Determining population growth rate and growth curve for bald eagle nesting sites in Florida

by Sarah Richter

Submitted : Fall 2018

The purpose of this project was to determine the population growth rates of bald eagle populations in Florida as a whole and in Polk County. Data was gathered from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission on the number of active bald eagle nesting sites in Florida and by county. The data collected for the state of Florida was from 2002-20014, for a total of 13 years. The data collected for Polk county was from 2004-2011, for a total of 8 years. 

            From this data, scatter plots for both Florida and Polk County were constructed to determine the type of growth model for each population. For the state of Florida, it was found that the population of nesting bald eagles represents a logistic growth model. This model indicates that the population of bald eagles in Florida has reached its carrying capacity. It was also found that the population of nesting bald eagles in Polk county represents a fluctuating population curve. It was not possible to determine the type of growth curve for the bald eagle population in Polk County due to the limited number of data points.  

[ Back ]