Southern Appalachian Creature Feature

It was a small hole on the side of a cliff, viewable from just the right spot on a two-lane road in a far corner of North Carolina’s Transylvania County – amazing that anyone had ever seen it at all, must less recognized its significance.

Bats are an incredibly important part of our world – helping control insect populations and pollinating plants. Despite all of this, bats still suffer from an image problem based on ill-conceived notions that they’re aggressive toward people and are rampant transmitters of rabies.

Kid’s fishing days have been held for years across the nation. Usually falling in early June, they serve as an opportunity to expose kids, not simply to fishing, but to the outdoors. In Western North Carolina, the U.S.D.A Forest Service often hosts events, with the support of the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, Trout Unlimited, the Western North Carolina Muskie Club, and others.

Following a four-day trial in U.S. District Court, a jury convicted Johnny Carl Grooms of Cosby, Tennessee, of conspiring to distribute oxycodone and cocaine, interstate travel to further drug trafficking, possession of oxycodone with the intent to distribute, distribution of cocaine, possession of firearms by a convicted felon, and illegally trafficking in ginseng. Grooms’s sentencing is set for October 3, and he faces up to life in prison as well as fines of over $8 million.

A dead bald eagle was discovered on Wednesday, May 4th at the Maggie Valley Festival Grounds located on Soco Road, US Highway 19 in Maggie Valley, North Carolina. An examination revealed the eagle had been recently shot and bullet fragments were removed from the carcass. The eagle was immature and lacked the characteristic adult white head and tail feathers which usually come in by the 6th year.

The Berry Cave salamander is found in only nine caves in eastern Tennessee. It faces threats from urban development near those caves, water contamination, and hybridization with spring salamanders.

While improvements in water quality can literally mean life or death for fish populations, there is another facet to the story of creating vibrant, bountiful, healthy rivers. What if a fish had miles and miles of cool, clear, clean river to enjoy, but couldn’t get to it? It’s an issue faced across the Southern Appalachians as poorly designed, installed, or maintained bridges and culverts can block passage by fish, crayfish, and other aquatic life.

It’s a little-known day among the litany of spring time holidays and celebrations, but here at the Fish & Wildlife Service, we like to think it important. Overshadowed by Earth Day, its April counterpart, May brings us Endangered Species Day.

As the bat disease white-nose syndrome continues decimating bat populations as it spreads across North America, a question many people have, is…so what? They’re just bats, what good are they?

Few animals get people as excited as cougars, and perhaps with good reason –they’re big, charismatic, carnivores, and in the Eastern United States, exceptionally rare.