Fauna of West Virginia
Bobcats, snowshoe hares, wild boars and black bears are not strictly found in deepest forests and parks of West Virginia.
But, the mink, beaver and at one time the eastern cougar (Puma concolor couguar) are very rarely seen near farms, even the farthest from towns.
It provides a chance for the public to see mink, beavers, snowshoe hare, black bear with its unique flora and other fauna.
[2] West Virginia's western valley contrasts the mountains with another natural treasure, the Ohio River Islands National Wildlife Refuge.
These islands serves as a habitat for great blue heron, wood ducks, cormorants, Canada geese, migrating loons, and tundra swans.
Naturalist John James Audubon reported that by 1851 a few eastern elk (Cervus canadensis canadiensis) could still be found in the Alleghany Mountains of what became West Virginia, but that by then they were virtually gone from the remainder of their range.
Occasionally, osprey and golden eagle can be found watching over or snatching a fish on remote lakes and larger streams.
While the moccasin can be seen crossing over brooks and along larger rivers, the timber rattlesnake is found among rocks and fallen tree in the highland forests and mountainous areas.
The Mountain State's water habitat holds 24 families of fish, including mudminnows, trout, trout-perches, killifish, livebearers, silversides, sticklebacks, sculpins, Temperate basses, sunfish, perches, drums, lampreys, sturgeons, paddlefish, gars, bowfins, mooneyes, freshwater eels, herrings, minnows, carp, suckers, freshwater catfish, and pikes.
During the early half of the 20th century, the West Virginia Department of Resources accidentally hatched a somewhat golden rainbow trout.
This excitement in the state hatchery fueled the effort to produce the West Virginia "golden rainbow trout."
A partial list of non-game fish follows: eastern blacknose dace, bluntnose minnow, bigmouth buffalo, black redhorse, bowfin, brook silverside, brook stickleback, buffalo, carp, creek chub, central stoneroller, channel darter, emerald shiner, fathead minnow, gizzard shad, golden redhorse, golden shiner, grass carp, grass pickerel, greenside darter, johnny darter, leastbrook lamprey, logperch darter, longnose gar, mosquitofish, northern hogsucker, paddlefish, quillback, pugnose minnow, rainbow darter, shovelnose sturgeon (Ohio River), silver lamprey, silver jaw minnow, southern redbelly dace, stonecat, striped shiner, sturgeon, trout-perch, western banded killfish and white sucker.
Sweat bee and mosquito are no stranger to the shaded wet-land which delights the sunfish and catfish in nearby deeper pools.
[3] Gastropoda, slugs, leech, earthworms and grub worm otherwise larvae are among the common invertebrates in West Virginia.
Of these to example, the Madison Cave isopod (Antrolana lira) has a conservation threatened ranking priority one and lives on the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers area.
