What species of deer lives in the Florida Keys and is an example of Foster's rule?
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Foster's rule Foster's rule (also known as the island rule or the island effect) is an ecogeographical rule in evolutionary biology stating that members of a species get smaller or bigger depending on the resources available in the environment. For example, it is known that pygmy mammoths evolved from normal mammoths on small islands. Similar evolutionary paths have been observed in elephants, hippopotamuses, boas, deer (for example Key deer) and humans.
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Key deer The Key deer ("Odocoileus virginianus clavium") is an endangered deer that lives only in the Florida Keys. It is a subspecies of the white-tailed deer ("O. virginianus"). It is the smallest North American deer.
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Law of Life The Law of Life is a term coined by author Farley Mowat in his 1952 book "People of the Deer", and popularized by Daniel Quinn, to denote a universal system of various natural principles, any of which tend to best foster life—in other words, any of which best guides behavior that tends toward the reproductive success and survival of some particular gene pool. The idea posits that, in general, the most fit organisms instinctively behave according to some natural rule (often, these rules vary among and are specific to the species). Since "every" organism has some instinctive "law" it can follow to be the most reproductively successful, this very notion is a sort of law itself, true of all living beings: thus, the Law of Life.
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Cactus mouse The cactus mouse ("Peromyscus eremicus") is a species of rodents in the family Cricetidae. They are one species of a closely related group of common mice often called deer mice. Cactus mice are small, between 18 and 40 g in weight. Females weigh slightly more than males and are significantly larger in body length, ear length, length of mandible and bullar width of skull. Cactus mice can be identified by having naked soles on their hind feet, and almost naked tails which are usually the same length or longer than the animals body length. Its ears are nearly hairless, large, and membranous. Their fur is long and soft; coloration varies between subspecies, as well as between different populations. Color of fur varies from ochre to cinnamon, with a white stomach, and the sides and top of head slightly grayish. Females tend to be slightly paler in color than males, while juveniles appear more gray than their parents.
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Florida panther The Florida panther is an endangered population of cougar ("Puma concolor") that lives in forests and swamps of southern Florida in the United States. Its current taxonomic status ("Puma concolor coryi" or "Puma concolor couguar") is unresolved, but recent genetic research alone does not alter the legal conservation status. Florida panthers are usually found in pinelands, hardwood hammocks, and mix swamp forests.
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Calamian deer The Calamian deer ("Hyelaphus calamianensis"), also known as Calamian hog deer, is an endangered species of deer found only in the Calamian Islands of Palawan province of the Philippines. It is one of three species of deer native to the Philippines, the other being the Philippine sambar and Visayan spotted deer.
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Roosevelt elk The Roosevelt elk ("Cervus canadensis roosevelti"), also known as Olympic elk, is the largest of the four surviving subspecies of elk in North America. They live in the rain forests of the Pacific Northwest and were introduced to Kodiak, Alaska's Afognak and Raspberry Islands in 1928. The desire to protect the elk was one of the primary forces behind the establishment of the Mount Olympus National Monument (later Olympic National Park) in 1909.
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Beech marten The beech marten ("Martes foina"), also known as the stone marten, house marten or white breasted marten, is a species of marten native to much of Europe and Central Asia, though it has established a feral population in North America. It is listed as Least Concern by the IUCN on account of its wide distribution, its large population, and its presence in a number of protected areas. It is superficially similar to the pine marten, but differs from it by its smaller size and habitat preferences. While the pine marten is a forest specialist, the beech marten is a more generalist and adaptable species, occurring in a number of open and forest habitats.
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Peromyscus nesodytes The giant island deer mouse ("Peromyscus nesodytes") became extinct approximately 8000 years Before Present and lived during the late Pleistocene on California’s Channel Islands.
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Burt's deer mouse Burt's deer mouse ("Peromyscus caniceps") is a species of rodents in the family Cricetidae. It is endemic to Mexico, where it is found only on Montserrat Island off the east coast of Baja California Sur. The species is threatened by predation by feral cats.
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Sitka deer The Sitka deer or Sitka black-tailed deer ("Odocoileus hemionus sitkensis"), is a subspecies of mule deer ("Odocoileus hemionus"), similar to the Columbian black-tailed subspecies ("O. h. colombianus"). Their name originates from Sitka, Alaska, and it is not to be confused with the similarly named sika deer. Weighing in on average between 48 and , Sitka deer are characteristically smaller than other subspecies of mule deer. Reddish-brown in the summer, their coats darken to a gray-brown in mid-late August. They are also good swimmers, and can occasionally be seen crossing deep channels between islands. Their average life span is about 10 years but a few are known to have attained an age of 15.
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Notocotylus fosteri Notocotylus fosteri is a parasitic fluke that infects the marsh rice rat ("Oryzomys palustris") in Florida.
