Research Projects
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Bobcat Population Dynamics
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M10, affectionately known as Ahau Akbal , bolts into the wild after release following radio-collaring on August 5, 1996. |
Brevard, Volusia, Indian River, Orange, and Osceola Counties and the Eastern Florida Flatwoods Ecoregion
Links to sections of this page:
| Ecological Research | Biomedical Evaluation |
| The Human-Cat Connection |
Links to other pages associated with this research:
Bobcat Metapopulation Research and Conservation
Project Goals Summary
The
Potential Threats to Bobcat Population Viability in Brevard County
Bobcats, Corridors, and the Eastern Florida Flatwoods Ecoregion
A Habitat Conservation Plan for
Bobcats in the Eastern Florida Flatwoods Ecoregion
Bobcat Ecology - An informative paper
with detailed facts and figures on bobcat ecology.
Research Page | Conservation Page | Education Page
As the human population continues to grow, urban sprawl causes an increase in the number and size of residential, commercial, and industrial areas. These developments displace natural areas. The result is that wild areas and their resident populations of wildlife are reduced in size, fragmented, and isolated.
These events can lead to a disappearance of certain animal species from an area due to a lack of adequate space in which to move and carry out life history functions such as foraging and mating. The bobcat is wide ranging, solitary, and territorial. Individual territories range in size from 2800 to 4800 acres. Populations require relatively large and undisturbed forested landscapes in which to experience long term persistence. The widest-ranging land mammals in many states, they are among those most sensitive to large-scale habitat loss.
Given the rapid increase of developments and the loss of habitats, bobcats will decrease in numbers and could possibly follow the course of the now endangered Florida panther (Felis concolor coryi) if landscapes are not more carefully managed.
Because little is known about how bobcat populations respond to severely
disturbed landscapes, we are conducting radio-collar research in Brevard County and the Eastern Florida Flatwoods Ecoregion to:
The findings of our research will enable us to develop a regional-scale habitat conservation plan that incorporates a suitable network of corridors and core tracts in the midst of developed areas that will insure long term persistence and freedom of movement. This project is also intended to serve as a model for the promotion of viability elsewhere in the country.
Disturbed landscapes which give rise to habitat fragmentation, reduction or isolation can also induce a host of biomedical problems in wild populations.
Isolation can lead to increased inbreeding which can result in a drop in genetic diversity. Low genetic diversity can cause members of a population to experience lowered resistance to diseases, lowered reproductive potential, and physiologic and sometimes fatal impairments.
Close proximity to urbanization can increase exposure to pollutants as well as diseases transmissible from domestic animals. Reduction in food resources associated with increased competition in small natural areas can also lead to a general decline in health. Small populations are also more susceptible to epidemics. These factors can render a population nonviable and lead to local extinction.
To better understand these issues so that suitable landscapes can be
properly managed to promote population viability, the biomedical agenda of this research
includes a detailed examination of bobcat populations with respect to the following:
Except for apes and monkeys, cats are genetically the closest animals to humans. So close is this relationship, that one merely needs to rotate portions of particular feline chromosomes end over end to get virtually identical gene matches with the human counterparts. This and the fact that cats and humans contract viruses that are similar, such as leukemia and HIV (FIV in cats), makes the cat an ideal model for studying the ensuing disease and the genetically based response in order to find cures for humans.
For example, how an individual responds to an infection by these viruses is, in part, dependent on the individual's genome - the sequence of DNA nucleotides found in his or her chromosomes. Different species of cats possess different sequences and some species that contract FIV will not develop AIDS and die. It is thought that the feline species which survive FIV infection possess gene sequences that direct cells to manufacture special enzymes. These enzymes appear to modify white blood cells sufficiently to prevent their destruction by the virus particles.
Research to find a cure for human AIDS may lead to the development of a drug which acts on human white blood cells in a similar way. Coryi Foundation, Inc. is collaborating with the National Cancer Institute to help study these relationships in bobcats via the detailed analysis of blood samples obtained from bobcats. By collectively interpreting the biomedical and ecological data, we will obtain a vivid picture of population genetics and diseases traceable in time and space.
Why Save the Bobcat?
Bobcats are important regulators of rabbit, rodent and other prey populations. As a
keystone species, reduction in bobcat numbers can lead to prey population explosions and
overforaging, increased competition for resources, and erosion of animal community
stability. Also, certain species of the order rodential (rats, mice, etc.) carry diseases
that are zoonotic - those that can be transmitted to humans. Some of these can be fatal.
Retaining viable populations of bobcats can indeed prevent the spread of such diseases
into the human population while maintaining animal community stability.
Botanically diverse bobcat habitat of the eastern deciduous forest of temperate North America.
Ecological Research | Biomedical Evaluation | The Human-Cat Connection
