DONATE

Smokies Species Tally

How many kinds of life inhabit Great Smoky Mountains National Park?

New to Science

New to Park

Total in Park

This is a summary of the variety of life currently known to exist in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This list represents 20+ years of work by researchers and volunteers as part of the Smokies All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI).

More details about these data are found at the bottom of this page.

Check out this list of the newest species recorded in the Smokies.

Organism group	Historic records	New to park	New to science	Total records
Microbes: bacteria (including Cyanobacteria)	0	267	272	539
Microbes: archaea	0	0	44	44
Microbes: viruses	1	18	5	24
Protista (slimemolds, amoebas, microsporidia)	143	195	18	356
Plants: vascular	1598	219	1	1818
Plants: non-vascular (mosses, liverworts, etc)	634	11	0	645
Chromista (water molds, sporozoans)	9	39	1	49
Algae	358	566	78	1002
Fungi (non-lichenized)	2687	1237	64	3988
Fungi: lichenized (lichens)	341	561	67	969
Cnidaria (jellyfish, hydra)	0	4	0	4
Porifera (sponges)	0	2	0	2
Platyhelminthes (flatworms)	6	43	4	53
Bryozoa (moss animals)	0	1	0	1
Gastrotricha (hairy bellies)	0	2	0	2
Nematomorpha (horsehair worms)	2	3	0	5
Nematodes (roundworms)	13	87	4	104
Nemertea (ribbon worms)	0	1	0	1
Mollusca (snails, slugs, mussels, etc)	121	68	2	191
Annelida (earthworms, leeches, aquatic worms)	23	68	7	98
Tardigrada (water bears)	2	57	26	85
Arachnids: mites & ticks	43	252	48	343
Arachnids: harvestman	1	22	2	25
Arachnids: spider	236	274	43	553
Arachnids: scorpions, pseudoscorpions	11	10	1	22
Crustaceans (crayfish, copepods, pillbugs)	20	75	32	127
Rotifera (wheel animals, spiny-headed worms)	0	4	0	4
Myriapods: Chilopoda (centipedes)	21	41	0	62
Myriapods: Symphyla (pseudocentipedes)	0	1	2	3
Myriapods: Pauropoda (millipede-like arthropods)	7	25	17	49
Myriapods: Diplopoda (millipedes)	39	34	4	77
Protura (coneheads)	7	9	10	26
Collembola (springtails)	89	138	61	288
Diplura (two-pronged bristletails)	4	5	5	14
Insects: Archaeognatha (jumping bristletails)	1	2	1	4
Insects: Zygentoma (silverfish)	1	1	0	2
Insects: Ephemeroptera (mayflies)	81	53	8	142
Insects: Odonata (dragonflies, damselflies)	58	44	0	102
Insects: Dermaptera (earwigs)	2	0	0	2
Insects: Plecoptera (stoneflies)	78	50	12	140
Insects: Orthoptera (grasshoppers, crickets, katydids)	63	50	4	117
Insects: Phasmida (walking sticks)	2	2	0	4
Insects: Mantodea (mantids)	2	0	0	2
Insects: Blattodea (cockroaches, termites)	2	8	0	10
Insects: Thysanoptera (thrips)	0	48	0	48
Insects: Hemiptera (true bugs, plant hoppers, cidadas, etc)	353	581	5	939
Insects: Psocodea (bark lice, book lice, parasitic lice)	26	104	5	135
Insects: Megaloptera (alderflies, dobsonflies, fishflies)	4	3	0	7
Insects: Neuroptera (lacewings, antlions, owlflies, etc)	9	36	0	45
Insects: Strepsiptera (twisted-wing insects)	0	2	0	2
Insects: Coleoptera (beetles)	572	2067	84	2723
Insects: Hymenoptera (ants, bees, wasps)	373	1282	25	1680
Insects: Trichoptera (caddisflies)	173	67	4	244
Insects: Lepidoptera (butterflies, moths, skippers)	728	1209	39	1976
Insects: Mecoptera (scorpionflies)	15	2	1	18
Insects: Siphonaptera (fleas)	17	9	1	27
Insects: Diptera (true flies)	916	1371	81	2368
Vertebrates: fish	71	5	0	76
Vertebrates: amphibians (salamanders, frogs)	39	3	3	45
Vertebrates: reptiles (turtles, snakes, lizards, etc)	38	2	0	40
Vertebrates: birds	233	21	0	254
Vertebrates: mammals	64	6	0	70
TOTAL	10,336	11,368	1,091	22,795

Last updated: July 18, 2025
12:23 pm

Explanation of columns

Historic records – species documented in the park prior to the initiation of the ATBI (1998)
New to park – species records that have been documented in GSMNP since the ATBI was initiated
New to science – species that were discovered and named from material in GSMNP, since the ATBI was initiated
Total recorded – all species currently known to exist in GSMNP

Things to consider

There are still an estimated 40,000-60,000 species that remain undiscovered in the Smokies
Discovering and recording species is only the first step in the ambitious ATBI, aiming to document all life forms in GSMNP
Since the ATBI was initiated on Earth Day in 1998, ATBI workers have discovered over 10,000 species that were not previously known in the park
The ATBI provides understanding about the distributions of organisms as well as their abundances and ecological roles in the park
From this inventory knowledge, the National Park Service builds monitoring, stewardship protection, education, and research efforts. It is thus able to focus its limited resources on the species that need the most help

Details

This species tally represents the total of all park records to date and is updated periodically. The ATBI is ongoing and many records are still in the process of being added to the park’s database. We strive to include many outstanding park records (historic and present-day) and to make these web accessible for park management, researchers, and the general public.

Find out more

Information for scientists
GSMNP Species List on NPSpecies
NPS’s Data Store, where you can find maps, scientific reports, publications, datasets and other resources associated with the ATBI
Our Smokies Most Wanted citizen science project in the park
Atlas of the Smokies web app to map species of the Smokies