Animals in Louisiana That Looks Like the Letter S

Animals in Louisiana That Looks Like the Letter S

Country environmental

The fauna of Louisiana is characterized past the region's depression swamplands, bayous, creeks, woodlands, coastal marshlands and beaches, and bulwark islands covering an estimated 20,000 foursquare miles (52,000 square kilometers), corresponding to 40 pct of Louisiana's total country area. Southern Louisiana contains up to l percentage of the wetlands found in the Continental United States, and are fabricated upwards of countless bayous and creeks.

The Creole Country has a humid subtropical climate, perchance the all-time instance of a humid subtropical climate of all the Southern United states with long, humid and hot summers and short, mild winters. The subtropical characteristics of the state are due in large part to the influence of the Gulf of Mexico, which at its uttermost point is no more than than 200 miles (320 kilometers) away. Louisiana's varied habitats — tidal marshes, bayous, swamps, woodlands, islands, forests, and prairies — offer a multifariousness of wildlife.

Some of the most common animals establish throughout all of the parishes include otter, deer, mink, muskrat, raccoons, opossums, rabbits, squirrels, nutria, turtles, alligators, woodcocks, skunks, foxes, beavers, ringtails, armadillos, coyotes and bobcats. Deer, squirrel, rabbit, and bear are hunted as game, while muskrat, snakes, nutria, mink, opossum, bobcat, and skunk are commercially significant for fur. Prized game birds include quail, turkey, woodcock, and various waterfowl, of which the mottled duck and wood duck are native. At that place are several owned plants and animals in Louisiana that are found nowhere else on Earth; an case could be the Louisiana bluestar or the white leucistic alligator. ^[2] The Pearl River map turtle and the ringed map turtle are only found in Louisiana and neighboring State of Mississippi.

Louisiana contains a number of areas which are, in varying degrees, protected from man intervention. In addition to National Park Service sites and areas and the Kisatchie National Woods, Louisiana operates a organisation of land parks, state celebrated sites, ane state preservation area, i state forest, and many Wild fauna Management Areas. The Nature Conservancy also owns and manages a fix of natural areas.

State ecology [ edit ]

Much of the land's lands were formed from sediment washed down the Mississippi River, leaving enormous deltas and vast areas of coastal marsh and swamp. The northern parts of Louisiana mostly consist of woodlands which are domicile to deer, squirrels, rabbits, bears, muskrats, mink, opossums, bobcats, and skunks. Louisiana's forests offering a mix of oak, pine, beech, black walnut, and cypress copse. In the Piney Woods in the Ark-La-Tex-region, mammals such as the N American cougar, gray fox, feral hogs (razorback), and snakes such every bit the western cottonmouth, the western worm snake, the Louisiana pine snake, every bit well equally other animals are common. ^[4]

Louisiana's largest woods, the Kisatchie National Forest in the forested hills of Cardinal Louisiana, has 155 species of breeding birds, 48 mammal species, 56 reptile species and 30 amphibian species. It is some 600,000 acres (240,000 hectares) in area, more than than half of which is vital flatwoods vegetation, which supports many rare institute and animate being species. These include for instance the Louisiana pino snake, the red-cockaded woodpecker, the Louisiana black bear and the Louisiana pearlshell. ^[five]

Alligators are common in Louisiana's extensive swamps, bogs, creeks, lakes, rivers, wetlands, and bayous. Other water-loving reptiles such as the alligator snapping turtle alive in the Louisiana swamps. The alligator snapping turtle is characterized by a very big caput and 3 rows of spiked scutes. These wetlands of Louisiana make ideal homes for several species of turtles, crawfish and catfish - all of which are popular Acadian foods.

Jambalaya, a Louisiana Creole dish that originated among the Cajuns in Acadiana, is made entirely by all sorts of meat found in the swampland of southern Louisiana: crawfish, herons, shellfish, catfish, toads, frogs, shrimp, oysters, alligator, duck, turtle, boar, venison, and myriad other species. Among invasive species that thrive in the wetlands of Louisiana is the nutria, a South American rodent that was likely introduced when individual animals escaped from fur farms.

