Threatened Species: 



Buteo llneatus (Red-shouldered hawk 



Special Concern Species: 



Dendroica virens (Black-throated green warbler 

 Helmitheros ( =Limnothlypis ) swainsonii (Swainson's warbler) 

 Protonotaria citrea (Prothonotary warbler) 

 Ursus americanus (Black bear) 



Endemic races of unknown status: 



Blarina brevicauda telmalestes (Dismal Swamp Short-tailed 



shrew). Endemic race; considered a species until recently. 



Microtus pennsylvanicus nigrans (Dismal Swamp meadow vole) 



Endemic race. 



Sorex longirostris fisheri (Dismal Swamp southeastern shrew) 



Endemic race. 



Synaptomys cooperi helaletes (Dismal Swamp southern bog 



lemming). Disjunct endemic race, known from only one site 



in North Carolina. 



Rare species of unknown status: 



Plecotus rafinesquii macrotis (Raf inesque's big-eared bat) 



POSSIBLE ENDEMISM OF SMALL MAMMALS IN THE DISMAL SWAMP 



A great deal of research remains to be done on the wildlife 

 of the Dismal, especially the endemic small mammals. Apparent 

 endemism may be simply the result of taxonomic splitting, based 

 on regional variation in species characters. However, the 

 possibility exists that these species may have been isolated 

 since the Wisconsin. 



The species in question could have migrated northward and 

 inland with .warming postglacial climate and rising sea level. 

 Toward the end of this process the Dismal Swamp area became a 

 peninsula, isolated by the James River estuary, Chesapeake Bay, 

 Atlantic Ocean, and Currituck and Albemarle Sounds. The Suffolk 

 Scarp could have served as a partial migratory barrier for small 

 wetland mammals. Possible escape routes around the northern and 

 southern ends of the scarp may have been blocked by salt marsh 

 vegetation, a different habitat (Albemarle Sound was brackish 

 before closure of the last inlet in the early nineteenth century) 

 Thus, a measure of isolation sufficient to permit development of 

 local- races might have been achieved. 



The effects on wildlife habitat of drainage and disturbance, 

 have probably been to open up the central swamp to medium and 

 large mammals, which would have found little habitat there when 

 it was a white cedar bog. Wetland habitat for small endemic 

 mammals may have been diminished. 



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