The Animals Of Georgia

Section 01

Why Georgia Spans Mountains And The Sea

Georgia is the largest state east of the Mississippi, and it reaches from 4,784 feet at Brasstown Bald down to sea level on the Atlantic. Very few states cover that much ecological ground. The result is that a black bear in the north Georgia mountains and an alligator in the Okefenokee are residents of the same state, roughly 300 miles apart.

The state divides into five recognisable belts. The Blue Ridge in the far north is the southern end of the Appalachian Mountains, with cove hardwood forest and cold streams. Below it the Ridge and Valley and the Cumberland Plateau occupy the northwest corner. The Piedmont, worn granite hills, covers the middle of the state and contains Atlanta. Then the Fall Line marks the ancient shoreline, and south of it the Coastal Plain runs flat to the ocean, holding longleaf pine, blackwater rivers, and the Okefenokee Swamp. At the edge sit the barrier islands and salt marsh.

Georgia's salt marsh deserves particular note. The state has roughly a third of all the salt marsh on the Atlantic coast, protected behind a chain of barrier islands and driven by an unusually large tidal range for the region. That marsh is the nursery for shrimp, crab, and most commercially important fish in the South Atlantic.

The other defining Georgia habitat is longleaf pine savanna, which once covered most of the Coastal Plain and now survives in fragments. When burned every two or three years it becomes one of the most species-rich habitats in North America at ground level, holding gopher tortoises, indigo snakes, red-cockaded woodpeckers, and hundreds of plant species per acre. Georgia holds some of the best remaining stands, and fire is the tool that keeps them alive.

Section 02

Georgia's Official State Animals

The gopher tortoise choice is equally deliberate. Its burrows, sometimes 40 feet long, shelter more than 350 other species, making it a keystone animal for the whole longleaf pine system. Protecting tortoise habitat protects hundreds of species at once, and Georgia has run a substantial land acquisition programme aimed at avoiding a federal listing.

Section 03

Habitats By Region, And Who Lives In Each

1. Blue Ridge mountains, far north

Cove hardwood forest, hemlock ravines, and cold trout streams in the Chattahoochee National Forest. This is the richest salamander country in the state and among the richest on Earth. Species include black bear, which reach their highest Georgia density here, plus bobcat, timber rattlesnake, brook trout (the state's only native trout), and forest birds needing large unbroken blocks such as cerulean warbler, wood thrush, and scarlet tanager.

2. Ridge and Valley and Cumberland Plateau, northwest

Limestone valleys, sandstone ridges, and extensive cave systems. The caves hold gray bats, endangered cave invertebrates, and blind cavefish. Surface streams in the Coosa system contain a remarkable darter and mussel fauna, much of it shared with Alabama and much of it imperiled.

3. Piedmont, central Georgia

Rolling clay hills with mixed pine and hardwood, heavily farmed in the cotton era and now largely reforested or developed. Granite outcrops such as Stone Mountain and Arabia Mountain form small islands of specialised habitat with their own invertebrates and amphibians breeding in shallow rock pools. Common animals: white-tailed deer, coyote, gray fox, raccoon, wild turkey, and bald eagle on the reservoirs.

4. Coastal Plain and longleaf pine, south Georgia

The largest region: sandhills, longleaf pine savanna, pitcher plant bogs, blackwater rivers, and bottomland hardwood. Signature animals are gopher tortoise, eastern indigo snake, red-cockaded woodpecker, Bachman's sparrow, southern hognose snake, gopher frog, and flatwoods salamander. The Okefenokee, a 700-square-mile peat bog, holds American alligators, sandhill cranes, and Florida black bears at the swamp's edges.

5. Barrier islands and salt marsh, the coast

About a third of the Atlantic coast's salt marsh, behind islands including Cumberland, Sapelo, St. Simons, and Jekyll. Loggerhead sea turtles nest on the beaches in nationally significant numbers, right whales calve offshore in winter, and the marsh supports clapper rail, seaside and saltmarsh sparrows, wood stork, painted bunting, and diamondback terrapin. Feral horses roam Cumberland Island.

Section 04

Mammals Of Georgia

Georgia has roughly 90 mammal species including marine ones. The large-mammal picture is dominated by recovery and by absence.

• White-tailed deer: over a million statewide, restored from perhaps a few thousand in the 1920s.
• Black bear: roughly 4,000 in three separate populations, in the north Georgia mountains, the central Ocmulgee River corridor, and the Okefenokee area. The three groups are largely genetically isolated from one another, which is the main long-term concern.
• Bobcat, coyote, gray and red fox, river otter, mink, long-tailed weasel, striped and spotted skunk, raccoon, opossum, beaver, armadillo: all widespread. Armadillos arrived from the west in the 20th century and continue to spread north.
• Bats: 16 species, with gray bats and tricolored bats hit hard by white-nose syndrome. Related: where bats live.
• Marine mammals: North Atlantic right whale calving in winter, bottlenose dolphin year-round in sounds and estuaries, plus manatees moving up from Florida into Georgia's rivers in summer.

