The first observations of Florida burrowing owls (Athene cunicularia floridana) occurred in the 19th century on historical dry prairie habitat in south central Florida. These early observations documented the ecology of burrowing owls in rural environments. Since then the vast majority of research on this subspecies has been undertaken in suburban and urban environments during the breeding period. The research undertaken on burrowing owls in suburban and urban environments includes determining natal dispersal distance, assessing female fecundity, mate fidelity, territory fidelity, date of juvenile and adult dispersal from breeding habitat, date of clutch initiation, nesting success, density of breeding pairs, causes of mortality, prey preference, and minimum annual survival of fledglings, juveniles, and adults. Very little research has been undertaken on burrowing owls in rural environments. The purpose of this thesis was to elucidate the behavior and ecology of burrowing owls in a rural environment. The topics researched in this thesis include home range in breeding habitat, dispersal distance to post-breeding habitat, location of post-breeding habitat, behavior during the breeding period, diet of rural versus urban owls, and the evaluation of three methods to trap burrowing owls. The results of this thesis indicate that, during the daytime, juvenile burrowing owls utilized habitat very close to the main and satellite burrows during the breeding period. At night juvenile owls foraged in an extensive saw palmetto patch surrounding the breeding habitat. The predominant prey of both rural and urban burrowing owls during the breeding period was insects. Dispersal of juvenile burrowing owls from breeding habitat coincided with the flooding of the breeding habitat during the rainy season.

This book is a contribution to the debate of the metaphysics and value of death. The metaphysical problems of death are closely connected with the debate of personal identity. In Chapter Two, I defend the view that human persons are human organisms. This view, often called "Animalism," is apparently incompatible with a standard account of personal identity over time, "the Psychological View." I try to show how the Animalist can accommodate the intuitions that seem to support the Psychological View. In Chapter Three, I discuss the thesis that human persons cease to exist when they die, a thesis that has bearing on several metaphysical and ethical questions. Recently, many materialists have attacked the thesis, arguing that human persons continue to exist after death as corpses. In opposition to this popular view, I argue that human animals, and hence human persons, do go out of existence at death. Epicureans deny that death is an evil for the one who dies. Their arguments are based on what will be called "the missing subject problem." In Chapter Four, I aim to show that Epicureanism survives the objections that have been put forward in current literature. But I also argue that a more convincing case can be made against the Epicurean view. Anti-Epicureans typically base the view that death is sometimes bad for the deceased on the "deprivation approach." This approach seems to have the unsavory consequence that prenatal non-existence, too, is a great evil. Recently, proponents of the deprivation approach have suggested a number of ways of avoiding this implication. In Chapter Five, I argue that all these attempts fail, and that it is preferable to accept the consequence. In Chapter Six I turn to the question of the reasonableness of the special concern that most people have for their own deaths. I claim that this issue should be treated in the light of the more general question of the justifiability of special concern about one's own future. It is often held that such concern is justified if and only if "Non-Reductionism" about personal identity is correct. I argue, on the contrary, that it is unjustified whether or not Non-Reductionism is true.

The full geographic distribution and habitat use of the Florida Burrowing Owl, a state "Species of Special Concern," is not well-understood, particularly in remote, non-urban areas. This thesis aimed to expand and improve knowledge about non-urban burrowing owls. We first compiled databases of historic sighting observations. Fieldwork verified and updated existing breeding observation point records and also yielded new breeding locations. Using a GIS, we characterized observed land use, landcover, relevant soil attributes, projected future land use and managed area status for selected points. We quantified landcover within biologically-determined buffer distances around burrows from our own field-verified records. Using standard resource selection methods, we compared observed and available proportions, calculated selection indices, and determined selection/avoidance for each landcover class. These empirical results were used in combination with expert opinion and literature review to finalize criteria for and map "suitable" landcover. Suitability of relevant soil attributes were also empirically-determined and used to further reduce the overall "suitable" area. The final suitable habitat maps appear to relate well to the overall distribution of known non-urban burrowing owl records and demonstrate that a great deal of potentially-suitable breeding habitat exists throughout Florida's central interior. Improved pasture, the most prevalent landcover class, also appears to be the most strongly selected in this study and may be of high importance to non-urban, breeding burrowing owls. Our results could be useful to wildlife officials managing this species. Recommendations include improving surveys and conservation efforts in non-urban areas and enhancing cooperation with landowners, particularly ranchers, as success on private lands seems critical to the long-term persistence of this species.