Mammals of North America
Kentucky's wildlife diversity includes a variety of small mammals -- the bat, beaver, cottontail rabbit, coyote, fox squirrel, gray fox, gray squirrel, mink, muskrat, raccoon, red fox, red squirrel, skunk, Virginia opossum, and the woodchuck -- are some of the small mammals more widespread in numbers across the state.
Up until the early 1800's, larger mammals roamed freely across the Commonwealth. But as more of humans moved in, more of the larger mammals moved out.
White-tail deer are still abundant throughout Kentucky, and black bears, elk, and red wolves, are slowly being repopulated here. Kentucky also now has the largest free-ranging herd of elk east of the Rocky Mountains.
This section of our Web site offers a brief introduction to the most common mammals of North America, not just those found in Kentucky.
Use the links below to see the individual pages with photographs. New pages will be added to this section periodically until the list is complete. The links will be highlighted blue when the pages are available live.
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