Dave Onorato

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission | ffwcc · Fish and Wildlife Research Institute

Feline leukemia virus (FeLV) is a retrovirus that primarily affects domestic cats. Close interactions with domestic cats, including predation, can lead to the interspecific transmission of the virus to pumas, bobcats, or other feline species.

The phylogeography of the American black bear (Ursus americanus) is characterized by isolation into glacial refugia, followed by population expansion and genetic admixture. Anthropogenic activities, including overharvest, habitat loss, and transportation infrastructure , have also influenced their landscape genetic structure. We describe the geneti...

Identifying drivers of transmission—especially of emerging pathogens—is a formidable challenge for proactive disease management efforts. While close social interactions can be associated with microbial sharing between individuals, and thereby imply dynamics important for transmission, such associations can be obscured by the influences of factors s...

Genetic admixture is a biological event inherent to genetic rescue programs aimed at the long-term conservation of endangered wildlife. Although the success of such programs can be measured by the increase in genetic diversity and fitness of subsequent admixed individuals, predictions supporting admixture costs to fitness due to the introduction of...

In 1995, eight female pumas from Texas (Puma concolor stanleyana) were introduced into five areas in South Florida to remediate morphological and biomedical correlates of inbreeding depression that threatened the long-term survival of Florida panthers (P. c. coryi). Initial analysis of the results of this genetic introgression initiative has highli...

Pathogen management strategies in wildlife are typically accompanied by an array of uncertainties such as the efficacy of vaccines or potential unintended consequences of interventions. In the context of such uncertainties, models of disease transmission can provide critical insight for optimizing pathogen management, especially for species of cons...

The phylogeography of the American black bear (Ursus americanus) is characterized by isolation into glacial refugia, followed by population expansion and genetic admixture. Anthropogenic activities, including overharvest, habitat loss, and transportation infrastructure, have also influenced their landscape genetic structure. We describe the phyloge...

This SSA evaluates the current status of the Florida panther as well as an assessment on the risk of extinction in the future. This SSA applies the conservation biology principles of resiliency, redundancy, and representation (the 3 R’s) to evaluate the current and future condition of the Florida panther. Resiliency, redundancy, and representation...

Feral swine (Sus scrofa), an important prey species for the endangered Florida panther (Puma concolor coryi), is the natural host for pseudorabies virus (PRV). Prior to this study, PRV had been detected in just three panthers. To determine the effect of PRV on the panther population, we prospectively necropsied 199 panthers and retrospectively revi...

Management of pathogen transmission is often hindered by uncertainties in the efficacy of and interactions between intervention strategies, sometimes resulting in unintended negative consequences. Yet outbreaks of infectious disease can have serious consequences for wildlife population health, especially species of conservation concern. The endange...

Identifying drivers of transmission prior to an epidemic - especially of an emerging pathogen - is a formidable challenge for proactive disease management efforts. We tested a novel approach in the Florida panther, hypothesizing that apathogenic feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) transmission could predict transmission dynamics for pathogenic feli...

Increases in apex predator abundance can influence the behavior of sympatric species, particularly when the available habitat and/or resources are limited. We assessed the temporal and spatiotemporal interactions between Florida panthers (Puma concolor coryi) and six focal sympatric species in South Florida, where Florida panther abundance has incr...

This report evaluates the current status of the Florida panther as well as an assessment on the risk of extinction in the future. This SSA applies the conservation biology principles of resiliency, redundancy, and representation (the 3 R's) to evaluate the current and future condition of the Florida panther. Also assessed is the concept of a fourth...

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Wildlife translocations are a commonly used strategy in endangered species recovery programmes. Although translocations require detailed assessment of risk, their impact on parasite distribution has not been thoroughly assessed. This is despite the observation that actions that alter host-parasite distributions can drive evolution or introduce new...

Pumas are the most widely distributed felid in the Western Hemisphere. Increasingly, however, human persecution and habitat loss are isolating puma populations. To explore the genomic consequences of this isolation, we assemble a draft puma genome and a geographically broad panel of resequenced individuals. We estimate that the lineage leading to p...