Mammals [ edit ]

The Louisiana black bear was designated the Official Land Animal in 1992. ^[6]

Forty species of mammals reside in Louisiana, ^[7] excluding marine mammals. 70 mammal species take been recorded in Louisiana or its immediate side by side waters. ^[8] Louisiana has, for case, ii species of squirrels: gray squirrels and fox squirrels, according to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. ^[9]

Louisiana has ii species of rabbits: eastern cottontails and swamp rabbits. Although the cottontail is considered more of an upland species and the swamp rabbit a wetland species, both species occur throughout the state. Rabbits have high productive rates in Louisiana when habitat and weather atmospheric condition are good.

Louisiana black bear [ edit ]

The Louisiana blackness acquit (Ursus americanus luteolus) is one of sixteen currently recognized subspecies of American black bear. ^[10]

The Louisiana blackness acquit once ranged throughout the State of Louisiana and parts of adjacent neighboring Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas. The black acquit was mutual at the time of early colonization, serving equally food for Native Americans for generations.

An 1890 record shows 17 parishes containing bears, all of them by the Mississippi-border and the Atchafalaya region. It was reported that the most extensive areas of bottomland hardwoods in the state accept "at least a few bears", with the greatest number found in the denser woodlands forth the Tensas, Carmine, Blackness, and Atchafalaya Rivers. In the late 1950s, bears occupied habitat in the Tensas-Madison area in northeast Louisiana and in the lower fringes of the Atchafalaya Basin.

Today, blackness bears tin exist found in all of Louisiana, but according to the Louisiana Section of Wildlife and Fisheries, well-nigh black bears are observed in a confined region fabricated up of the following parishes: West- and East Carroll, Richland, Franklin, Madison, Tensas, Catahoula, Concordia, Avoyelles, Pointe Coupee, St. Landry, Vermilion, Iberia, as well equally both St. Martin and St. Mary. ^[11]

Black behave could be legally hunted in parts of Louisiana through the tardily 1980s. One of the last organized conduct hunts in Louisiana occurred December 15, 1955. During this hunt, five bears were harvested in the Lake Providence surface area. It was recommended to the Wildlife Commission that the deport season be airtight. Deport hunting was closed the following season and remained closed until 1961. The season was opened again from 1962 to 1965 with hunting permitted only in northeast Louisiana and in the littoral parishes. The hunting season was again closed from 1966 to 1974. It was reopened in 1975–1987 with hunting restricted to the Atchafalaya Bowl. ^[12]

The Louisiana bear hunting season has remained closed since 1988. From 1964 through 1967, 161 blackness bears were live-trapped in Cook County, Minnesota and released in the Mississippi and Atchafalaya River bottoms of Louisiana in an effort to restock black carry to the state. By 1968 in that location was bear witness that the translocated bears were reproducing. Still, most of the relocated bears were killed on roads, equally nuisance animals, or during recapture. ^[12]

Equally of 2016, Louisiana blackness bears are no longer endangered. ^[13]

Reptiles [ edit ]

Wild leucistic alligators are only constitute in Louisiana. ^[fourteen]

The American alligator is the official state reptile of Louisiana. Mayhap the most iconic of Louisiana wetlands' animals, the American alligator has bounced back from almost extinction to existence relatively commonplace. An affluence of snake species make their home in Louisiana, including the eastern diamondback rattlesnake, Texas coral snake, eastern yellowbelly racer, mud snake, western pigmy rattlesnake, northern carmine snake, rainbow snake, buttermilk racer, tan racer, northern cottonmouth, red cornsnake, pit vipers and kingsnake. ^[fifteen]

America'southward largest freshwater turtle, the alligator snapping turtle, shares the habitat with its cousin, the common snapping turtle. The light-green American chameleon also lives in the wetlands, forth with the cadger-like tiger salamander, which is an amphibian. Other examples of reptiles in Louisiana are the gopher tortoise, razor-backed musk turtle, broad-headed skink, coal skink and the slender glass lizard.

