An Outline of Metapopulation Management and Habitat Protection Measures for the Bobcat:

[1] The Brevard County Corridor

[2] All Subpopulation Cores and Corridors Throughout the Ecoregion

Timothy John Mallow, Director, Coryi Foundation, Inc.

The habitat conservation plan for the conservation of bobcats and habitats throughout the Eastern Florida Flatwoods Ecoregion is currently being developed by Coryi Foundation, Inc. It is not yet complete because it is largely based on empirically derived radio-telemetry research that we are conducting. Research is currently in progress. The plan will be available at a later date.

Habitat conservation plans of this nature are of little value without direct evidence of what locally works for animals in terms of landscape patterns. Landscape patterns vary from locale to locale. Patterns strongly dictate how animals will use habitats. Even if a parcel of land contains preferred habitat, it may never be used by a certain species if it does not fit into the landscape in a pattern that the animal favors. What looks good on a map that merely depicts all preferred habitats does not necessarily reflect how animals actually use the landscape. Furthermore, models, extrapolations from literature, etc. need to be tempered with local field-derived research data because they are either largely theoretical or applicable to other landscape types or populations. How animals actually use a particular landscape can only be obtained through radio-telemetry research that is conducted in that landscape - this is one of the reasons we are doing the radio-collar research. Likewise, reserve network designs in any habitat conservation plan can only be obtained from radio-telemetry. These designs include: the appropriate size and shape of corridors, the location of corridors and core tracts that are currently used or can be used and that are vital to regional and local movement and gene flow, the range of tolerated spatial habitat heterogeneity, the effects of roads and other anthropogenic structures, etc. As such, a habitat conservation plan and any simple map of preferred habitats is generally useless until the scientific evidence obtained from radio-telemetry produces the real data on how animals actually use the particular landscape.

The plan will include: the identification of corridors and core tracts that are used by bobcats (as determined by telemetry) and that are essential for their long term survival and the promotion of regional and local movement and gene flow; a gap analysis of lands that need to be acquired, protected, or managed; guidelines of habitat management practices; a means for long term-monitoring; an identification of areas that possess impediments to movement and available options for enhancement of movement; strategies for the protection, acquisition, or management of essential lands; etc.

Click here to view information on the research.