Fauna of Louisiana

Southern Louisiana contains up to fifty percent of the wetlands found in the Continental United States, made up of countless bayous and creeks.

The subtropical characteristics of the state are due in large part to the influence of the Gulf of Mexico, which at its farthest point is no more than 200 miles (320 kilometers) away.

Louisiana's varied habitats — tidal marshes, bayous, swamps, woodlands, islands, forests, and prairies — offer a diversity of wildlife.

Some of the most common animals found 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.

Much of the state'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 home to deer, squirrels, rabbits, bears, muskrats, mink, opossums, bobcats, and skunks.

Louisiana's forests offer a mix of oak, pine, beech, black walnut, and cypress trees.

It is some 600,000 acres (240,000 hectares) in area, more than half of which is vital flatwoods vegetation, which supports many rare plant and animal species.

[5] Alligators are common in Louisiana's extensive swamps, bogs, creeks, lakes, rivers, wetlands, and bayous.

These wetlands of Louisiana make ideal homes for several species of turtles, crawfish and catfish – all of which are popular Acadian foods.

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.

The black bear was common at the time of early colonization, serving as food for Native Americans for generations.

It was reported that the most extensive areas of bottomland hardwoods in the state have "at least a few bears", with the greatest number found in the denser woodlands along the Tensas, Red, Black, 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, black bears can be found in all of Louisiana, but according to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, most black bears are observed in a confined region made up of the following parishes: West- and East Carroll, Richland, Franklin, Madison, Tensas, Catahoula, Concordia, Avoyelles, Pointe Coupee, St. Landry, Vermilion, Iberia, as well as both St. Martin and St.

[17] 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 adjacent waters.

The egret occurs often in the wetlands of Louisiana and coastal areas that provides it with plenty of fish, amphibians and small mammals to feast on.

Raptors such as the osprey, American black vulture and barred owl live in the marshes of southern Louisiana.

The white perch, sometimes called sac au lait from Cajun French, was designated the official state fish of Louisiana in 1993.

Among those listed are the Louisiana black bear, American bald eagle, inflated heelsplitter, and red-cockaded woodpecker.

The historic range included as far west as Western Louisiana and the East Lower Mississippi River Valley through the southeastern states.

Tabasco tycoon and naturalist Edward McIlhenny brought thirteen adult nutria from Argentina to his home in New Iberia, during the 1930s, for the fur farming industry.

By the time the government instituted a control program, the nutria was destroying Louisiana marshes and wetlands, causing widespread erosion.

Monk parakeets tend to be restricted to urban areas where they feed and nest in ornamental palm trees, occupying a niche that no indigenous bird holds.

If their numbers increase, however, 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.

The alligator snapping turtle lives throughout all of the state; Louisiana and neighboring states Arkansas and Mississippi are the only U.S. states where alligator turtles are found throughout the entire state. [ 1 ]
An aerial view of the Atchafalaya Swamp , the largest swamp in the U.S. [ 3 ]
The Louisiana black bear was designated the Official State Animal in 1992. [ 6 ]
The Louisiana black bear ( Ursus americanus luteolus ) is one of sixteen currently recognized subspecies of American black bear . [ 10 ]
Wild leucistic alligators are only found in Louisiana. [ 14 ]
The brown pelican is the official state bird of Louisiana.
The American green tree frog is the official state amphibian and lives in every parish in the state.
The gray fox lives throughout Louisiana, but is still threatened. [ 23 ] They are most common in forested northern areas.
The nutria , also known as coypu [ 24 ] or river rat, [ 25 ] is an invasive species. Its destructive feeding and burrowing behaviors make this invasive rodent a pest throughout Louisiana.
Native to South America, Quaker parrots are considered an invasive species and are known to damage fruit crops. These parrots have nested in the New Orleans metropolitan area since the 1960s.