In the mid-1990s, the population size of Florida panthers became so small that many individuals manifested traits associated with inbreeding depression (e.g., heart defects, cryptorchidism, high pathogen-parasite load). To mitigate these effects, pumas from Texas were introduced into South Florida to augment genetic variation in Florida panthers. I...

Abundant evidence supports the benefits accrued to the Florida panther (Puma concolor coryi) population via the genetic introgression project implemented in South Florida, USA, in 1995. Since then, genetic diversity has improved, the frequency of morphological and biomedical correlates of inbreeding depression have declined, and the population size...

Once on the brink of extinction, the Florida panther (Puma concolor coryi) has reoccupied parts of its extirpated range in southern Florida, USA over the past 20 years, which has largely been attributed to genetic restoration efforts initiated in 1995 to combat inbreeding depression and subsequent deleterious traits. Concurrent to the resurgence, a...

Introduction paragraph/Abstract Across the geographic range of mountain lions, which includes much of North and South America, populations have become increasingly isolated due to human persecution and habitat loss. To explore the genomic consequences of these processes, we assembled a high-quality mountain lion genome and analyzed a panel of reseq...

Movement patterns can influence an animal's ability to secure food, find mates, and avoid enemies, potentially affecting individual fitness. We studied movement patterns of 10 male and 3 female endangered Florida panthers (Puma concolor coryi) using location data collected from a long-Term (2005-2012) GPS collar study. Males traveled faster and cov...

Florida panthers are endangered pumas that currently persist in reduced patches of habitat in South Florida, USA. We performed mitogenome reference-based assemblies for most parental lines of the admixed Florida panthers that resulted from the introduction of female Texas pumas into South Florida in 1995. With the addition of 2 puma mitogenomes, we...

Section 1: Background/Question/Methods Adaptive management requires for population viability analyses (PVAs) to be updated and reevaluated as conservation strategies are implemented, changes in the population or the environment occur, and new demographic data become available. The Florida panther (Puma concolor coryi) population has been monitored...

Background Global positioning system (GPS) technology for monitoring home range and movements of wildlife has resulted in prohibitively large sample sizes of locations for traditional estimators of home range. We used area-under-the-curve to explore the fit of 8 estimators of home range to data collected with both GPS and concurrent very high frequ...

1. Reliably estimating the abundance of rare or elusive animals is notoriously difficult. An archetypical example is the endangered Florida panther, whose conservation status is intrinsically linked to population size, but for which reliable abundance information is lacking across its range. This is due not only to the inherent difficulty of sampli...

The Florida panther was presumed extinct by the early 1950s, but was rediscovered in 1973 by a survey team organized by the National Geographic Society. They were one of the first species to be added to the US endangered species list and are now the only population of North American puma that occurs east of Mississippi River. This 3-page fact sheet...

Background Parasites of the genus Trichinella are zoonotic nematodes common in carnivores throughout the world. We determined the prevalence and species of Trichinella infections in Florida panthers (Puma concolor coryi).Methods Tongues from Florida panthers were collected at necropsy and examined by pepsin-HCl artificial digestion for infection wi...

Animals must move to find food and mates, and to avoid predators; movement thus influences survival and reproduction, and ultimately determines fitness. Precise description of movement and understanding of spatial and temporal patterns as well as relationships with intrinsic and extrinsic factors is important both for theoretical and applied reason...

Crossing structures are an effective method for mitigating habitat fragmentation and reducing wildlife‐vehicle collisions, although high construction costs limit the number that can be implemented in practice. Therefore, optimizing the placement of crossing structures in road networks is suggested as a strategic conservation planning method. This r...

Genetic data are increasingly used to describe the structure of wildlife populations and to infer landscape influences on functional connectivity. To accomplish this, genetic structure can be described with a multitude of methods that vary in their assumptions, advantages and limitations. While some methods discriminate distinct subpopulations sepa...

The breeding population of the endangered Florida panther (Puma concolor coryi) is confined to the southern portion of the Florida peninsula. During the 20th century, a combination of isolation and small population size resulted in increased inbreeding. This ultimately led to a genetic restoration program in 1995 to alleviate correlates of inbreedi...

To assess recovery of endangered species, reliable information on the size and density of the target population is required. In practice, however, this information has proved hard to acquire, especially for large carnivores that exist at low densities, are cryptic and range widely. Many large carnivore species such as the endangered Florida panther...

