Biodiversity of Hawk Mountain 

The Sanctuary is a vital link in the Appalachian Forest that offers high quality interior-forest habitat for dozens of species of songbirds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians.

A Closer Look
From 1996 to 1999, the Sanctuary conducted a biological inventory of the major biological communities across its entire land holdings. Visiting scientists, staff and volunteers spent hundreds of hours in the field. They mapped the distribution of many species. The list below summarizes the number of species that were found between then and now and is still a fraction of the total species diversity on the Mountain. Insects other than butterflies and moths, for example, have yet to be surveyed.

Inventory Findings
Mammologists discovered the presence of two species new to Sanctuary records, the pygmy shrew and pine vole, extending the known range of these mammals. The presence of bobcat was also confirmed. Bobcats prefer large, remote woodlands away from human activity, and are spotted on rare occasions during winter. Fishers, once extirpated from the state and reintroduced by the Pennsylvania Game Commission from 1994-1998, have been documented in recent years returning to the Sanctuary. Detectors deployed to monitor bats confirmed the presence of eight species including state-endangered Indiana brown and long-eared bats.

More Discoveries
Butterfly surveys detected two Pennsylvania Species of Special Concern, the Leonard’s skipper and the New Jersey tea moth. Plant surveys also documented the large round-leaved orchid. This rare but not endangered plant has been reported only at six other locations in Pennsylvania.