Summer 2005

Animals Adapted to a Disappearing Habitat

Species abundance and richness in the longleaf pine ecosystem is not limited to plants. Across a range--and diversity of habitats--that stretches from Virginia to Texas, longleaf pine forests host a wide range of animal species, many uniquely adapted to the fire forest.

The ecosystem includes 90 to 100 species of birds; around 40 of these are found in the forest year round, with the rest migrating into longleaf range to breed or overwinter.

Around 36 mammals can be found in the longleaf pine ecosystem: over a third of these are rodents.

The highest density of amphibians and reptiles in North America has been mapped over longleaf forests; almost 60 percent of the 290 reptile and amphibian species native to the Southeast can be found within the tree's present range. Snakes and lizards make up the largest portion, with around 35 species.

Herpetofauna--snakes, lizards, and amphibians--are of the greatest conservation concern: 18 percent of the amphibians and 47 percent of the snakes in the States that include longleaf forests are threatened to some extent.

Like the red-cockaded woodpecker featured here, the future existence of many of these species is endangered by the continued fragmentation of this important habitat.

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