Animals & Plants of Great Smoky Mountains
The 8 animals, plants, and fungi you can find at Great Smoky Mountains, with sizes, diets, and whether you should worry. See the full park guide at Great Smoky Mountains.
Anything here that bites?
Keep away
- American black bear: Black bears are usually shy and would rather leave than meet you.
- White-tailed deer: White-tailed deer normally run from people.
Bites if handled
- Eastern chipmunk: There is no real danger, just one rule: don't hand-feed wildlife.
- Eastern gray squirrel: Nearly none.
- Little brown bat: Very low risk.
Everything else on this page is harmless. What each group means.
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Mammal American black bear
Ursus americanus
The bear you're most likely to meet east of the Rockies, a strong tree-climber that eats mostly plants and comes in black, brown, or cinnamon.
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Fish Brook trout
Salvelinus fontinalis
A small, wormy-patterned native fish with red spots ringed in blue, the only trout that truly belongs in the cold high streams of the Smokies and Shenandoah.
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Mammal Eastern chipmunk
Tamias striatus
A busy striped ground squirrel that stuffs seeds into stretchy cheek pouches and hides them in an underground pantry.
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Mammal Eastern gray squirrel
Sciurus carolinensis
A gray acrobat of the oak woods that buries nuts one by one and sometimes forgets where, sprouting new forests by accident.
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Amphibian Eastern hellbender
Cryptobranchus alleganiensis
A giant, wrinkly salamander that breathes through its skin and hides under rocks in cold, clean streams at Great Smoky Mountains and New River Gorge.
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Mammal Little brown bat
Myotis lucifugus
A tiny brown flyer that hunts insects over water at dusk and sleeps in caves and barns, eating half its own weight in bugs each night.
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Invertebrate Synchronous firefly
Photinus carolinus
A woodland beetle of the southern Appalachians whose males flash together in waves on June nights, one of the few in North America that blink in unison.
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Mammal White-tailed deer
Odocoileus virginianus
The most common large mammal in eastern parks, running through the woods and waving a white tail like a flag when it bolts.