Documenting Changes in Mammal Communities in the Northern Everglades

Sergio C. Gonzalez*

¹University of Florida, Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center, Davie, FL 33314. *Corresponding author.

Southeastern Naturalist, Volume 18, Issue 4 (2019): 619–629

Abstract
Restoration of the Everglades is an ambitious endeavor to revitalize its communities and ecosystem health, but there remain gaps in our understanding of mammal communities due to lack of long-term data synthesis. Using secondary data from long-term surveys, this study examines the potential impacts of changes in hydrological management on mammal communities within a state wildlife management area in the northern Everglades. The installation of a pump station in 1991 began a 15-year period of active water management associated with hydrological restoration. Infrastructural damage in late 2005 resulted in 9 years of no significant active inflows. I calculated non-cervid mammal encounter rates from data gathered during perimeter levee surveys over a 10-year period. Mammal encounter rates showed a strong declining trend during the time after the pump failure. A similar analysis for an adjacent management area, which did not suffer an interruption in pump inflows, also showed a decline in mammal encounter rates. In addition, I replicated a small-mammal trapping survey conducted in the mid 1990s. Results showed a decline in diversity of small mammals in the focal area. Recent confirmation of Python molurus (Burmese Python) in the area and the expansion of Canis latrans (Coyote) are likely to have played a role in these apparent declines. Thus, establishing baseline estimates of relative abundance are critical for conservation efforts. With increasingly limited resources, it is important to maximize the utility of data that has already been collected.

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