Co-ordinate to the Louisiana Alligator Quango, there are over one 1000000 alligators in the state in 2014 and the number is continuously increasing. ^[sixteen] Alligators similar swamps, rivers, lakes or wherever they tin have an adequate habitat. Louisiana has several varieties of venomous snakes. The eastern coral snake, Texas coral serpent, copperhead, cottonmouth, western pygmy rattlesnake, and the eastern diamondback rattlesnake and canebrake rattlesnake tin all be plant in Louisiana.

The largest reported American alligator was a male killed in 1890 on Marsh Island in Louisiana, and reportedly measured at 19 feet (5.8 meters). ^[17]

Birds [ edit ]

Approximately 160 species of birds are year-round residents or probable confirmed breeders in Louisiana and another 244 are known to regularly migrate through or winter in the state or its immediate next waters. ^[8] In that location are 69 species on the CWCS species of conservation concern list of which 42 species are considered critically threatened, imperiled or rare, co-ordinate to the Louisiana Natural Heritage Program. Shorebirds and songbirds constitute the majority of species. In 1902, the eastern dark-brown pelican was made a part of the Seal of Louisiana and, ten years later, in 1912, the pelican and her young adorned the flag of Louisiana as well. The official nickname of Louisiana is the Pelican Land.

In 1958, the pelican was made the official state bird of Louisiana. This human action was amended on July 26, 1966, to specifically designate the dark-brown pelican, the National Basketball game Association's New Orleans Pelicans are named in accolade of Louisiana's country bird. The eastern chocolate-brown pelican is also the national bird of Barbados and the Turks and Caicos Islands, it is too ane of the mascots of Tulane University and is on the seals of Tulane University, Louisiana State University and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

Shore birds are abundant in Louisiana and the most common is the great white egret. This large, all-white heron has an impressive wingspan and stature. The egret occurs oft in the wetlands of Louisiana and coastal areas that provides information technology with enough of fish, amphibians and small-scale mammals to banquet on. This bird is also the official symbol of the National Audubon Order.

The American bald eagle nests in southeastern coastal parishes and, occasionally on big lakes in northern and cardinal parishes, but these nests are less successful. Some of America's tallest birds, such as the bully blue heron and great egret, cannot resist the angling opportunities that exist in the Louisiana swampland. Raptors such as the osprey, American black vulture and barred owl alive in the marshes of southern Louisiana. Migratory waterfowl and songbirds often make stopovers or actually spend the winter in these wetlands.

Amphibians [ edit ]

The American light-green tree frog was designated the official country amphibian of Louisiana in 1993. ^[18] Examples of other amphibians in Louisiana are salamanders such every bit the eastern tiger salamander, southern reddish-backed salamander, Gulf Coast waterdog, dwarf salamander and the iii-toed amphiuma. There are also toads such as Hurter's spadefoot toad and southern toad, as well as frogs such as squealer frog, striped chorus frog and the bronze frog. American bullfrogs are the largest frogs native to Louisiana.

Fish [ edit ]

The white perch, sometimes chosen sac au lait from Cajun French, was designated the official land fish of Louisiana in 1993. ^[nineteen] Littoral beaches are inhabited by body of water turtles. Freshwater fish include bass, crappie, and bream. Cherry-red and white crawfishes are the leading commercial crustaceans.

Many sharks have been observed in Louisiana waters; including, but not limited to lemon sharks, tiger sharks, balderdash sharks and blacktip sharks. The sharks, for instance the bull shark, have often been observed throughout the Atchafalaya Basin, 900 miles upward the Mississippi River, and in inland bayous and wetlands. ^[20] The alligator gar and the frecklebelly madtom, which is native to Pearl River in Southeastern Louisiana, are ii boosted species of fish in Louisiana.

The bowfin, known by many other names such as the mudfish, dogfish, grinnel, grindel, jack, jackfish, cypress trout, cotton fish, and in Southward Louisiana; choupique (pronounced shoe-pick or shoe-peg), ^{[21] [22]} or chew-pic, ^[23] is found in many areas of Louisiana.

Endangered species [ edit ]

The gray fox lives throughout Louisiana, but is still threatened. ^[24] They are most common in forested northern areas.

