Overview

Reviews of fish and wildlife literature for all native and naturalized species of Virginia are performed by Department of Wildlife Resources biologists and through contracts with universities and specialists. Their efforts are summarized and indexed in an agency database called Biota of Virginia (BOVA). Information is organized for each indexed species into a collection of reports called a BOVA Booklet. Initial support for developing BOVA was provided by the Office of Surface Mining, the Bureau of Land Management and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Development of BOVA followed "A Procedure for Describing Fish and Wildlife" developed with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Eastern Energy and Land Use Team. Extensive literature exists for some species, but for many species there is little to no published information. BOVA represents the best effort to summarize all available information concerning Virginia's fish and wildlife. There is continuous effort made to ensure BOVA contains accurate and most complete information available. Inclusion or exclusion of any particular species from a list is based on information summarized from books, journals, and scientific reports made available to VDWR biologists. BOVA booklets may be viewed using links associated with any report that includes a list of species.  Literature used in BOVA can be searched using Species Information References.

Get a List of Species

Two forms, Species Information By Name and  Species Information By Land Management allow you to view lists of fish and wildlife species, each with a link to a BOVA booklet.  You can also get a list of species using Geographic Search.

Species Information By Name

  Use Species Information By Name when you know:

• part of a common name or a Latin scientific name such as "salamander" or "ambystoma".
• name of an administrative unit
  • name for a City or County such as "Wise" or "Richmond".
  • name of a U.S.G.S. 7.5' quadrangle such as "Burnsville".
  • name of a hydrologic unit such as "UPPER SOUTH FORK SHENANDOAH RIVER".
• species category name such as "birds".
• Conservation Concern name such as "Endangered".
• a combination of the above to refine a list.
• none of the above to get a list of over 3200 species recorded in BOVA.

Species Information By Land Management

Use Species Information By Land Management when exploring:

• Land Use or Land Cover category
• Adverse management practices
• Beneficial management practices
• Existing management practices
• refine your search by species category name such as "birds".
• a combination of the above to refine a list.