INVENTORY OF MAMMALS
AT
VALLEY FORGE NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK

Technical Report NPS/NER/NRTR—2006/070

Richard H. Yahner, Jacob E. Kubel1¹, and Bradley D. Ross²

School of Forest Resources
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16802

¹current address:
Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program
Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife
1 Rabbit Hill Road
Westborough, MA 01581

²current address:
734 Partridge Lane
State College, PA 16803

November 2006

U.S. Department of the Interior
National Park Service
Northeast Region
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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Executive Summary

We conducted an inventory of mammalian species at Valley Forge National Historical Park (VAFO), Pennsylvania, during 2004. Our objective was to update existing records of mammalian species observed previously in the park and, possibly, add records of species not observed previously. Opportunistic observations, spotlight surveys, and live-trapping were used to inventory mammals.

We documented 1,124 encounters of 21 species of mammals: Virginia opossum (scientific names provided in Appendix A), masked shrew, northern short-tailed shrew, big brown bat, eastern cottontail, eastern chipmunk, gray squirrel, red squirrel, southern flying squirrel, woodchuck, white-footed mouse, meadow vole, Norway rat, meadow jumping mouse, common raccoon, coyote, red fox, feral cat, striped skunk, an unidentified weasel, and white-tailed deer. Big brown bat, coyote, and feral cat represent new records at VAFO; the weasel (either ermine or long-tailed weasel) would be a new record, but the sighting was not reliable and is considered an unconfirmed sighting. Our results will also update historic records stored in the NPSpecies database (NPS 2003, 2004). Of 17 species, three (Norway rat, red squirrel, and southern flying squirrel) were last documented by McKeever (1979), four (Virginia opossum, northern shorttailed shrew, masked shrew, and meadow jumping mouse) were last documented by Cypher et al. (1985), nine (eastern cottontail, eastern chipmunk, gray squirrel, meadow vole, white-footed mouse, woodchuck, common raccoon, red fox, and striped skunk) were last documented by Yahner et al. (1997), and one (white-tailed deer) was last documented by Lovallo and Tzilkowski (2003).

Data that we collected cannot be used to estimate relative abundance or absolute abundance of particular species, but we do suggest residency and abundance classifications based on definitions used by the NPSpecies database (Wotawa 2004). Specifically, we concluded that meadow vole, white-footed mouse, and white-tailed deer should be classified as breeders and abundant in the park. Masked shrew, northern short-tailed shrew, eastern chipmunk, gray squirrel, common raccoon, and red fox should be classified as common breeders, and Virginia opossum should be classified as uncommon to rare breeder. Eastern cottontail and woodchuck should be classified as common residents; whereas, red squirrel and feral cat should be classified as uncommon to rare residents. Southern flying squirrel likely is a resident, but abundance is unknown. Residency of striped skunk is unknown, and abundance should be classified as uncommon to rare. Residency of coyote also is unknown, and abundance likely is rare. Both residency and abundance are unknown for big brown bat, meadow jumping mouse, and Norway rat.

We did not encounter federal or state listed threatened or endangered species. However, geographic ranges of least shrew, evening bat, silver-haired bat, small-footed myotis, Appalachian cottontail, and eastern fox squirrel (Burt and Grossenheider 1980; Merritt 1987), which are species of special concern in Pennsylvania (PANHP 2006), overlap with VAFO. A long-term monitoring program, rather than intensive short-term research, might be effective in determining presence of species not encountered during our inventory. Finally, we identified a problem of feral cats residing within the park boundary, which pose a threat to native wildlife at VAFO.

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