Threatened animal species include v species of sea turtles: green, hawksbill, Kemp'southward ridley, leatherback, and loggerhead. Xx-three Louisiana animal species were on the U.Due south. Fish and Wildlife Service's threatened and endangered species list for 2003. Among those listed are the Louisiana blackness bear, American baldheaded eagle, inflated heelsplitter, and blood-red-cockaded woodpecker. The Louisiana WAP identifies 240 species of concern. The mountain lion population in Louisiana is small just growing in recent times. There is a relatively pocket-sized and threatened population of Louisiana blackness bears.

The celebrated range of the Florida panther extended from Florida to Louisiana throughout the Gulf Declension states and Arkansas. Today, the merely place with wild Florida panthers is the southwestern tip of Florida. The Florida panther is considered of historical occurrence in Louisiana. The celebrated range included as far west every bit Western Louisiana and the Eastward Lower Mississippi River Valley through the southeastern states. Even though numerous sighting reports go along to surface annually throughout its historic range, it is unlikely that viable populations of the Florida panther shortly occur outside of the State of Florida. The Louisiana black acquit has been taken off the endangered species list. Mississippi diamondback terrapin is recognized as a "species of concern" in Louisiana, simply is constitute on the Mississippi border.

Invasive species [ edit ]

The nutria, also known as coypu ^[25] or river rat, ^[26] is an invasive species. Its destructive feeding and burrowing behaviors make this invasive rodent a pest throughout Louisiana.

Nutria [ edit ]

Tabasco tycoon and naturalist Edward McIlhenny brought thirteen adult nutria from Argentine republic to his home in New Iberia, during the 1930s, for the fur farming manufacture. ^[27] Two years later, one hundred and fifty got out of the pen, supposedly escaping during a storm. The nutria reproduced at a high rate, increasing past the thousands every year. Past the 1960s the number ranged to as loftier equally twenty million, and increasing. By the time the regime instituted a control plan, the nutria was destroying Louisiana marshes and wetlands, causing widespread erosion. In the 21st century, the nutria is 1 of the most common and despised pests in the Bayou State. ^[28]

The story of the nutria is non unique. Many species of birds, mammals, fish, and plants have been introduced into the Louisiana environment in the past two centuries. Exotic species, or species that have been introduced to areas outside their native range, take heavy tolls on the ecosystems they colonize. Some invaders, such as the leafy vine kudzu (Pueria lobelia), destroy the habitat for resident wildlife. Other species fiercely compete with native plants and animals for resources.

Past some estimates, exotic species pose the 2d nearly serious threat to endangered species afterwards habitat loss. Nutria were introduced into coastal marshes from Latin America in the mid-1900s, and their population has since exploded into the millions. They cause serious harm to littoral marshes and may dig burrows in levees. Hence, Louisiana has had a compensation to endeavour to reduce nutria numbers.

Large alligators feed heavily on nutria, then alligators may not only control nutria populations in Louisiana, just besides preclude them spreading east into Florida and perhaps the Everglades. Since hunting and trapping preferentially take the big alligators that are the almost important in eating nutria, some changes in harvesting may be needed to capitalize on their power to control nutria.

Monk parakeet [ edit ]

An agricultural pest in its native South American range, the monk parakeet was first brought to the U.Southward. equally a cage bird. They were so popular that over 60,000 were imported betwixt 1969 and 1972. By the 1980s it had already been released in many parts of the country and had established small breeding colonies. Twenty years later, monk parakeet numbers accept increased exponentially only their distribution remains spotty.

Monk parakeets tend to be restricted to urban areas where they feed and nest in ornamental palm copse, occupying a niche that no ethnic bird holds. So far, their distribution in Louisiana has been express almost exclusively to the Urban center of New Orleans, where they have had no adverse effects on local wildlife. If their numbers increment, withal, monk parakeets could pose a serious threat to agricultural areas, possibly becoming as much of a pest here as they already are in their native range.

Cherry-red burn down ant [ edit ]

Native to Due south America, the red burn down ant has flourished in many southern U.S. states since its introduction in the 1930s. Superficially similar to most other ants, the burn down ant is a cruel predator, attacking birds, rodents, and larger mammals in swarms.

