Evaluating the Spatial Overlap of Cattle and Wildlife on Buck Island Ranch, Florida

Abstract

Spatial overlap of domestic animals and wildlife can have positive effects such as increased biodiversity in some areas and reduction in forest fires but it can also have negative consequences such as pathogen spillover, vector and pathogen propagation into new areas among others. Thus, understanding the interactions between wildlife and domestic animals on shared landscapes is critical for conservation and management purposes. To investigate these cattle-wildlife interactions, we chose Buck Island Ranch (BIR) in southcentral Florida. We studied spatial overlap between Domestic Cattle (Bos Taurus) and multiple wildlife species such as Wild Boar (Sus scrofa), White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus), Rabbits (Sylvilagus spp) and others in pasture, semi-pasture, and hammock habitats/vegetation types at BIR. Five management blocks were selected that had pasture and hammock habitats and within each block we established matched pairs of 100m transects. Animal dung samples were surveyed and identified in 13 pairs of transects. We used Wilcoxon signed rank test to determine differences in dung counts between the habitats and calculated Simpson diversity index to analyze the differences in diversity between the habitat types. We found that there was greater dung count of white-tailed deer in hammock habitats compared to pastures (p=0.048) and greater diversity of wildlife in hammocks than pastures (p=0.028). Cattle dung was found in high density in both hammocks and pastures. These results indicate that hammocks are areas shared between cattle and wildlife at BIR and depending on the extent of direct and indirect contacts between these animals there can be a risk for pathogen spillover. We recommend further research on local land and cattle management practices that can facilitate the co-existence of livestock and wildlife.