Movements of bats (Mammalia, Chiroptera) in Atlantic Forest remnants in southern Brazil

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Growth and home range size of the gracile mouse opossum Gracilinanus microtarsus (Marsupialia: Didelphidae) in Brazilian cerrado

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Foraging activity and demographic patterns of two termite species (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae) living in urban landscapes in southeastern Brazil

Coptotermes gestroi and Heterotermes tenuis (Isoptera: Rbinotermitidae) are important pests in southeastern Brazil causing serious economic damage. In this study we determined the demographic patterns and foraging activity of these species using mark-release-recapture and the consumption of wooden stakes. Using both the weighted mean and Lincoln index methods, population estimates ranged from ≈ 0.57 to 1.99 million individuals for C. gestroi and from ≈ 0.20 to 1.37 million for H. tenuis. Territory size of the colonies ranged from 172.5 to 5235 m 2 for C. gestroi and from 16 to 40 m 2 for H. tenuis. Our results also indicate that foraging activity was dependent on the minimum temperature; however, the existence of a compensation strategy in the foraging activities may permit foragers to exploit food sources under different environmental conditions.

Snake assemblage in a disturbed grassland environment in Rio Grande do Sul State, southern Brazil: Population fluctuations of Liophis poecilogyrus and Pseudablabes agassizii

A mark-recapture study of a snake assemblage using pitfall traps with drift fences was carried out in a disturbed grassland environment (e.g. cattle breeding and cultivations), located in the Pampa Biome, in the central region of the Rio Grande do Sul State, southern Brazil. From February 2001 to January 2004 we caught 272 snakes belonging to 20 species from the following families: Elapidae (5%), Viperidae (10%), and Colubridae (85%). The assemblage had a unimodal seasonal pattern of activity, and the highest number of captures occurred between September and May. There was a positive and significant correlation between the number of captures and monthly minimum and maximum average temperatures. Recruitment was observed from January to April. During the study, the area was affected by human activities, which altered the community structure: Pseudablabes agassizii was negatively affected by habitat devastation while Liophis poecilogyrus took advantage of this. Our results reinforced the impression that Pseudablabes agassizii is a habitat specialist species. We extend the understanding of the susceptibility of this species to environmental destruction in open natural environments of South America, and propose its use as a potential bio-indicator of the Pampa biome. We also discuss the importance of conservation strategies for snakes in grasslands of southern Brazil. © Finnish Zoological and Botanical Publishing Board 2007.

Phenotypic changes and small mammal impoverishment on a Brazilian Atlantic Forest Island

Faunal impoverishment and distorted species compositions are common phenomena in oceanic islands; however, many land-bridge islands are poorly inventoried, especially in the Neotropics. We sampled a small mammal community on a land-bridge island (Anchieta Island) along the Brazilian coast. We found only one marsupial Didelphis aurita (Wied-Neuwied, 1826) and two rodent species Oligoryzomys nigripes (Olfers, 1818) and Trinomys iheringi (Thomas, 1911) during 12 months of live trapping and 9195 trap-nights. The diversity of rodents and marsupials was not explained by species-area relations, indicating possible past extinctions. The abundance of D. aurita and O. nigripes was approximately three times higher, while the abundance of T. iheringi was approximately four times lower than abundances reported from other Brazilian Atlantic Forest sites. The population of D. aurita exhibited many phenotypic changes; males were on average 8 % smaller and females produced 30 % less litters than those from the mainland and other land-bridge islands. The long history of forest disturbance, habitat loss, reduction in forest productivity, and the recent introduction of mesopredators may be the major drivers that explain the small mammal community composition on this island. © 2013 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston.

Estudo da comunidade de pequenos mamíferos não-voadores, sob efeito do fogo e da borda, em área de floresta de transição Amazônia-Cerrado, Querência, MT

