Crocodile Lake Inventory and Monitoring Project

Despite decades of trapping surveys, no long-term, comparative sampling index for monitoring the endangered Key Largo woodrats (KLWR) and Key Largo cotton mice (KLCM) and their predators has ever been established. This project will serve to refine and establish a long-term monitoring plan that uses noninvasive techniques to track the distribution of KLWR and KLCM. The monitoring data will be used to track changes in KLWR/KLCM distribution over time and will be the main driver of on-the-ground management actions, such as habitat and population management, as well as the removal of invasive species.

In 2020, we also added additional surveys of endangered beach mice from track tubes in northern Florida to follow similar protocols for future monitoring targets.

Caveat: These cameras are pointed at supplemental nest structures built for KL rodent conservation. They are therefore not necessarily reliable for medium and large mammal survey data.

All work is supported and permited by the USFWS.

Project Images