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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
The Foraging Ecology Of The Juvenile Gopher Tortoise, Gopheruspol Yphemus, Terri Anne Stilson
The Foraging Ecology Of The Juvenile Gopher Tortoise, Gopheruspol Yphemus, Terri Anne Stilson
USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations
Food plant preferences of juvenile gopher tortoises, Gopherus polyphemus, were investigated in a west central Florida population. The juvenile gopher tortoises were free-ranging and were located in a sandhill habitat subject to yearly prescribed burns. Diet was determined by foraging observations, in which the number of bites taken per taxon, the number of plants sampled per taxon, and the amount of each taxon available along the foraging path were recorded. Preference was determined with Manly's alpha index of preference and Jacob's D electivity index. Selected plants in the habitat were analyzed for relative nitrogen content to investigate whether preferred …
Response Of The Threatened Sand Skink (Neoseps Reynolds!) And Other Herpetofaunal Species To Burning And Clearcutting In The Florida Sand Pine Scrub Habitat, Kristie D. Gianopulos
Response Of The Threatened Sand Skink (Neoseps Reynolds!) And Other Herpetofaunal Species To Burning And Clearcutting In The Florida Sand Pine Scrub Habitat, Kristie D. Gianopulos
USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations
Florida scrub habitat is a naturally fire maintained habitat that is highly endangered because of great demand for land for agriculture and real estate. Maintenance of remaining patches ofFlorida scrub habitat requires active management. We experimentally investigated the effects of clearcutting and burning on sand skink populations in three patches of sand pine scrub. Each patch included a clearcut plot, a burned plot, and an undisturbed plot. Treatment plot boundaries were drawn in 1995 such that each plot was no different from any other plot in sand skink densities. The responses of sand skink and other herpetofauna populations were monitored …