Study species.

Study species comprised 12 taxon-pairs, each included a federally threatened or endangered subspecies and a closely related non-listed subspecies in the same parent species group (in some cases, two non-listed subspecies were used for comparison). Scientific nomenclature for listed subspecies followed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Endangered Species Program [11]; nomenclature for non-listed subspecies followed the Integrated Taxonomic Information System [27] and supplemental literature when indicated.aThe endangered taxon Oryzomys palustris natator[11] is also referred to as Oryzomys argentatus[66].bSubspecies taxonomy for O. palustris has undergone several revisions. For this study, we compared the federally endangered population (O. p. natator aka O. argentatus) to two mainland subspecies of O. palustris located in Florida and the southeastern United States. According to [66], O. p. natator is a subspecies that occurs in central Florida; it does not interact with the endangered population.cSubspecies taxonomy for Puma concolor has undergone several revisions. According to [46], P. c. couguar refers to cougars throughout North America.dPolyborus plancus audubonii[11] is included as a sub-population of the species Caracara cheriway (northern crested caracara) according to ITIS [27] nomenclature. We compared the P. p. audubonii population to other non-interacting individuals with the most geographic similarity in the C. cheriway complex.