The Animals Of Ohio

Section 01

The State That Burned Its River And Got It Back

Ohio's wildlife story is one of near-total loss followed by an unusually well-documented recovery. The state was roughly 95 percent forested before European settlement and fell to about 10 percent by 1900. The Great Black Swamp in the northwest, a wetland roughly the size of Connecticut left behind by glacial Lake Maumee, was drained almost entirely for farmland between the 1850s and early 1900s.

Everything large disappeared. Bison were gone by 1803, elk by 1838, wolves by 1842, mountain lions by 1845, black bears by 1850, and beavers by 1830. Passenger pigeons, which once darkened Ohio skies in flocks estimated in the billions, were extinct by 1914, and the last individual, Martha, died at the Cincinnati Zoo.

Then the Cuyahoga River caught fire. It burned repeatedly through the 20th century, and the 1969 fire became a national symbol that helped drive the Clean Water Act and the creation of the EPA. That river now runs through a national park and supports bald eagles, otters, and dozens of fish species, and its recovery is one of the most-cited environmental turnarounds in the country.

Ohio's forest is back to about 30 percent, and with it came deer, turkey, beaver, otter, bobcat, and black bear. What has not come back is the wetland. Ohio has lost roughly 90 percent of its original wetlands, one of the highest rates in the nation, and the western Lake Erie basin now suffers severe algal blooms driven by agricultural nutrient runoff through that drained landscape.

Section 02

Ohio's Official State Animals

The black racer designation is unusual in naming a snake, and it was pushed by schoolchildren partly to counter fear of snakes generally. Racers are fast, non-venomous, and eat rodents. Ohio is one of very few states with an official state reptile that is a snake rather than a turtle.

Section 03

Habitats By Region, And Who Lives In Each

1. Lake Erie shore and western basin

Marsh remnants of the Great Black Swamp along the western lake, plus islands and the Lake Erie shoreline. This is the state's most important bird area: the marshes at Magee, Ottawa, and Metzger concentrate migrating warblers so densely in May that the area is marketed as the Warbler Capital of the World. Also bald eagles, which recovered in Ohio from four nesting pairs in 1979 to hundreds today. See Lake Erie.

2. Northwestern till plains

The drained Black Swamp, now among the flattest and most intensively farmed land in the Midwest. Wildlife persists in ditches, woodlots, and restored wetlands. Nutrient runoff from this landscape drives the harmful algal blooms that now recur in western Lake Erie each summer.

3. Central and western till plains

Rolling glaciated farmland with scattered woodlots and prairie remnants at places like Big Darby. The Big and Little Darby Creeks hold an exceptional freshwater mussel and fish fauna for a Midwestern agricultural watershed and are designated National Scenic Rivers.

4. Unglaciated Appalachian plateau, southeast

Steep hills, sandstone cliffs, and the state's largest forest blocks in Wayne National Forest and Hocking Hills. This is where Ohio's black bears and bobcats have returned, along with timber rattlesnake at a handful of sites, hellbender in a few streams, and forest interior birds including cerulean and worm-eating warblers. See Appalachian Mountains.

5. Ohio River and southern lowlands

The Ohio River and its tributaries, with bottomland forest, oxbows, and locks and dams. Species reaching their northern limits here include copperhead, plus paddlefish, blue catfish, and a mussel fauna much reduced by channelisation and pollution.

6. Cuyahoga Valley and the northeast

A recovered river corridor between Cleveland and Akron, now a national park with beavers, river otters, bald eagles, and more than 40 fish species where there were once almost none. See Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

Section 04

Mammals Of Ohio

Ohio has around 55 mammal species. Nearly every notable one was extirpated and returned.

• White-tailed deer: the state mammal, gone by 1904, restocked, and now over 700,000 animals.
• Beaver: gone by 1830, returned in the 1930s, now in every county. Related: what happens when beavers leave.
• River otter: extirpated by 1900. Between 1986 and 1993 Ohio released 123 otters from Louisiana and Arkansas into four eastern watersheds, and the population recovered so thoroughly that otters were removed from the state list in 2002 and a trapping season followed.
• Bobcat: gone by 1850 and absent for over a century. Confirmed sightings began in the 1960s, recolonisation from Kentucky and West Virginia accelerated in the 2000s, and Ohio removed the bobcat from its endangered list in 2014.
• Black bear: extirpated by 1850, now returning as a small breeding population in the southeast and east, numbering perhaps 100 to 200 animals and still state endangered.
• Coyote: not historically present in Ohio, arrived in the 1940s, and now in all 88 counties including urban Cleveland and Columbus.
• Red and gray fox, mink, long-tailed weasel, badger in the northwest, striped skunk, raccoon, opossum, woodchuck, gray and fox squirrel, southern flying squirrel, muskrat, eastern cottontail: all common.
• Allegheny woodrat: a cliff-dwelling rodent that has declined severely in Ohio, affected by raccoon roundworm and the loss of American chestnut mast.
• Bats: 13 species. Indiana and northern long-eared bats are federally listed, and white-nose syndrome has caused severe declines. See do bats hibernate.

