page_title: Fauna of Louisiana
section_title: Mammals
hierarchical_section_title: Fauna of Louisiana / Mammals
caption_attribution_description: English: Black bear in the Canadian Rockies
context_page_description: The fauna of Louisiana is characterized by the region's low swamplands, bayous, creeks, woodlands, coastal marshlands and beaches, and barrier islands covering an estimated 20,000 square miles, corresponding to 40 percent of Louisiana's total land area. Southern Louisiana contains up to fifty percent of the wetlands found in the Continental United States, and are made up of countless bayous and creeks.
  The Creole State has a humid subtropical climate, perhaps the best example of a humid subtropical climate of all the Southern United States with long, humid and hot summers and short, mild winters. The subtropical characteristics of the state are due in large part to the influence of the Gulf of Mexico, which at its farthest point is no more than 200 miles away. Louisiana's varied habitats — tidal marshes, bayous, swamps, woodlands, islands, forests, and prairies — offer a diversity of wildlife.
  Some of the most common animals found throughout all of the parishes include otter, deer, mink, muskrat, raccoons, opossums, rabbits, squirrels, nutria, turtles, alligators, woodcocks, skunks, foxes, beavers, civet cats, armadillos, coyotes and bobcats.
context_section_description: Forty species of mammals reside in Louisiana, excluding marine mammals. Seventy mammal species have been recorded in Louisiana or its immediate adjacent waters.   Louisiana has, for instance, two species of squirrels: gray squirrels and fox squirrels, according to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
  Louisiana has two species of rabbits: eastern cottontails and swamp rabbits.  Although the cottontail is considered more of an upland species and the swamp rabbit a wetland species, both species occur throughout the state. Rabbits have high productive rates in Louisiana when habitat and weather conditions are good.
caption: The Louisiana black bear was designated the Official State Animal in 1992.[6]
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