IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
| Maehr, D.S.; Larkin, J.L.; Cox, J.J. | |
| Florida Panther Habitat Use: New Approach to an Old Problem | |
| 2006 The Journal of Wildlife Management (70): 1778-1785 | |
Although the Florida panther (_Puma concolor coryi_) has a history of study spanning more than 2 decades, some researchers have criticized previous habitat analyses of the panther for using daytime telemetry locations to infer 24-hour habitat use, selective use of radiotagged animals, comparison of animal locations to an inappropriate set of available resources, use of land cover maps for time periods that poorly matched some animal locations, use of locations instead of the individual animal as the sampling unit, and failure to account for telemetry error. To address all but the first of these concerns, we analyzed over 57,000 radiolocations of 100 Florida panthers and 8 introduced Texas cougars (_Puma concolor stanlyana_) collected from 1981 to 2003 using a Euclidean distance-based analysis (EDA), a technique that measures linear distances between telemetry locations and habitat types to determine nonrandom habitat use. We matched panther locations to 1 of 3 land cover maps reflecting cover conditions spanning 23 years to determine second- and third-order habitat selection. Panthers selected a mosaic of habitats when establishing a home range, and selected forests and avoided open wetlands within their home range. We recommend that managers give forests highest consideration when conserving this endangered species and suggest the further evaluation of the habitat value of natural openings that occur in close proximity to forested panther range. |
|
 |
PDF files are only accessible to Friends of the Cat Group. Joining Friends of the Cat Group gives you unlimited access and downloads in the Cat SG Library for one year, and allows you to receive our newsletter Cat News (2 regular issues per year plus special issues). More information how to join here |
(c) IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group ( IUCN - The World Conservation Union) |