Still absent: bison, elk, gray wolf, and mountain lion. Ohio confirms occasional dispersing cougars but has no breeding population.

Section 05

Birds Of Ohio

More than 440 species have been recorded, and Ohio's position on the Lake Erie shore makes it one of the best migration states in the interior.

• The Lake Erie warbler migration: northbound songbirds crossing Ohio in spring reach the lake shore and stop rather than crossing 30 or more miles of open water at night. They concentrate in the narrow band of marsh and woodlot along the western shore, and on a good early May morning at Magee Marsh boardwalk a visitor can see 25 or more warbler species at close range. The event draws tens of thousands of birders and is worth millions to the local economy.
• Bald eagle: down to four nesting pairs statewide in 1979 because of DDT, and now several hundred pairs, one of the more dramatic recoveries in the Midwest.
• Osprey and peregrine falcon: both reintroduced, with peregrines nesting on buildings and bridges in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Toledo. Related: osprey facts.
• Marsh birds: king rail, least bittern, black tern, and common gallinule in the remaining Lake Erie marshes, all much reduced by wetland loss.
• Grassland birds: Henslow's sparrow, bobolink, and eastern meadowlark, which now depend heavily on reclaimed strip mine grasslands in the southeast, an accidental habitat that has become important.
• Sandhill cranes: absent as breeders for most of the 20th century and now nesting in growing numbers in northern wetlands.

Section 06

Reptiles, Amphibians, And Fish

Ohio has around 47 reptile and 39 amphibian species. Three snakes are venomous, all uncommon.

Snakes: 28 species. The venomous three are the eastern massasauga in northern wetlands (federally threatened and much reduced), the timber rattlesnake at a few southeastern sites (state endangered), and the northern copperhead in the unglaciated southeast. The black racer is the state reptile.

Turtles: Blanding's turtle, spotted turtle, and eastern box turtle are all declining, plus painted, map, musk, mud, and snapping turtles and softshells. Lake Erie water snakes on the islands were federally listed and recovered enough to be delisted in 2011, helped in part by the invasive round goby becoming an abundant food source, an unusual case of one invasive species benefiting a native.

Amphibians: eastern hellbender in a few eastern streams, now the subject of captive rearing and release, plus mudpuppy, spotted, Jefferson, and marbled salamanders, four-toed salamander, and around 15 frog and toad species including the bullfrog, the state frog.

Fish: roughly 170 species. Lake Erie is the most productive of the Great Lakes for fish and supports the largest walleye fishery in the world, plus yellow perch and smallmouth bass. The Darby Creeks hold rare darters and mussels. Lake sturgeon, once abundant in Lake Erie, are the focus of reintroduction efforts. Invasive pressures are heavy: sea lamprey, round goby, and the threat of Asian carp entering the lake. Related: how sea lampreys nearly destroyed the Great Lakes and electric barriers and Asian carp.

Section 07

Dangerous Animals In Ohio

• White-tailed deer: roughly 20,000 or more reported vehicle collisions a year, by far the most dangerous animal in the state.
• Venomous snakes: three species, all uncommon and two of them protected. Bites in Ohio are rare enough to be newsworthy.
• Ticks: Lyme disease has expanded rapidly in Ohio over the past two decades as the blacklegged tick spread west, and the lone star tick is also increasing.
• Brown recluse and black widow spiders: both present in southern Ohio and both reclusive.
• Coyote: attacks on people are extremely rare; pets are the realistic concern.
• Harmful algal blooms: worth including, because the cyanobacteria blooms in western Lake Erie produce toxins that have shut down municipal drinking water for Toledo and can kill dogs that drink lake water.

Section 08

Endangered And Protected Species

Ohio's dominant pressure is water quality rather than habitat loss, since the forest has partly returned. Nutrient runoff from the drained Black Swamp farmland drives annual harmful algal blooms in western Lake Erie that have at times covered a large fraction of the basin. Sedimentation degrades stream habitat for mussels and darters. Wetland loss of roughly 90 percent leaves marsh birds with fragments. White-nose syndrome has devastated bats. Against that sit genuine recoveries in eagles, otters, bobcats, and the Cuyahoga itself.

Section 09

Where To See Wildlife In Ohio

• Magee Marsh Wildlife Area and Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge: the spring warbler concentration, best in the first two weeks of May.
• Cuyahoga Valley National Park: beavers, otters, eagles, and a recovered river corridor between two cities.
• Wayne National Forest and Hocking Hills: black bear and bobcat range, salamanders, and forest birds.
• Big and Little Darby Creeks: nationally significant mussel and darter diversity in an agricultural watershed.
• Killdeer Plains and Big Island Wildlife Areas: wintering short-eared owls and northern harriers, plus grassland birds.
• Lake Erie Islands: Lake Erie water snakes, migration, and island habitats.
• The Wilds, Cumberland: reclaimed strip mine land now holding grassland birds alongside a conservation centre.