The Animals Of Kentucky

Section 01

Caves, Rivers, And The Biggest Elk Herd In The East

Kentucky's wildlife rests on limestone. Much of the state is karst, meaning soluble bedrock riddled with sinkholes, springs, and caves, and Kentucky contains the longest cave system known on Earth. Mammoth Cave has over 400 mapped miles of passage and the count keeps rising.

That underground world holds animals found nowhere else. Kentucky cave shrimp, eyeless cavefish, cave crayfish, and cave beetles evolved in permanent darkness, losing pigment and eyes and slowing their metabolisms to survive on almost no food. Several exist in a single cave system.

Above ground, Kentucky's rivers are the second story. The state has more miles of running water than any state except Alaska, and its rivers hold one of the richest freshwater faunas in North America: roughly 220 fish species and over 100 mussel species. The Green River, which runs through the Mammoth Cave region, is among the most biologically diverse rivers on the continent.

Kentucky's most visible achievement is elk. The species was extirpated from the state by around 1850. Between 1997 and 2002 the state released about 1,550 elk into reclaimed surface coal mines in the southeast, using a landscape that mining had already opened up. The herd now numbers well over 10,000, the largest elk population east of the Mississippi, and Kentucky has exported animals to help restore herds in other eastern states.

Section 02

Kentucky's Official State Animals

The gray squirrel designation, made in 1968, is unusual in naming a small game animal rather than a charismatic large one. Kentucky was a squirrel-hunting state long before deer and elk recovered, and the choice reflects that history. The thoroughbred needs no explanation in a state where the horse industry is a cultural institution.

Section 03

Habitats By Region, And Who Lives In Each

1. Eastern Kentucky and the Cumberland Plateau

Steep, forested, deeply dissected sandstone country at the western edge of the Appalachians, with cliff lines, rock shelters, and mixed mesophytic forest that is among the most diverse temperate forest on Earth. This is elk country and the state's stronghold for black bear, which recolonised naturally from Virginia and West Virginia after being absent for a century. Also timber rattlesnake, green salamander on shaded cliff faces, and forest birds including cerulean warbler.

2. Bluegrass region, central Kentucky

Rolling limestone country with fertile soils, pastures, and remnant woodland pasture with enormous old bur oaks and blue ash. Historically a savanna maintained by bison and fire, and the last true cane thickets grew here. Now heavily agricultural. White-tailed deer, coyote, wild turkey, and bald eagles along the Kentucky River palisades.

3. Karst plain and the Mammoth Cave region

Sinkhole plain over limestone, with disappearing streams and the world's longest cave system beneath. Kentucky cave shrimp, southern cavefish, cave crayfish, and cave beetles live in the aquifer. Gray bats and Indiana bats hibernate in the caves, and the Green River above holds an exceptional mussel and fish fauna.

4. Western coalfield and Pennyroyal

Rolling hills with mixed farmland and forest, plus reclaimed mine land and reservoirs. Barren River and Green River bottomlands hold bottomland hardwood, and grassland restorations on former mine land now support Henslow's sparrows in unusually high numbers, one of the odder conservation outcomes in the state.

5. Jackson Purchase and the western wetlands

The far west between the Tennessee and Mississippi rivers, flat and southern in character, with cypress-tupelo swamp at Reelfoot and Ballard. This is where cottonmouth, alligator snapping turtle, swamp rabbit, and bird-voiced treefrog reach Kentucky. Ballard Wildlife Management Area winters very large numbers of waterfowl, and Ohio and Mississippi river confluence habitat draws pelicans and eagles.

Section 04

Mammals Of Kentucky

• Elk: the headline. Extirpated by about 1850, restored with roughly 1,550 animals released from 1997 to 2002 onto reclaimed surface mines. The herd now exceeds 10,000, the largest east of the Mississippi, and Kentucky has supplied animals to other states. See where to watch the elk rut.
• White-tailed deer: reduced to a few thousand by 1900 and restocked, now roughly a million statewide.
• Black bear: gone by about 1900 and back on its own, recolonising from Virginia and West Virginia. Several hundred now live in the eastern mountains, with a regulated season since 2009.
• Bobcat: recovered strongly and now common statewide.
• River otter: extirpated, reintroduced in the 1990s, and now present in every major drainage.
• Beaver, mink, long-tailed weasel, striped and spotted skunk, raccoon, opossum, woodchuck, gray and fox squirrel, southern flying squirrel, muskrat, eastern cottontail, swamp rabbit: all present. Gray squirrel is the state game animal.
• Bats: 16 species and the group in the worst trouble. Kentucky's caves hold major hibernacula for the endangered Indiana bat and gray bat, and white-nose syndrome, which arrived around 2011, has caused catastrophic declines in northern long-eared and tricolored bats. See do bats hibernate.

