PARENT SESSION
Contributed Oral Session 96: Restoration and Adaptive Management: Fresh and Salt Water Wetlands; Deer
Wednesday, August 10, 1:30 PM - 5:00 PM, Meeting Room 516 D, Level 5, Palais des congrès de Montréal

Populations of threatened southeastern beach mouse (Peromyscus polionotus niveiventris) in a managed landscape.

Suazo, Alexis^*,1, Stout, Jack¹, Fauth, John¹, Roth, James¹, ¹ University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida, USA

ABSTRACT- Management of biological diversity is difficult; therefore, single species management is practiced on many conservation lands. Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) is on Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge located along the central east coast of Florida USA. Land management on CCAFS is focused on the maintenance of habitat conditions required by the threatened Florida scrub – jay (Aphelocoma coerulescens). Scrub habitat has been divided into compartments that are managed on a rotation cycle to restore and maintain the habitat. Active management includes prescribed burns, mechanical manipulations and a combination of fire and mechanical treatments. Such techniques have been shown to be efficient in creating habitat characteristics essential for Florida scrub – jay populations on CCAFS. However, the application of prescribed burns and the mechanical manipulations of interior coastal habitat have not been evaluated to assess population responses of the threatened southeastern beach mouse (Peromyscus polionotus niveiventris). We have live trapped beach mice in 15 Florida scrub – jay habitat compartments for 12 months. Three additional un-manipulated compartments served as controls. We used number of individuals captured seasonally to evaluate the current management techniques. We show that prescribed fires create microhabitat characteristics favorable for the Florida scrub – jay and the southeastern beach mouse.

Key words: Biodiversity, Beach mouse, Threatened, Management techniques