Article Summary #1

October 21, 2025

Today’s focus is an article written by Denise Rocus and Frank J. Mazzotti, supplied by the University of Florida and originally published in 1996 for the Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation. To view the article for yourself, follow this link: SSWEC70/UW107: Threats to Florida’s Biodiversity

If you are more of a visual and auditory learner, below are two videos which relate well to the article being discussed today and might also give additional background to understand the topics being discussed better:

(27) Conservation Ecology: Threats to Biodiversity – YouTube

Saving the Florida Wildlife Corridor | National Geographic

The article entitled “Threats to Florida’s Biodiversity” touches upon the major factors of danger to biodiversity in any ecosystem: habitat loss through land development, habitat fragmentation through roadways, and invasive species.

Habitat loss through land development can be defined quite simply. As more and more people flock to Florida, land developers are moving in to build up new neighborhoods, condos, hotels and commodities such as gas stations and stores. Not only does this affect the natural landscape, but it directly affects native species.

“We cut down forests to build our homes and feed our growing population, while destroying the homes and food of our native wildlife.”

Denise Rocus, Frank J. Mazzotti

To put it simply, building over sections of land that once held rich green Florida foliage displaces wildlife into other areas. Even if those areas are carefully built around, habitat fragmentation can create an even larger problem. Habitat fragmentation is the same as putting a group of people on an island and telling them to progress with what they have available to them. Over time, resources grow scarce and inbreeding occurs. Since ecosystems fragmented by roadways are not in complete isolation, there is an additional risk of animals attempting to find methods of survival outside of their theoretical island.

“Automobile collisions have been implicated as a major cause of mortality for several of Florida’s large threatened or endangered species, including the Florida panther, Florida black bear, Key deer, bald eagle, and American crocodile.”

Denise Rocus, Frank J. Mazzotti

Habitat fragmentation from roadway systems also opens the ecosystems up to invasive species who might cause damage to native species by outcompeting them for resources. As an example, the article brings up the brown-headed cowbird. Although the brown-headed cowbird is a native species to sub-tropical North America, its range has expanded because they prefer areas on the edges of forests. They are parasitic in nature due to their brooding practice of laying their eggs in other bird nests for their young to be raised by other birds. They affect other species by demanding resources and growing their numbers at a faster rate due to their egg laying methods. For more information from a relatively recent source, check out the following video: Brown Headed Cowbirds – A Brood Parasite.

Living in St Augustine, and many years after the article by Rocus and Mazzotti was originally published, I notice some of the things they wrote about. The most common piece of information I witness in my own daily life is the displacement of animals. Along SR-312 and US 1 there are a significant number of deer and other mammals who become roadkill, or, more often, nearly become roadkill, particularly during early mornings or late nights. I myself have had to slam on my brakes on several occasions in order to avoid hitting deer who have run into the middle of the road. In St Augustine’s Shores, a neighborhood down US 1 and close to SR-206, there are herds of deer that patrol around the streets during the night. These animals are essentially caged in by roads and structures that surround the wooded areas they reside in, limiting their access to resources and their opportunity to grow.

Habitat loss has been the name of the game for years. It seems like construction is constant, especially down highways between Jacksonville and St Augustine. Most of the time it’s condos, hotels, neighborhoods and gas stations to supplement the demand for housing. Most locals do not see this as a good thing. Many St Augustine residents who have been in the city for their entire lives dream about how it used to be: green, small and beautiful. Now traffic clogs up the roads, seas of green are being replaced by rows of beige, and the map of what locals once knew is now continuously changing.

#SAVETHEGREEN