Some are slithery, others slimy, a few are poisonous and many just sit around like rocks -- but the federal government and Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission are investing more than $1 million next year into keeping them here.
The eastern Massasauga rattlesnake and several species of mussel -- including the federally endangered clubshell and northern riffleshell -- will get special attention in coming years as biologists with the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy track their populations and study their habitats in an attempt to save the vanishing creatures.
"If these animals go away, some little piece of the ecosystem won't work the same," said Charles Bier, director of the conservancy's Natural Heritage Program. "It might not be noticeable to you or I -- and maybe some people don't think losing them matters -- but, in some little way, it does."
Western Pennsylvania's natural environment has one of the world's most diverse ecosystems, Bier said. More species of mussel -- which have two shells, like a clam -- live in the area's waters than anywhere else. And the Massasauga, which is fast disappearing from the Midwest, still calls a tiny corner of this state home.
Money for conservation largely comes from game and fishing licenses. But because bivalves and poisonous snakes aren't at the top of most sportsmen's lists of critters they care to encounter in the wild, it can be difficult to fund studies of animals that aren't hunted or fished, said Dan Tredinnick, spokesman for the Fish and Boat Commission.
"But part of being outdoors is enjoying wildlife," Tredinnick said. "And these wildlife critters are part of that experience."
The commission recently secured more than $880,000 from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, which it matched with $330,000, to study some of these species.
"These critters are sort of the canaries in the coal mine," Tredinnick said. "These are, in many cases, very sensitive animals, and as their habitat declines, and as we notice their numbers declining, it's a sure sign of larger issues in the environment down the road."
In the late 1800s, aquatic biologist Arnold Ortmann documented 50 species of mussel in the rivers around Pittsburgh, warning that industrial activities were causing their numbers to wane. By the early 1900s most of them had died from pollution or silt from dams.
About six species are back in the cleaner waters around the city, and increasing numbers are found downriver and upriver, Bier said. He is studying the mussels and their habitats to determine the best way to allow them to flourish.
Habitat destruction, coupled with loss of wetlands and human persecution, also is killing off the eastern Massasauga rattlesnake, a mildly poisonous viper that is rarely deadly and usually won't attack unprovoked, Bier said.
The Massasauga once lived in 19 locations in Allegheny, Butler, Crawford, Lawrence, Mercer and Venango counties. A study begun two years ago by the conservancy discovered that the snake now lives in just four locations in Butler and Venango counties.
Ben Jellen and Matt Kowalski, two biologists with the conservancy, have been attaching radio antennas to the snakes and want to restore some of the other habitats.
"It is much easier to keep these animals off the endangered species list than to go back and try to restore them," Bier said.
