Gardening for Wildlife
One of the exciting benefits of gardening with native plants is their ability to attract a wide range of wildlife, especially native species. In fact, we have been able to identify over 2000 unique species of animals utilizing the Gottlieb Native Garden — from ants to bats to birds to lizards.
Methodology
Various methods are used for assembling data on animals in the garden, including observation, collecting and photographing with both hand-held and remote cameras. Some animals are simple to identify down to species level. These would include mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians. Arthropods can be a different story. We do our best to identify insects, arachnids and similar animals to species level, but sometimes have to settle with simply placing them in a tribe or family.
There are many good online sources available to help with species identification and we use two of them extensively - iNaturalist and BugGuide (each link will take you to GNG observations).
Below are numbers of species broken down into specific groups (as of January 2023)
Vertebrates
27 Mammals
10 Reptiles and Amphibians
112 Birds
Insects
13 Springtails and Two-pronged Bristletails
2 Silverfish
10 Dragonflies and Damselflies
15 Grasshoppers, Crickets and Katydids
1 Walkingsticks
2 Webspinners
1 Mayflies
3 Cockroaches
239 True Bugs
1 Twisted-wing Insects
14 Thrips
46 Book, Bark and Jumping Plant Lice
197 Beetles
20 Lacewings, Mantispids, Antlions and Snakeflies
243 Bees, Ants, Wasps and Sawflies
4 Caddisflies
520 Moths and Butterflies
1 Fleas
193 Flies
Arachnids
1 Scorpions
101 Spiders
25 Mites and Ticks
Myriapods
16 Centipedes, Millipedes and Symphylans
Crustaceans
2 Woodlice
Gastropods
6 Snails and Slugs
Segmented Worms
2 worms