Absent: red wolf, eastern cougar, elk, and bison, all extirpated. Georgia's last verified cougar records are from the 19th century, though a Florida panther was killed in southwest Georgia in 2008, showing that dispersal still happens.

Section 05

Birds Of Georgia

More than 430 species have been recorded. Georgia's coast is a major Atlantic Flyway stopover, and its interior spans mountain and southern pine bird communities.

• Residents: brown thrasher (the state bird), northern bobwhite, northern cardinal, Carolina wren, tufted titmouse, pileated and red-bellied woodpeckers, barred owl, wild turkey.
• Longleaf pine specialists: red-cockaded woodpecker, which excavates cavities in living pines and needs open, frequently burned forest; Bachman's sparrow; brown-headed nuthatch. All three decline wherever fire is excluded.
• Coastal and wading: wood stork, which nests in Georgia and was downlisted from endangered to threatened, plus painted bunting on the barrier islands, American oystercatcher, black skimmer, Wilson's plover, and enormous shorebird numbers at Altamaha and Gray's Reef.
• Mountain species: cerulean warbler, black-throated blue warbler, ruffed grouse at the southern edge of its range, and common raven on the highest ridges.
• Sandhill cranes: a resident breeding population in the Okefenokee plus large migratory flocks passing over the state in autumn and spring.

Two Georgia bird stories are worth telling. The brown thrasher, the state bird, is a mimic like its mockingbird relative but with a far larger repertoire, with individual males documented singing well over a thousand distinct song types, more than almost any other North American bird. The second is the wood stork, the only stork breeding in the United States. It feeds by touch rather than sight, sweeping a partly open bill through muddy water and snapping shut in milliseconds when it contacts a fish, which means it needs shallow water concentrated by a falling dry season to feed its young. Water management that keeps wetlands artificially stable can starve a colony even when there is plenty of water present.

Section 06

Reptiles And Amphibians

Georgia has around 80 reptile and 80 amphibian species, one of the highest combined totals in the country, and the north Georgia mountains are a global salamander hotspot.

Snakes: roughly 46 species, six venomous. Copperhead is the most commonly encountered, cottonmouth occurs near water in the south, and the eastern diamondback rattlesnake, timber rattlesnake, pygmy rattlesnake, and eastern coral snake complete the list. The eastern indigo snake, North America's longest native snake at up to eight feet, is federally threatened and the subject of reintroduction work in south Georgia.

Turtles and alligators: gopher tortoise (state reptile), plus alligator snapping turtle, Barbour's map turtle, spotted turtle, bog turtle in a few mountain fens, diamondback terrapin in salt marsh, and loggerhead, green, leatherback, and Kemp's ridley sea turtles offshore. See the seven sea turtle species. American alligators occupy the southern half of the state.

Salamanders and frogs: the mountains hold Georgia blind salamander, seepage salamander, shovel-nosed salamander, hellbender, and many dusky and woodland species. The Coastal Plain holds two-toed amphiuma, greater siren, flatwoods salamander, gopher frog, and around 30 frog and toad species including the green treefrog, the state amphibian.

Section 07

Dangerous Animals In Georgia

• Venomous snakes: six species. Copperheads cause most bites and are rarely fatal. Eastern diamondbacks are the most dangerous but are now uncommon and declining.
• American alligator: in the southern half of the state, with roughly 200,000 to 250,000 animals. Attacks are very rare. Never feed them, and keep dogs from the water's edge.
• Ticks and mosquitoes: the real health risk, carrying Rocky Mountain spotted fever, ehrlichiosis, alpha-gal syndrome, and West Nile virus.
• Black widow and brown recluse spiders: both present statewide and reclusive.
• Red imported fire ants and Africanized honeybees: fire ants are widespread; bee stings cause the most animal-related deaths through allergic reaction.
• Black bear: no fatal attacks recorded in Georgia. Food-conditioned bears in north Georgia campgrounds are the practical problem.
• Feral hogs: aggressive when cornered and widespread.
• Jellyfish and stingrays: sea nettles and cannonball jellies are common along the coast in summer.

Section 08

Endangered And Protected Species

Georgia's pressures are development in the Atlanta metro and along the coast, water withdrawal from the Flint and Chattahoochee systems that reduces flow for mussels and fish, fire suppression degrading longleaf pine, sedimentation in Piedmont streams, and vessel strikes on right whales. Offsetting this, Georgia's coastal marsh and barrier islands are unusually well protected, with much of the island chain in conservation ownership.

Section 09

Where To See Wildlife In Georgia

• Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge: alligators, sandhill cranes, and blackwater swamp best explored by canoe.
• Cumberland Island National Seashore: loggerhead nesting, feral horses, shorebirds, and maritime forest.
• Sapelo and Jekyll Islands: salt marsh, painted buntings, and the Georgia Sea Turtle Center on Jekyll.
• Altamaha River delta and Harris Neck NWR: wading bird rookeries and shorebird concentrations.
• Chattahoochee National Forest and Brasstown Bald: black bear, mountain salamanders, and Appalachian birds.
• Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge: red-cockaded woodpecker recovery in managed pine.
• Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary: offshore live-bottom reef, accessible by dive charter.