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Deer management Deer management is the practice and philosophy of wildlife management employed to regulate the population of deer in an area. The purpose of deer management is to regulate the population's size, reduce negative effects of population on the ecosystem, and maintain the integrity of other populations.
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Duff Holbrook Herman Lindsay "Duff" Holbrook (June 30, 1923 – July 17, 2015) was an American wildlife biologist, forester, and outdoorsman. He was recognized as one of the United States' leading experts on the wild turkey. Holbrook spearheaded the reintroduction of the wild turkey, as well as the white-tailed deer, to areas of its historic range in South Carolina.
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Baird's pocket gopher Baird’s pocket gopher or the Louisiana pocket gopher ("Geomys breviceps") is a species of pocket gopher that is native to the southern United States. In total, there are three almost identical species of eastern pocket gopher; "Geomys attwateri", "G. bursarius", and "G. breviceps". "G. breviceps" is larger in size, "G. attwateri" is medium-sized and "G. bursarius" is a bit smaller. Other than by size variation they are not identifiable by external features. Baird’s pocket gophers are small rodents with most of their weight on the top half of their bodies.
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Leucothrinax Leucothrinax morrisii, the Key thatch palm, is a small palm which is native to the Greater Antilles, northern Lesser Antilles, The Bahamas and the Florida Keys. Until 2008 it was known as "Thrinax morrisii". It was split from the genus "Thrinax" after phylogenetic studies showed that its inclusion in "Thrinax" would render that genus paraphyletic. The generic name combines "leuco" (in reference to the whitish colour of its flowering stalks and the undersides of its leaves) with "thrinax".
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Eastern woodrat The eastern woodrat ("Neotoma floridana"), also known as the Florida woodrat or bush rat is a pack rat native to the central and Eastern United States. It constructs large dens that may serve as nests for many generations and stores food in outlying caches for the winter. While widespread and not uncommon, it has declined or disappeared in several areas.
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Ecology of Florida The ecology of Florida is one of diverse wildlife. A misconception often associated with the Florida landscape is that the changes of density and diversity of flora seem chaotic or random, however, Eugene Odum's research states that "…over the long term [plant habits] showed remarkable continuity." The introduction of different species caused certain evolutionary developments – some plants grew more quickly and in larger numbers, while others could survive longer – to sustain themselves in a dense environment.
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Striped skunk The striped skunk ("Mephitis mephitis") is a skunk of the genus "Mephitis" that is native to southern Canada, the United States and northern Mexico. It is currently listed as least concern by the IUCN on account of its wide range and ability to adapt to human-modified environments.
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Sherman's fox squirrel Sherman's fox squirrel, Sciurus niger shermani, is a subspecies of fox squirrel. It lives in Florida and Georgia in fire prone areas of longleaf pine and wiregrass, especially around sandhills. A tree squirrel, the Sherman's fox species has lost much of its habitat to farming, tree farming and development. This type of squirrel nests in oak trees using leaves and Spanish moss.
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Tufted deer The tufted deer ("Elaphodus cephalophus") is a small species of deer characterized by a prominent tuft of black hair on its forehead and fang-like canines for the males. It is a close relative of the muntjac, living somewhat further north over a wide area of central China northeastern Myanmar. Suffering from overhunting and habitat loss, this deer is considered near-threatened. It is the only member of the genus Elaphodus. It is restricted to forested mountain habitat up to 4500 m above sea level, making study difficult.
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Miami Rock Ridge The Miami Rock Ridge is a continuous limestone outcropping which formerly encompassed a large extent of far southern Florida, including portions of the Everglades ecosystem. The traditional base of the elevation ranges from northern Dade County (the approximate latitude of North Miami Beach) southward to the upper Florida Keys, and it extends southwest into Everglades National Park and Long Pine Key. The coastal ridge was traditionally a component of the endangered pine rocklands, which grew upon the length of the ridge. The environmental community consisted of a large and continuous expanse of South Florida Slash Pines "(Pinus elliottii var. densa)", which was interspersed by tropical hardwood hammocks. The globally imperiled pine rockland community, which also encompassed the Florida Keys and The Bahamas, supported numerous endemic plant species; 20 percent occur nowhere else in the world. The communities of the Miami Rock Ridge are maintained by wildfires, including natural fires caused by lightning strikes; this affects the vegetation and its associated inhabitants, thus maintaining a diverse ecosystem. The substrate—often consisting of marl—and climate also affects the height of vegetation; thus a mature subtropical hammock typically does not exceed 59 ft on the Miami Rock Ridge. Today the original communities have been largely removed by development, and the remaining pieces of the ecosystems are scattered into tiny fragments in extreme southeast Florida; they now encompass small fractions of their original range. Simpson Park Hammock and Alice Wainwright Park contain small fragments of tropical hardwood hammock.