U.S. Department of Agriculture: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service

 

Date of this Version

January 2003

Comments

Published by Florida Reld Naturalist 31(3) 53-58,2003.

Abstract

Wildlife mortality due to collisions with motor vehicles is a problem within managed natural areas in Florida and worldwide (Skoog 1982; Smith et al. 1994; Foster and Humphrey 1995; Jackson 1996; Bertwistle 1999; Brown et al. 1999; Evink 1999; Gunther and Biel 1999; Phillips 1999; Trombulak and Frissell 2000; Hels and Buchwald 2001; Bard et al. 2002a,b; Fahrig et al. 2002; Foresman 2002; Gilbert et al. 2002). We here report wildlife mortality due to collisions with vehicles during 1997-2000 at John U. Lloyd State Park (JULSP), a 125.75-ha, mixed-use, urban state park located approximately 8 km south of Fort Lauderdale, on Florida's southeast coast. JULSP includes a mix of uplands and wetlands, consisting mostly of seven vegetation community and infrastructure cover types: beach dune (21.63 ha), coastal strand (4.01 ha), maritime hammock (7.64 ha), estuarine tidal swamp (35.01 ha), estuarine unconsolidated substrate (9.0 ha), ruderal areas mostly dominated by exotic plants (13.72 ha), and developed areas (17.29 ha) (Office of Park Planning, GIs data). The Atlantic coast beach is 3.86 km in length and supported a medium nesting density of marine turtle nests during 1997-2000.

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