Rare Species
Alabama is home to remarkable biodiversity, including rare plants and animals found in forests, rivers, wetlands, caves, grasslands and other habitats across the state.
At the Alabama Natural Heritage Program, we track rare, threatened and sensitive species to better understand where they occur, what habitats they depend on and how this information can support conservation, research, land management and responsible planning.
Species Occurrences by County
ALNHP provides a downloadable spreadsheet of rare species and selected natural community occurrences by Alabama county. The spreadsheet includes records from ALNHP’s Biotics database for tracked species and natural communities with documented locations.
Users can filter the spreadsheet by county to view records for a specific county or by species to view counties where occurrence data have been recorded for that species.
To search by county, open the spreadsheet and filter the county column. To search by species, filter the species column.
If a species is listed multiple times in one county, that means ALNHP has multiple occurrence records for that species in that county.
If the spreadsheet does not open automatically, check the Downloads folder on your computer.
This spreadsheet is a working list and is revised as ALNHP updates its database.
The information cannot provide a definitive statement about the presence, absence or condition of species or natural communities in a specific locality. Much of Alabama has not been specifically or thoroughly surveyed for all tracked elements, and conditions at previously surveyed sites may change over time.
The list should be used as a reference for elements currently or historically recorded in a county and considered during land-use planning.
Bald eagles, red-cockaded woodpeckers and American peregrine falcons may occur in any Alabama county if suitable habitat is present.
The spreadsheet includes state heritage rankings, which help describe the conservation status of tracked species and natural communities in Alabama.
For more information about these rankings, please review the ranking system definitions document.
County-level occurrence data can be helpful for general reference, but it should not be used as a substitute for site-specific review.
For project-specific information, environmental review, GIS data, maps or other information products, please submit a data request.
