SPATIAL ECOLOGY OF BOBCATS (LYNX RUFUS) ON EVERGLADES TREE ISLANDS

Bobcats (Lynx rufos) that inhabit tree islands of the Everglades, an expansive wetland in southern Florida. Bobcats are understudied in Florida and wetland ecosystems, and my objective was to identify factors driving their use of tree islands. I hypothesized that tree island size, distance between islands, and clusters of islands might influence occupancy. Additionally, I tested for effects of water levels and the Burmese Python invasion on bobcat occupancy. I built detection histories using 1,855 bobcat images from camera traps set on 87 tree islands in a -2,350 km2 managed conservation area from 2005-2019 and tested hypotheses about bobcat use relative to habitat and hydrologic covariates. Bobcat occupancy was significantly diminished when Burmese python densities exceeded 2.5 pythons/km2• Occupancy probability also increased with increasing densities of tree islands around the focal island. Effects of high water levels were less clear, but suggested a slight reduction in island occupancy with deeper water in the surrounding wetlands. My results suggest that managing for high tree island density and low densities of Burmese pythons will have stronger effects on bobcat habitat use than specific water levels.