European Journal of Wildlife Research最新文献

Many wild-animal species are harvested and sold as ornaments—a lucrative trade that contributes to the global extinction crisis and increasingly happens online. Unfortunately, research and policies addressing this threat mainly focus on charismatic and easily identified taxa, leaving the online trade in bats under-researched and bats poorly protected. In this first, comprehensive study of this trade, we focused on Kerivoula picta, a Near-Threatened species known for its striking looks. Using semi-automated data mining and manual data collection, we quantified the extent, dynamics and economic value of the trade on Amazon, eBay and Etsy. Of the 856 unique bat listings retrieved, 86% were on Etsy, 25% were for K. picta, and numbers of listings underestimated the number of individuals being traded. Most listings were for entire-body bats displayed in frames, and price (mainly driven by the manner of display) peaked in mid-December. The United States was the dominant destination and vendor country. Seller tactics to attract buyers included false claims of sustainable sourcing and mentions of goth culture and holiday shopping. Overall, our study paints a troubling picture of a trade whose ecological impacts remain unknown (in the absence of population data) but that is likely illegal, unethical and unsustainable and may pose a biosecurity risk. We recommend formal legal protection for K. picta (by inclusion in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species), field studies to understand population trends and the supply chain and social pressure to curb demand, including grassroots action and research to understand its effectiveness.

Quantifying numbers of birds released for shooting is an important step towards understanding the ecological consequences of releasing. For Mallard, this has become urgent with the recent rise of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI). By adapting a previous approach to generating UK-level estimates of numbers of huntable birds shot using the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust’s National Gamebag Census (Aebischer NJ (2019) Fifty-year trends in UK hunting bags of birds and mammals, and calibrated estimation of national bag size, using GWCT’s National Gamebag Census. Eur J Wildl Res 65:64. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-019-1299-x), the number of Mallards released annually in the UK rose from 870,000 in 2004 to 1.3 million in 2022. Mallards were shot at just over half of NGC sites; of those a fifth released Mallards for shooting, accounting for 87% of the total Mallard bag in 2022. In that year, mean release size was 792 (median 300) and mean release density was 1.39 birds/ha (median 0.52). One fifth of release sites released over 1000 birds each, mostly in southern England and Scotland, corresponding to just 2% of UK shoots. The low percentage combined with low dispersal of released Mallards suggests that scope for them to spread disease is limited, and that any spread is more likely to occur by infection from and transmission to wild birds on passage than from dispersed released ducks.

Whether an invasive species thrives in cold ecosystems depends on its response to winter weather. A potential threat to these ecosystems in Europe is the invasive raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides). The survival of this mesopredator is supported in cold weather, because it can periodically use winter sleep, but its winter activity levels compared to native mesopredators remain unclear. We investigated the winter behaviour of raccoon dogs in Finland, near the edge of their invasion front, and compared their activity to native red foxes and badgers. Using wildlife cameras, we found that raccoon dogs do reduce activity during the coldest months, but camera observations did not strongly correlate with temperature perhaps due to feeding at camera sites. That is, artificial food sources may have increased raccoon dogs’ winter activity. Nevertheless, they responded more clearly to temperature drops than red foxes, but were more active than badgers that were mostly dormant and thus absent from our data. GPS-tracked raccoon dogs remained at some level active through winter, even near subarctic regions, but the cold and snowy weather clearly decreased activity and individuals stayed close to their nests during the coldest periods. Overall, these findings suggest that raccoon dogs can maintain some winter activity even in extremely cold environments, and they readily exploit human-provided resources. This potential ability to thrive in cold regions highlights the invasive potential of raccoon dogs. As winters become milder due to climate change, their numbers could increase significantly within cold-adapted ecosystems, impacting native species and posing conservation challenges.

Woodland expansion is widely promoted to address the effects of climate change and biodiversity loss. Woodland expansion undoubtedly delivers biodiversity and other ecosystem service benefits, but there is debate about where to place extensive new woodland in multi-use landscapes without negatively affecting existing biodiversity, and there is a need to better understand the biodiversity trade-offs associated with woodland expansion. Using the Cairngorm National Park (CNP) in northeast Scotland as a case study, we assessed how proposed woodland expansion targets might affect the distribution of mountain hares, an open moorland species strongly associated with moorland management. Using mountain hare survey, bioclimatic and land use data, we built a Species Distribution Model of mountain hares within the CNP and used this to predict their occurrence under current and proposed woodland expansion scenarios. Simulating the effects of an additional 70 and 350 km² of new woodland cover showed that combined, these targets would see hares lost from 246 1-km squares, a 7% reduction in their occurrence compared to their 2006/2007 distribution. Changes in hare occurrence were driven by changes in management associated with landcover change more than by landcover change itself. Our results show that afforestation can negatively affect species occurrence directly through changes in landcover, and indirectly through changes in management associated with land landcover change.