Knowledge of growth in body dimension and mass is important to understanding fundamental elements of wildlife biology and ecology. We evaluated five classical growth models (Gompertz, Logistic, Monomolecular, Richards, and von Bertalanffy) in describing body length and mass growth curves as a function of age to determine which best fit wild Puma co...

Genetic restoration has been suggested as a management tool for mitigating detrimental effects of inbreeding depression in small, inbred populations, but the demographic mechanisms underlying population-level responses to genetic restoration remain poorly understood. We studied the dynamics and persistence of the endangered Florida panther Puma con...

Estrus behavior by females for reasons other than reproduction (pseudo-estrus) has been reported in species of primates and felids, and alternative hypotheses have been put forth to explain its evolution and function. We observed 3 separate cases of pseudo-estrus behavior by 2 Puma concolor coryi (Florida Panther) females while they were nursing yo...

The only assumption of kernel density estimation, the most popular method of animal home range delineation, is that sample points used to approximate the utilization distribution are independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.), or what is termed ‘homogeneous’ or ‘stationary’. This research evaluated the accuracy of several home range estimator...

Summary1. Inbreeding and low genetic diversity can cause reductions in individual fitness and increase extinction risk in animal populations. Intentional introgression, achieved by releasing genetically diverse individuals into inbred populations, has been used as a conservation tool to improve demographic performance in endangered populations.2. B...

Genetic introgression has been suggested as a management tool for mitigating detrimental effects of inbreeding depression, but the role of introgression in species conservation has been controversial, partly because population-level impacts of genetic introgressions are not well understood. Concerns about potential inbreeding depression in the enda...

Understanding the social dynamics of large carnivores is critical to effective conservation and management planning. We made the first attempt to delineate both paternity and relatedness for a population of cougar (Puma concolor) using microsatellite data. We analyzed a long-term genetic dataset collected from a hunted population in the Garnet Moun...

Decisions regarding landscape management, restoration and land acquisition typically depend on land managers' interpretation of how wildlife selects habitat. Such assessments are particularly important for umbrella species like the endangered Florida panther Puma concolor coryi, whose survival requires vast wildlands. Some interpretations of habita...

Florida panthers (Puma concolor coryi) are listed as an endangered subspecies in the United States and they exist in a single Florida population with <100 individuals; all known reproduction occurs south of Lake Okeechobee. Habitat loss is the biggest threat to this small population and previous studies of habitat selection have relied on very high...

We agree with Hedrick that there are cogent reasons for continuing to monitor the surviving Florida panthers in the future. Inbreeding is by no means solved and may increase as available habitat is developed. It is true that the relative genetic contribution of the Texas pumas was restricted to five

Estimates of survival for the young of a species are critical for population models. These models can often be improved by determining the effects of management actions and population abundance on this demographic parameter. We used multiple sources of data collected during 1982-2008 and a live recapture-dead recovery modeling framework to estimate...

The rediscovery of remnant Florida panthers (Puma concolor coryi) in southern Florida swamplands prompted a program to protect and stabilize the population. In 1995, conservation managers translocated eight female pumas (P. c. stanleyana) from Texas to increase depleted genetic diversity, improve population numbers, and reverse indications of inbre...

Background/Question/Methods Concerns about potential inbreeding depression in the endangered Florida panther (Puma concolor coryi) led to the release of 8 female Texas pumas (P. c. stanleyana) into the population in 1995. The demographic effects of this introgression program have not been thoroughly evaluated. We used long-term reproductive data...

The American black bear (Ursus americanus) experienced a significant range contraction during the 19th and 20th centuries due to a variety of anthropogenic factors. Although previous molecular studies of black bears provided insight into historic and contemporary forces shaping phylogeographic patterns, none included black bears from the central pa...

American black bears (Ursus americanus) have recolonized western Texas following extirpation in the mid-1900s. Knowledge of winter ecology of black bears is important for conservation and management because denning, parturition, and early cub development occur during this period. We monitored 13 radiocollared black bears for 22 den-years in Big Ben...

Hair from black bears (Ursus americanus), collected from four areas in the Big Bend ecosystem, has been analyzed for stable isotopes of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur to determine major food sources and for trace metals to infer possible effects of environmental contaminants. Results indicate that black bears are largely vegetarian, feeding on desert...

