practices
• Food Habits
• Habitat Associations
• Environmental Association by Lifestage
• References

You can search for an individual species to view species booklets with this information.

This site also offers several geographic search options that identify wildlife and fish species that may be found in an area:

• Select a point on a map
• Latitude and longitude or UTM coordinates
• Place name
• County or city
• 7.5 topgraphic quad sheet
• Hydrologic unit

From these lists, you can link to the species booklets.

A subset of all the species of Virginia are known or likely to occur in the counties of the southern Appalachians. These species are taxonomically grouped in lists:

• Fish
• Amphibians
• Reptiles
• Birds
• Mammals
• Aquatic Molluscs
• Other Aquatic Invertebrates
• Terrestrial Invertebrates