One study of white-tailed deer found that expiry rates for young deer were twice as high in areas with fire ants as in uninfested areas. In Louisiana, the spread of burn down ants has been linked to the decline of the loggerhead shrike and some species of warblers. The ruby burn down ant has replaced about half the native insect species in some areas information technology has colonized.

See also [ edit ]

• Fauna of the United States

References [ edit ]

1. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-03-05. Retrieved 2014-03-01 . {{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as championship (link)
2. ^ "Audubon Nature Institute - Jubilant the Wonders of Nature - New Orleans". audubonnatureinstitute.org . Retrieved 2022-08-21 .
3. ^ "Coastal Louisiana Basins". lacoast.gov . Retrieved 2022-08-21 .
4. ^ Feral hogs ^{[ dead link ]}
5. ^ United States Department of Agriculture. 1999. Final Environmental Impact Statement. Revised State and Resources Management Plan. Kisatchie National Woods. Forest Service, Southern Region, Pineville, LA.
6. ^ "Louisiana Blackness Bear | State Symbols USA". statesymbolsusa.org . Retrieved 2022-08-21 .
7. ^ Richey, Emma Cecilia; Kean, Evelina Prescott (1915). The New Orleans Volume . L. Graham Company, Limited, Printers. p.95. louisiana has species of mammals.
8. ^ ^{a b} Taxonomic groups ^{[ expressionless link ]}
9. ^ "Quail, Rabbit, and Squirrel -Hunting, Enquiry, and Direction | Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries". www.wlf.louisiana.gov . Retrieved 2022-08-21 .
10. ^ "Louisiana Black Bear" (PDF). tpwd.texas.gov . Retrieved 21 August 2022. {{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
11. ^ Bear snare ^{[ dead link ]}
12. ^ ^{a b} Behave conservation Get-go ^{[ dead link ]}
13. ^ Wold, Amy. "Report: Iconic Louisiana black bear 'Teddy bear' to exist removed from Endangered Species list". The Advocate . Retrieved 2022-08-21 . {{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
14. ^ "White alligator is one of rarest in globe - Telegraph". 2009-02-18. Archived from the original on 2009-02-18. Retrieved 2022-08-21 .
15. ^ Evans, Beau (June 12, 2017). "Snakes of Louisiana: 46 of the state's slithery species". The Times-Piffling. New Orleans, LA. NOLA.com. Archived from the original on 13 June 2017.
16. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-07-20. Retrieved 2014-03-01 . {{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
17. ^ Forest, Gerald (1983). The Guinness Book of Animal Facts and Feats. ISBN978-0-85112-235-nine
18. ^ "Louisiana Land Amphibian | Green Tree Frog". statesymbolsusa.org . Retrieved 2022-08-21 .
19. ^ "White Perch State Freshwater Fish | State Symbols USA". statesymbolsusa.org . Retrieved 2022-08-21 .
20. ^ "Bull sharks take to Louisiana swamp". www.wafb.com . Retrieved 2022-08-21 . {{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
21. ^ choupique= shoe pick or shoe-peg: How We Talk: American Regional English Today (by Allan A. Metcalf: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2000), pp 34- Retrieved 2017-08-08
22. ^ Louisiana Sportsman: choupique= shoe-pick Archived 2017-08-09 at the Wayback Machine (Feb 2, 2009)- Retrieved 2017-08-08
23. ^ Google pronunciation of choupique= chew-movie- Retrieved 2017-08-08
24. ^ "Urocyon cinereoargenteus". world wide web.fs.fed.u.s.a. . Retrieved 2022-08-21 .
25. ^ http://oldredlist.iucnredlist.org/details/14085/0 ^{[ permanent dead link ] [ dead link ]}
26. ^ Martin, Horace Tassie (1892). Castorologia: Or the History and Traditions of the Canadian Beaver . W. Drysdale.
27. ^ Nutria nutria.com Retrieved 2017-03-29
28. ^ Tulane: The Louisiana Environs: Nutria, Exotic Species in Louisiana - Retrieved 2017-03-29

Animals in Louisiana That Looks Like the Letter S

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fauna_of_Louisiana