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CU Due to this wide -spread loss of Florida's scrub habitat, FNAI (1990) has ranked this natural community as imperiled, both globally and within the State of Florida. `t In response to the extreme environmental conditions and limited spatial extent of the scrub natural community, the Florida scrub -jay has evolved into a habitat specialist j that has adapted by developing a unique social system that includes permanent monogamy, year-round territoriality, cooperative breeding, an intrafamilial dominance hierarchy, delayed dispersal, food caching, and an exceptional sentinel system (Woolfenden and Fitzpatrick 1977; Staiicup and Woolfenden 1978; Woolfenden and Fitzpatrick 1984). The Florida scrub -jay is non -migratory and occupies permanent year-round territories averaging 22.5 acres in size (Woolfenden and Fitzpatrick 1984; Fitzpatrick et al. 1991; Fitzpatrick et al. 1994x). This species is one of the few cooperative breeding birds in the Eastern United States, whereby surviving fledgling scrub -jays usually remain with the breeding pair in their natal territory as "helpers," forming a closely -knit, cooperative family group (Stalicup and Woolfenden 1978; Woolfenden and Fitzpatrick 1984). Group size ranges from 2 to 8 birds, but pre - breeding families average 2.8 individuals (usually a pair with from 0 to 2 helpers) (Fitzpatrick et al. 1994a). Helpers participate in scanning for predators, territorial defense against neighboring scrub -jay groups, predator -mobbing, and the feeding of both nestlings and fledglings (Woolfenden and Fitzpatrick 1984), Distribution Florida scrub -jays were historically distributed throughout the Florida peninsula in suitable habitat in 39 of the 40 counties south of, and including, Levy, Gilchrist, Alachua, Clay, and Duval (Fitzpatrick el al. 1994a). The only county on the peninsula that historically lacked scrub -jays was Monroe (Fitzpatrick et a/. 1994x). Currently, the much -reduced range of the Florida scrub -jay extends from Flagler to Palm Beach counties on the Atlantic Coast (Fitzpatrick et al. 1994a). On the Gulf Coast, scrub -jays persist in small and distantly isolated populations from Levy south to Collier counties (Fitzpatrick or al. 1994a). In interior Florida, this species persists mainly on federal properties in Putnam and Marion counties south to Polk, Highlands, and Glades counties (Fitzpatrick el aL 1994a). The present day Florida scrub -jay population is distributed within five (5) "Subregions", with well over half of the State's remaining jays occurring in three (3) core populations with al least 400 breeding pairs each (Fitzpatrick et al. 1994a). These core population centers are associated with the Atlantic Coastal Ridge (Merritt Island/Cape Canaveral), the Mount Dora Ridge (Ocala National Forest), and the Lake Wales Ridge and associated ridges, These extensive scrub ridges constitute major Subregions within the overall distribution of Florida scrub - jay: the Atlantic Coast Subregion, the Ocala Subregion, and the Lake Wales Ridge Subregion (Fitzpatrick et al. 1994aI• Soil maps indicate that even prior to habitat modification by humans, these three (3) major Subregions were separated from one another by habitat types that were mostly unsuitable for use by scrub -jays 13