Throughout the years, Ohio’s rolling hills have molded to the paws, claws and talons of a variety of creatures seeking a place to call home.
Prior to European settlement, the state was 98 percent forested with hundreds of species inhabiting the territory. By the 1900s, that number dropped to only 4 percent, said Gary Willison, a national resources group leader at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
“Before settlement, you hear stories of squirrels being able to jump from tree to tree without touching the ground from the Ohio River all the way to Lake Erie,” Willison said.
In a recent effort to follow the animals’ tracks and recreate their habitats, a variety of organizations, including the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Wayne National Forest, conservationists and even students, have begun studying Ohio’s wildlife with a more critical eye.
“It’s the whole build-it-and-they-will-come mentality,” said Lindsay Rist, the wildlife communications specialist for the fourth district of ODNR in Athens County.
ODNR spends a total of five years assessing each species in order to update the federal and state endangered species list. In August, the most recent list was released.
According to the list, which is published on the ODNR website, many species in the southeast region, including the bald eagle, were taken off the list. In addition, the bobcat has been downgraded from endangered to threatened, and the black bear remained on the state’s endangered species list despite its increase in population since the 1930s.
According to an additional report released by ODNR in July, 619 sightings of the bobcat have been verified since 1970 after it was considered extirpated, or having disappeared from the state, in 1850. Years later, the bobcat population has improved enough to be moved off the list with a total of 152 sightings in 2011, three of which were in Athens County.
“We are definitely seeing a recovery and no signs of that recovery being threatened at this point,” said Suzie Prange, a wildlife research biologist with ODNR. “(Bobcats) will continue to grow and, in the not-too-far future, could be completely delisted.”
Prange also said that though the black bear has not been moved from its status as an endangered species, specialists have noticed a slow increase in population.
“(Black bears) are slow to reproduce, which is expected,” she said. “But, we are nowhere near down-listing them from endangered.”
Despite the positive outlook for the carnivores, some animals and even plant species in the southeast region of Ohio, including oak hickory, the Indiana bat and the American burying beetle, are the newest additions to the endangered list.
As a result, specialists have closed off to visitors several caves and old mine sites where the Indiana bats hibernated, which helped increase the bats’ numbers despite a recently discovered chemical that is harming the species.
“It’s a whole new problem,” Willison said. ”The Indiana bat is in a whole lot of trouble right now.”
The beetle, on the other hand, was formerly considered extirpated from the state, prompting biologists to work together in an attempt to reintroduce the species to the region.
“From what I’ve heard, each time they go back and check on them, no beetles have been found,” Rist said. “But just because we don’t see them doesn’t mean they aren’t there. It’s just hard to tell, and that’s true for any animal.”
Though conservationists are pleased with the large number of species making a comeback, the bat and beetle are a reminder that the work is far from finished.
“I have been happy to see such conservation efforts having an effect, especially as the … black bear slowly moves back into Ohio,” said Tyler Scagel, president of OU’s Wildlife Club and a senior studying conservation. “I do, however, believe much more needs to be done; we are nowhere near being close to having healthy populations yet.”
lf328610@ohiou.edu