American black bears (Ursus americanus) have recolonized parts of their former range in the Trans-Pecos region of western Texas after a >40-year absence. Assessment of genetic variation, structuring, gene flow, and dispersal among bear populations along the borderlands of Mexico and Texas is important to gain a better understanding of recolonizatio...

Snow leopards (Panthera uncia) are elusive endangered carnivores found in remote mountain regions of Central Asia. New methods for identifying and counting snow leopards are needed for conservation and management efforts. To develop molecular genetic tools for individual identification of hair and faecal samples, we screened 50 microsatellite loci...

The identification of carnivores responsible for preying on wild or domestic ungulates often is of interest to wildlife managers. Typically, field personnel collect a variety of data at mortality sites including scat or hair samples that may have been deposited by the predator. We compared mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis of hair and scat samples...

National Parks are becoming increasingly important to the conservation of many species, especially large and medium sized carnivores. With the fragmentation and loss of suitable habitat occurring across North America and the negative stigmatism often associated with carnivores, suitable habitat conditions for many carnivores may eventually be restr...

Understanding metapopulation dynamics in large carnivores with naturally fragmented populations is difficult because of the large temporal and spatial context of such dynamics. We coupled a long-term database of visitor sighting records with an intensive 3-year telemetry study to describe population dynamics of recolonization by black bears (Ursus...

American black bears (Ursus americanus (Pallas, 1780)) are characterized by female philopatry and malebiased dispersal, with predictable consequences for genetic structure of populations. We studied a recolonizing population of black bears on a desert montane island to test genetic-based predictions of bear social behavior. We assessed genetic pate...

The aim of this study was to determine whether photoperiod-induced changes in body and fat mass are accompanied by changes in leptin and corticosterone concentrations in collared lemmings. At weaning, eighty male lemmings were maintained in either long photoperiod (LD, n = 40 ) or short photoperiod (SD, n = 40 ). Ten weeks post-weaning lemmings wer...

Natural recolonization by large carnivores has rarely been documented. American black bears (Ursus americanus) recently (1988-present) recolonized portions of their former range in western Texas. We used mtDNA sequence data (n = 144 bears) from 7 populations of southwestern black bears in New Mexico, Texas, and northern Mexico to test predictions r...

American black bears (Ursus americanuś) have recolonized Big Bend National Park (BIBE), Texas, in the past 15 years from adjacent habitat in northern Mexico. Range expansion by the Big Bend bear population across the Chihuahuan Desert landscape has considerable consequences for the recolonization of areas north of BIBE in western Texas (Glass, Del...

The upper Cahaba River in Alabama has experienced extensive urban development in its watershed in recent years. To assess the effects that these developments have had on the ichthyofauna, we compared data from samples made at 12 stations by other researchers prior to 1984 to data from samples collected by us at the same sites between 1995–97. Histo...

We conducted an ichthyofaunal bioassessment on the upper Cahaba River in north central Alabama during the fall of 1995, the spring and fall of 1996, and the spring of 1997. There were trends denoting a loss of habitat stability in areas impacted by anthropogenic sources of pollution, particularly siltation. Negative longitudinal trends were recorde...

A comparison of the sampling effectiveness of a backpack electroshocker and small-mesh seine was conducted on the upper Cahaba River in the Valley and Ridge physiographic province of north-central Alabama. Each of 15 sites was sampled once during fall 1995 (20 September–23 October), spring 1996 (2 May–20 June), and fall 1996 (20 September–16 Octobe...

Between 5 January 1990 and 27 August 1992, a total of 482 Sternotherus minor were marked at Rainbow Run, Marion Co., Florida. Sex-specific and size-specific growth rates (plastron and carapace length) of S. minor were determined using data from a mark-release-recapture study. Growth rates decreased with increasing carapace and plastron lengths, wit...

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oklahoma State University, 2003. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Microfilm.

Abstract American black bears (Ursus americanus) have recolonized parts of their former range in the Trans-Pecos region of western Texas after a >40-year absence. Assessment of genetic variation, structuring, gene flow, and dispersal among bear populations along the borderlands of Mexico and Texas is important to gain a better understanding of reco...