Activity and Diet of an Urban Population of Big Cypress Fox Squirrels: A Comment
Maehr DS. 1993. Activity and Diet of an Urban Population of Big Cypress Fox Squirrels: A Comment. The Journal of Wildlife Management. 57(4):929-930
Jodice and Humphrey (1992) make incomplete comparisons between urban and native forest populations of Big Cypress fox squirrels (Sciurus niger avicennia; hereafter called fox squirrels) that may lead to erroneous conclusions regarding the relative value of these landscapes to the subspecies. The conclusions should not have been made without comparable data from both habitat types. I suggest such conclusions could be interpreted unethically by developers championing urban habitats as being better than native ones for fox squirrels......This author comments on a paper in a previous issue of the journal discussing a population of rare Big Cypress fox squirrels living around golf courses in the urban Naples, Florida, area. He suggests points overlooked in the original paper: lack of data about wild populations to support comparisons, the difference in visibility between squirrels on a golf course and those in dense natural vegetation, and several unanswered questions. The comment expresses concern about unethical use of conclusions from the original paper to gain support for replacing natural habitat with golf courses.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Maehr, David
- Units
- BICY
- Keywords
- Animal Studies, Big Cypress fox squirrel (Sciurus niger avicennia), Population Dynamics, Research Methods