High water this summer in the Florida Everglades could mean a massive die-off of white-tailed deer and other terrestrial species.
Deer, along with smaller herbaceous mammals like rabbits, live on the tree islands in the River of Grass.
Michael Anderson, a biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said heavy rainfall has inundated many of those islands, forcing the animals onto the last available high ground.
“Of the tree islands that are out there, which only represent about 2 percent of the area, I would say 70 to 80 percent are completely inundated, which means the water level is right at the top of the elevation or maybe a few inches above,” he said.
Anderson said this decrease in habitat exposes the animals to two significant threats.
“For one they have limited food resources and they also become more susceptible as prey,” he said.
Predators include panthers, bob-cats and increasingly coyotes. Anderson says the deer and others can usually deal with the high-water for about a month. However, after that, they begin to sicken from malnutrition and die.
During a high water event in the mid 1990’s that lasted for months, more than 90 percent of the deer population perished.