Absent: bison, gray wolf, red wolf, and cougar. Bison were central to the Bluegrass landscape and to the salt licks that gave Big Bone Lick its name, and were gone from Kentucky by around 1800. Cougars appear occasionally as dispersers, with one confirmed and killed in Bourbon County in 2014.

Section 05

Birds Of Kentucky

Around 380 species have been recorded. Kentucky is a forest bird state with important wetland corners.

• Forest birds: cerulean warbler, worm-eating warbler, Kentucky warbler (named for the state, a ground-nesting warbler of moist deciduous forest), hooded warbler, Acadian flycatcher, wood thrush, and Louisiana waterthrush. Eastern Kentucky's large forest blocks are regionally important for the whole group.
• Grassland birds: Henslow's sparrow has become an unlikely Kentucky specialty, breeding at high density on reclaimed surface mine grasslands, which now hold some of the largest concentrations anywhere. Also grasshopper sparrow, dickcissel, and eastern meadowlark.
• Waterfowl and waterbirds: the western wetlands and Land Between the Lakes reservoirs winter large numbers of ducks and geese, and American white pelicans have become regular at the Mississippi confluence.
• Raptors: bald eagle, restored from no nests to well over a hundred pairs, plus osprey, red-shouldered hawk, barred owl, and peregrine falcons nesting on Louisville and Covington bridges and buildings.
• Wild turkey: the state wild game bird, restored from a few hundred birds in the 1940s to a population in the hundreds of thousands across all counties.

Section 06

Rivers, Caves, And Freshwater Life

Kentucky's aquatic fauna is its most nationally significant biological asset, and its most threatened.

• Fish: roughly 220 native species, including an exceptional darter fauna. Kentucky spotted bass is the state fish, and the Green, Cumberland, Licking, and Kentucky rivers each hold distinctive assemblages.
• Mussels: over 100 species recorded, with the Green River among the most diverse mussel rivers in North America. More than 20 Kentucky mussels are federally listed. They filter water, stabilise riverbeds, and reproduce by luring fish to carry their larvae.
• Cave species: the Kentucky cave shrimp is a translucent, eyeless shrimp living in the Mammoth Cave aquifer and nowhere else. Southern and northern cavefish, several cave crayfish, and numerous cave beetles and isopods are similarly restricted, some to a single cave.
• Hellbender: a fully aquatic salamander reaching two feet, breathing through skin folds and requiring cold, clean, fast water with large flat rocks. Kentucky populations have declined sharply.
• Sturgeon and paddlefish: lake sturgeon are the subject of a reintroduction effort in the Cumberland system, and paddlefish filter-feed in the larger rivers.

Section 07

Dangerous Animals In Kentucky

• White-tailed deer and elk: deer cause thousands of vehicle collisions annually, and elk collisions in the southeast are far more dangerous given the animals' size.
• Venomous snakes: four species. Copperhead is the most commonly encountered and responsible for most bites, followed by timber rattlesnake, western cottonmouth in the west, and western pygmy rattlesnake in a small area.
• Ticks: Kentucky reports significant Rocky Mountain spotted fever, ehrlichiosis, and alpha-gal syndrome from lone star ticks.
• Brown recluse and black widow spiders: both common in outbuildings.
• Black bear: no fatal attacks in Kentucky. Food-conditioned bears in the southeast are the practical problem.
• Africanized bees and fire ants: fire ants have moved into the far west and south, and stinging insects cause the most animal-related deaths.
• Caves themselves: worth mentioning because unguided cave entry causes more harm than any Kentucky animal, and it also spreads white-nose syndrome to bats.

Section 08

Endangered And Protected Species

Kentucky's pressures fall hardest on water. Sedimentation from land clearing and mining, acid and metal drainage from historic coal operations, agricultural runoff into sinkholes, dams that alter flow and temperature, and residential development over cave recharge zones all bear on aquatic and cave species. White-nose syndrome is the dominant threat to bats. Against that, the elk restoration and the natural return of black bears show what recovery looks like when habitat is available.

Section 09

Where To See Wildlife In Kentucky

• Elk and Bison Prairie, Land Between the Lakes: a fenced drive-through with both species, plus reservoir birds nearby.
• Southeastern elk country, Knott and Breathitt counties: guided elk viewing tours on reclaimed mine land, best during the September and October rut.
• Mammoth Cave National Park: cave tours, plus the Green River above with its mussel and fish fauna and summer bat emergences.
• Ballard Wildlife Management Area: winter waterfowl in the far west, with cypress swamp and eagles.
• Red River Gorge and Daniel Boone National Forest: cliff-line species, green salamanders, black bear, and forest birds.
• Big Bone Lick State Historic Site: the salt licks that drew Pleistocene megafauna, now with a small bison herd.
• Reclaimed mine grasslands, Peabody WMA: exceptional Henslow's sparrow densities and grassland birds.