O desmatamento da Amazônia, causado pelas atividades pecuárias e pela agroindústria no norte do Estado do Mato Grosso, tem comprometido as chamadas Florestas de Transição Amazônia-Cerrado, antes que a biodiversidade destas áreas seja conhecida pelos pesquisadores. A fauna de pequenos mamíferos não-voadores faz parte dos grupos pouco conhecidos na região, e podem estar sofrendo impactos das ações antrópicas, principalmente efeito do fogo, usado para limpeza dos pastos e desmatamento para plantios da soja. Este trabalho caracterizou a diversidade de pequenos mamíferos não voadores em uma área de floresta de transição Amazônia-Cerrado, no norte do Estado do Mato Grosso e investigou o efeito do fogo e o efeito de borda sobre este grupo da fauna. Duas áreas de 150 hectares foram amostradas, uma preservada e outra sob impacto do fogo, com 183 armadilhas do tipo live-trap durante três anos em duas estação (seca e chuvosa). O método utilizado foi de captura-marcação-recaptura. O esforço amostral foi 23.424 armadilhas-noite. Capturaram-se 390 indivíduos, portanto, com sucesso de captura de 1,66 %. No total foram capturados 11 espécies, sendo 6 roedores e 5 marsupiais. Hylaeamys megacephalus foi a espécie mais abundante. A diversidade de pequenos mamíferos da área estudada foi mais relacionada com o bioma Cerrado do que com a Amazônia. Em relação ao fogo, a riqueza de espécies não foi estatisticamente diferente, porém a abundância foi significativamente maior nas transecções localizadas em área sem fogo. Dois grupos distintos de transecções foram característicos em função da presença ou não do fogo basedo na composição de pequenos mamíferos. A abundância de Hylaeamys megacephalus foi significativamente maior nas transecções que não sofreram impacto do fogo. Em relação ao efeito de borda, na Área 2, apesar da riqueza de espécies não ter sido significativamente diferente, a abundância foi signicativamente maior em relação a distância da borda com maiores abundâncias no interior das florestas. Já na Área 1, nem riqueza nem abundância foi estatísticamente diferente em relação a distância da borda. Este fato pode estar sendo mascarado tanto pelo efeito direto quanto indireto (na vegetação) do fogo experimental sobre os pequenos mamíferos. Quando analisados em conjunto fogo e distância da borda, o relacionamento entre ambos ficou mais claro, visto que todas as transecções amostradas sob efeito do fogo tiveram menores abundâncias. O tamanho populacional de Hylaemys megacephalus foi calculado ao longo de cinco estações na área sem influencia do fogo experiental, sendo que a estação chuvosa de 2006 foi estatisticamente diferente as demais e o pico desse crescimento pode ser explicado pelo “Efeito de Alle”. Não houve diferenças estatísticas significativas na estrutura da comunidade de pequenos mamíferos não-voadores entre as estações secas e chuvosas. Este trabalho de pesquisa contribuiu para o conhecimento da mastofauna desta região bastante ameaçada por pressões antrópicas.

Morcegos frugívoros no uso do hábitat fragmentado e seu potencial para recuperação de áreas degradadas: subsídios para uma nova ferramenta voltada à conservação

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Population structure of a native and an alien species of snail in an urban area of the Atlantic Rainforest

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Draft U.S. Pacific Marine Mammal Stock Assessments: 2009

Under the 1994 amendments to the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) are required to publish Stock Assessment Reports for all stocks of marine mammals within U.S. waters, to review new information every year for strategic stocks and every three years for non-strategic stocks, and to update the stock assessment reports when significant new information becomes available. This report presents stock assessments for 13 Pacific marine mammal stocks under NMFS jurisdiction, including 8 “strategic” stocks and 5 “non-strategic” stocks (see summary table). A new stock assessment for humpback whales in American Samoa waters is included in the Pacific reports for the first time. New or revised abundance estimates are available for 9 stocks, including Eastern North Pacific blue whales, American Samoa humpback whales, five U.S. west coast harbor porpoise stocks, the Hawaiian monk seal, and southern resident killer whales. A change in the abundance estimate of Eastern North Pacific blue whales reflects a recommendation from the Pacific Scientific Review Group to utilize mark-recapture estimates for this population, which provide a better estimate of total population size than the average of recent line-transect and mark-recapture estimates. The ‘Northern Oregon/Washington Coast Stock’ harbor porpoise stock assessment includes a name change (‘Oregon’ is appended to ‘Northern Oregon’) to reflect recent stock boundary changes. Changes in abundance estimates for the two stocks of harbor porpoise that occur in Oregon waters are the result of these boundary changes, and do not reflect biological changes in the populations. Updated information on the three stocks of false killer whales in Hawaiian waters is also included in these reports. Information on the remaining 50 Pacific region stocks will be reprinted without revision in the final 2009 reports and currently appears in the 2008 reports (Carretta et al. 2009). Stock Assessments for Alaskan marine mammals are published by the National Marine Mammal Laboratory (NMML) in a separate report. Pacific region stock assessments include those studied by the Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC, La Jolla, California), the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC, Honolulu, Hawaii), the National Marine Mammal Laboratory (NMML, Seattle, Washington), and the Northwest Fisheries Science Center (NWFSC, Seattle, WA). Northwest Fisheries Science Center staff prepared the report on the Eastern North Pacific Southern Resident killer whale. National Marine Mammal Laboratory staff prepared the Northern Oregon/Washington coast harbor porpoise stock assessment. Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center staff prepared the report on the Hawaiian monk seal. Southwest Fisheries Science Center staff prepared stock assessments for 9 stocks. The stock assessment for the American Samoa humpback whale was prepared by staff from the Center for Coastal Studies, Hawaiian Islands Humpback National Marine Sanctuary, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Southwest Fisheries Science Center. Draft versions of the stock assessment reports were reviewed by the Pacific Scientific Review Group at the November 2008, Maui meeting. The authors also wish to thank those who provided unpublished data, especially Robin Baird and Joseph Mobley, who provided valuable information on Hawaiian cetaceans. Any omissions or errors are the sole responsibility of the authors. This is a working document and individual stock assessment reports will be updated as new information on marine mammal stocks and fisheries becomes available. Background information and guidelines for preparing stock assessment reports are reviewed in Wade and Angliss (1997). The authors solicit any new information or comments which would improve future stock assessment reports. These Stock Assessment Reports summarize information from a wide range of sources and an extensive bibliography of all sources is given in each report. We strongly urge users of this document to refer to and cite original literature sources rather than citing this report or previous Stock Assessment Reports. If the original sources are not accessible, the citation should follow the format: [Original source], as cited in [this Stock Assessment Report citation].

