Species Inventories

A California Newt (Taricha torosa) found in Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area

The Diversity of Life Within Parks

A fundamental responsibility of the National Park Service is to understand and protect the variety of life the parks support. Park managers and scientists need basic information on species occurring in parks. Park visitors, too, want to know about the plants and animals they may see.

Information on species occurrence and distribution was one of the basic inventories completed by Inventory & Monitoring staff. Between 2000 and 2010, scientists conducted surveys for vertebrates and vascular plants in over 280 parks, focusing on the highest-priority species.

Products resulting from these inventories included reports and associated data sets. Survey methods, species locations, habitat, and observation details were carefully documented.
In addition to these products, species occurrence information was entered into NPSpecies, an application for managing species lists and associated details.

Golden-crowned Kinglet (Regulus satrapa) in Glacier National Park

NPS / Jacob. W. Frank

NPSpecies

NPSpecies contains information on species that occur in a national park. It allows users to download a park species list, print a species checklist, or see in which parks a species is found. NPSpecies also contains details on species status; for example, whether it's threatened or endangered or invasive. Species information is substantiated through associated evidence, which includes observation records, documents, or museum specimens.

NPSpecies is a work in progress, and our knowledge of park biodiversity continues to grow and change. Since the inventories were completed, new parks have been added to the National Park System, and updates are needed in many areas. Also, the interest and need to know more about invertebrates, fungi, non-vascular plants, and other species groups is growing.

Planning underway in 2018 and 2019 will help us learn where and how we can best direct our work.

Below, you can see NPSpecies information for Arches National Park in Utah. To find information on species in other parks, visit the NPSpecies website.

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Species Attribute Definitions

Definitions

Occurrence

Occurrence values are defined below. One or more Occurrence Tags may be associated with each Occurrence value.

Present: Species occurs in park; current, reliable evidence available.

Probably Present: High confidence species occurs in park but current, verified evidence needed.

Unconfirmed: Species is attributed to park but evidence is weak or absent.

Not In Park: Species is not known to occur in park.

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Occurrence Tags

Adjacent: Species is known to occur in areas near to or contiguous with park boundaries.

False Report: Species was reported to occur within the park, but current evidence indicates the report was based on misidentification, a taxonomic concept no longer accepted, or other similar problem of error or interpretation.

Historical: Species' historical occurrence in park is documented. Assigned based on judgment as opposed to determination based on age of the most recent evidence.

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Abundance

Abundant:

• Animals: May be seen daily, in suitable habitat and season, and counted in relatively large numbers.
• Plants: Large number of individuals; wide ecological amplitude or occurring in habitats covering a large portion of the park.

Common:

• Animals: May be seen daily, in suitable habitat and season, but not in large numbers.
• Plants: Large numbers of individuals predictably occurring in commonly encountered habitats but not those covering a large portion of the park.

Uncommon:

• Animals: Likely to be seen monthly in appropriate habitat and season. May be locally common.
• Plants: Few to moderate numbers of individuals; occurring either sporadically in commonly encountered habitats or in uncommon habitats.

Rare:

• Animals: Present, but usually seen only a few times each year.
• Plants: Few individuals, usually restricted to small areas of rare habitat.

Occasional:

• Animals: Occurs in the park at least once every few years, varying in numbers, but not necessarily every year.
• Plants: Abundance variable from year to year (e.g., desert plants).

Unknown: Abundance unknown

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Nativeness

Native: Species naturally occurs in park or region.

Non-native: Species occurs on park lands as a result of deliberate or accidental human activities.

Unknown: Nativeness status is unknown or ambiguous.

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List Differences

The Checklist contains only those species that are designated as "present" or "probably present" in the park.

The Full List includes all the checklist species in addition to species that are unconfirmed, historically detected, or incorrectly reported as being found in the park. The full list also contains species that are "in review" because their status in the park hasn't been fully determined. Additional details about the status of each species is included in the full list.

The checklist will almost always contain fewer species than the full list.

Select a Park:

Arches National Park

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Species attribute definitions

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Visit NPSpecies for more comprehensive information and advanced search capability. Have a suggestion or comment on this list? Let us know.