HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Whether you're an Alabama native or new to the state, you can enjoy Alabama's incredible biodiversity. The state isn't the most diverse in the country overall, but it takes the top prize for certain species.
"alabama is actually number five in the united states of overall biodiversity, but we're ranked number one in six different things." That's from Kelly McInnis, Animal Care Specialist at Cook's Museum.
Those six different categories of species include, "Freshwater turtles, freshwater snails, freshwater fish, freshwater crayfish, freshwater mussels and carnivorous plants."
What does biodiversity mean?
"So what it really means, whenever I say that we're number one, means that we have more species of that group, so we have more species of freshwater turtle than any other state in the united states. So when you think about Florida, you think of it having a lot of turtles. We actually have more species of freshwater turtles than Florida does, so that's really neat," says McInnis.
And there's a good reason as to why so many living creatures can thrive here. One of the main reasons being Alabama's watershed systems. "We have so many miles of rivers and streams and other water bodies. There's over 100,000 miles of water in our state, which creates a lot of biodiversity. They lead to a lot of different places. So we have rivers flowing all over our state. We have a lot of different terrain and geography and topography that allows a lot of different things to live," explains McInnis.