Paternal Care Decreases Foraging Activity and Body Condition, but Does Not Impose Survival Costs to Caring Males in a Neotropical Arachnid

Exclusive paternal care is the rarest form of parental investment in nature and theory predicts that the maintenance of this behavior depends on the balance between costs and benefits to males. Our goal was to assess costs of paternal care in the harvestman Iporangaia pustulosa, for which the benefits of this behavior in terms of egg survival have already been demonstrated. We evaluated energetic costs and mortality risks associated to paternal egg-guarding in the field. We quantified foraging activity of males and estimated how their body condition is influenced by the duration of the caring period. Additionally, we conducted a one-year capture-mark-recapture study and estimated apparent survival probabilities of caring and non-caring males to assess potential survival costs of paternal care. Our results indicate that caring males forage less frequently than non-caring individuals (males and females) and that their body condition deteriorates over the course of the caring period. Thus, males willing to guard eggs may provide to females a fitness-enhancing gift of cost-free care of their offspring. Caring males, however, did not show lower survival probabilities when compared to both non-caring males and females. Reduction in mortality risks as a result of remaining stationary, combined with the benefits of improving egg survival, may have played an important and previously unsuspected role favoring the evolution of paternal care. Moreover, males exhibiting paternal care could also provide an honest signal of their quality as offspring defenders, and thus female preference for caring males could be responsible for maintaining the trait.

The life histories of the two tropical warblers Sylvia boehmi and Sylvia lugens

Ziel der Arbeit war die Quantifizierung einer Reihe von Lebenszyklusmerkmalen der beiden tropischen Grasmückenarten Sylvia boehmi und S. lugens (Aves: Sylviidae; frühere Gattung Parisoma). 13 Brutpaare beider Arten wurden von 2000 bis 2002 in Kenia beobachtet. Die Daten wurden mit multivariater Statistik und multistate mark-recapture Modellen ausgewertet. Die Lebenszyklusmerkmale der beiden untersuchten Sylvia Arten sind im Vergleich zu den temperaten Sylvia-Arten gekennzeichnet durch kleine Gelege von zwei Eiern, lange Inkubationsperioden (S. boehmi (b.) 15.0 Tage, S. lugens (l.) 14.5 Tage), lange Nestlingsperioden (b. 12.9 Tage, l. 16.0 Tage), und niedrige Nesterfolgsraten (b. 19.4%, l. 33.2%). Der Zeitraum vom Ausfliegen der Jungen bis zu ihrer Unabhängigkeit war mit 58.5 Tagen bei S. boehmi und 37.5 Tagen bei S. lugens vergleichsweise lang und die Überlebensrate der flüggen Jungen in dieser Zeit war relativ hoch (b. 69.2%, l. 55.4%). Die jährliche Überlebensrate der brütenden adulten Tiere betrug bei S. boehmi 71.2% und bei S. lugens 57.2%. Die Saisonalität des Habitats, bedingt durch Regen- und Trockenzeiten, hatte keinen Einfluss auf die monatliche Überlebensrate im Laufe eines Jahres. Trotz hoher Nestprädationsraten gab es keinen klaren Zusammenhang zwischen Prädation und Fütterungsrate, Nestbewachung oder Neststandort.

