Graduation Year
2007
Document Type
Thesis
Degree
M.S.
Degree Granting Department
Biology
Major Professor
Henry Mushinsky, Ph.D.
Co-Major Professor
Earl McCoy, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Peter Stiling, Ph.D.
Keywords
Feeding experiments, Habitat use, Orientation, Geotaxis, Exotic species
Abstract
The gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) is critical to upland communities and considered a keystone species. A recent threat to gopher tortoise habitat is the invasive cogongrass (Imperata cylindrica), which spreads rapidly, eliminating native vegetation. This study consisted of three experiments to investigate the effects of the cogongrass on a population of gopher tortoises. A feeding experiment revealed that individuals readily ate native vegetation, but would not eat cogongrass. A tracking experiment showed that there was a significantly different mean angle of movement between individuals whose home ranges were outside cogongrass compared to those that overlapped cogongrass, indicating that the presence of cogongrass disrupts normal movement patterns. An orientation experiment showed that individuals outside cogongrass oriented in a direction that would take them to their home burrow, while individuals inside cogongrass showed no preferred directional orientation. Cogongrass effectively eliminates the gopher tortoises' food source and habitat, and disrupts orientation. The experiments indicate that a cogongrass infestation has the capacity to eliminate populations of gopher tortoises if its spread is not checked.
Scholar Commons Citation
Basiotis, Katherine A., "The Effects of Invasive Cogongrass (Imperata cylindrica) on the Threatened Gopher Tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus)" (2007). USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/618
