ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida is home to two native mammals whose established ranges in the United States are confined to the state, according to a review of wildlife data by Outforia’s Atlas.
The Florida bonneted bat is found only in southern Florida. It is the state’s largest bat, measuring roughly 5 to 6.5 inches long, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The species is federally endangered and faces threats from habitat loss, development, pesticide use, severe weather and its small population. The International Union for Conservation of Nature separately classifies it as vulnerable. The two labels come from different conservation systems and should not be used interchangeably.
Florida’s other state-restricted mammal is the Florida mouse, which lives in dry, sandy habitats such as scrub, sandhill and scrubby flatwoods across much of the Florida peninsula.
The mouse has a close connection to another familiar Florida animal. It commonly digs small nesting tunnels inside gopher tortoise burrows, which provide protection from fire, extreme weather and predators.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission removed the Florida mouse from the state’s threatened species list in 2017. However, it remains protected from being captured or possessed and is included in Florida’s Imperiled Species Management Plan. Habitat loss and the decline of gopher tortoise populations continue to threaten the species.
Wildlife maps can sometimes make an animal’s range appear broader than it is. A recorded sighting may represent an escaped animal, a wandering individual or an isolated observation rather than an established breeding population. Outforia said its review used established range information and native state listings instead of relying only on individual occurrence records.
“The Florida mouse is a good reason to look beyond the wildlife everyone already knows,” Outforia founder Carl Borg said. “It often shelters in gopher tortoise burrows, so there’s more going on beneath those sandy uplands than you might expect.”
People who encounter either species should observe it from a distance and avoid disturbing animals, nests or burrows. Gopher tortoises and their burrows are protected under Florida law.
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