Monitoring Butterfly Abundance: Beyond Pollard Walks

Most butterfly monitoring protocols rely on counts along transects (Pollard walks) to generate species abundance indices and track population trends. It is still too often ignored that a population count results from two processes: the biological process (true abundance) and the statistical process (our ability to properly quantify abundance). Because individual detectability tends to vary in space (e.g., among sites) and time (e.g., among years), it remains unclear whether index counts truly reflect population sizes and trends. This study compares capture-mark-recapture (absolute abundance) and count-index (relative abundance) monitoring methods in three species (Maculinea nausithous and Iolana iolas: Lycaenidae; Minois dryas: Satyridae) in contrasted habitat types. We demonstrate that intraspecific variability in individual detectability under standard monitoring conditions is probably the rule rather than the exception, which questions the reliability of count-based indices to estimate and compare specific population abundance. Our results suggest that the accuracy of count-based methods depends heavily on the ecology and behavior of the target species, as well as on the type of habitat in which surveys take place. Monitoring programs designed to assess the abundance and trends in butterfly populations should incorporate a measure of detectability. We discuss the relative advantages and inconveniences of current monitoring methods and analytical approaches with respect to the characteristics of the species under scrutiny and resources availability.

Apparent survival of the salamander

Background Understanding the demographic processes underlying population dynamics is a central theme in ecology. Populations decline if losses from the population (i.e., mortality and emigration) exceed gains (i.e., recruitment and immigration). Amphibians are thought to exhibit little movement even though local populations often fluctuate dramatically and are likely to go exinct if there is no rescue effect through immigration from nearby populations. Terrestrial salamanders are generally portrayed as amphibians with low migratory activity. Our study uses demographic analysis as a key to unravel whether emigration or mortality is the main cause of "losses" from the population. In particular, we use the analysis to challenge the common belief that terrestrial salamanders show low migratory activity. Results The mark-recapture analysis of adult salamanders showed that monthly survival was high (> 90%) without a seasonal pattern. These estimates, however, translate into rather low rates of local annual survival of only ~40% and suggest that emigration was important. The estimated probability of emigration was 49%. Conclusion Our analysis shows that terrestrial salamanders exhibit more migratory activity than commonly thought. This may be due either because the spatial extent of salamander populations is underestimated or because there is a substantial exchange of individuals between populations. Our current results are in line with several other studies that suggest high migratory activity in amphibians. In particular, many amphibian populations may be characterized by high proportions of transients and/or floaters.

Temporal genetic structure and relatedness in the Tufted Duck Aythya fuligula suggests limited kin association in winter

Conspecific aggregation of waterfowl in winter is a common example of animal flocking behaviour, yet patterns of relatedness and temporal substructure in such social groups remain poorly understood even in common species. A previous study based on mark-recapture data showed that Tufted Ducks Aythya fuligula caught on the same day were re-caught together in subsequent winters more often than expected by chance, suggesting stable assortments of ‘socially familiar’ individuals between wintering periods. The genetic relationships within these social groups were not clear. Based on 191 individuals genotyped at 10 microsatellite markers, we investigated the temporal genetic structure and patterns of relatedness among wintering Tufted Ducks at Lake Sempach, Switzerland, in two consecutive winters. We found no evidence of genetic differentiation between temporal groups within or between winters. The average levels of relatedness in temporal groups were low and not higher than expected in random assortments of individuals. However, Mantel tests performed for each sex separately revealed significant negative correlations between the pairwise relatedness coefficients and the number of days between the capture dates of pairs of wintering Tufted Duck in males and females. This pattern suggests the presence of a small number of co-migrating same-sex sibling pairs in wintering flocks of Tufted Ducks. Our findings provide one of the first genetic analyses of a common duck species outside the breeding season and contribute to the understanding of social interactions in long-distance migratory birds.

Locomotor activity of two sympatric slugs: implication for the invasion success of terrestrial invertebrates.

A central focus of invasion biology is to identify the traits that predict which introduced species will become invasive. Behavioral traits related to locomotor activity most likely play a pivotal role in determining a species’invasion success but have rarely been studied, particularly in terrestrial invertebrates. Here, we experimentally investigated the small-scale locomotor activity of two slug species with divergent invasion success in Europe, the highly invasive slug, Arion lusitanicus, and the closely related, non-invasive and native slug, Arion rufus. To do so, we used a multi-state capture-mark-recapture approach, and hypothesized that the invasive slug has a higher moving rate (keeps on moving) and leaving rate (leaves more frequently known places). A total of 221 invasive and 241 non-invasive slugs were individually marked using magnetic transponders and released in three study sites differing in habitat type. The slugs were recaptured using shelter traps, and moving and leaving rates were estimated. Both rates were significantly higher for the invasive slug, demonstrating a higher locomotor activity which might partly explain its invasion success. Our results provide evidence for the recently suggested idea that locomotor activity might be an important trait underlying animal invasions using for the first time terrestrial invertebrates.