Reliable hunting bag statistics are central for informed wildlife management. In the absence of complete reporting, hunting harvest must be estimated based on partial data, which requires reliable data and appropriate statistical methods. In the Swedish system, hunting teams, whose positions are known to the level of Hunting Management Precincts (HMPs), report their harvest of open season game and the size of the land on which they hunt, and the harvest on the non-reported area is estimated based on the reports. In this study, we improved data quality by solving several identified issues in the spatial data and provided temporally consistent estimates of huntable land (EHL) based on documented assumptions. We applied a recently developed method, the Bayesian Hierarchical and Autoregressive Estimation of Hunting Harvest (BaHAREHH), to harvest reports of 34 species from 2003–2021, using both previous and updated EHL, and compared harvest estimates to previously available estimates using naïve linear extrapolation (LE), which has been used as Sweden’s official harvest statistics. We found that updating EHL had a minor effect on harvest estimates at the national level but sometimes had a large impact at the level of individual HMPs. At the national level, previous LE estimates were similar to updated BaHAREHH estimates for species harvested at large numbers, but discrepancies were observed for species harvested at low rates. Time series of harvest estimated with LE had exaggerated temporal trends, higher coefficient of variation, and lower autcorrelation. At the level of counties and HMPs, there were substantial differences for all species, with some harvest estimates differing by several orders of magnitude. We conclude that the previously available LE estimates are sensitive to individual reports that add variability to the estimates and are, for some species, unreliable, especially at the level of county and HMP.

The Eurasian beaver is an ecosystem engineer species capable of altering the riparian vegetation and the hydrology of freshwater habitats. The study of its distribution process is therefore important for both nature conservation and conflict management. Thanks to protection efforts and natural expansion, the beaver has already inhabited most of its former range, starting from the brink of extinction. The changes in the Eurasian distribution and population size have been continuously documented in the scientific literature. In these studies, however, Hungary, as a country with an important position along the beavers’ colonisation routes provided by the Danube drainage basin, has hitherto been underrepresented due to a severe lack of data. In this paper, we summarise all the available information about the thirty-year history, colonisation process, current distribution, as well as the management of the Hungarian population. Based on the newest available data, the beaver is present along all of the large rivers and along most permanent watercourses in the country. Despite the continuing growth trend of the population, a beaver management strategy has not yet been developed. Its establishment could be significantly supported by further monitoring surveys and scientific studies focusing on the region- and site-specific ecological effects of the species.

Natural caves play a crucial role in providing habitat for numerous bat species in temperate regions. While the potential of man-made structures to support biodiversity gains attention, there is a lack of information regarding the suitability of artificial tunnels as viable alternatives to natural ones. In this study, we assessed the use of artificial tunnels of hydroelectric power plants by bats in the NE Iberian Peninsula (Spain) during the breeding season for most species. Between 2013 and 2014, we monitored bat activity in 37 individualized tunnel entrances using harp traps and mist nets. To understand factors influencing their habitat use, we built competitive models to assess the effect of surrounding landscape, environment and tunnel factors on the richness and abundance of both cave-dwelling and generalist species, as well as on its suitability as breeding habitat for bats. We captured and identified a total of 738 bats representing 60% of species occurring in the South-West countries of Europe, including three regionally and two globally threatened species. Of the total, 67% of surveyed tunnels were used by bats. Our findings highlight that tunnel characteristics such as tunnel height, absence of grilles, and cover of surface runoff influenced all bat groups. Relative humidity primarily favours richness and abundance of females with pups. When properly designed and managed, man-made tunnels of hydroelectric power plants can play an important role in bat conservation by offering essential roosts and breeding sites; however, other potential ecological impacts of these infrastructures on local ecosystems must be considered.

The proliferation of gull populations in urban areas has led to an increase in human-gull conflicts, especially in highly populated cities where these opportunistic predators are often considered a nuisance. There is a lack of data regarding the selection of nesting sites by gulls, so management measures at nesting level cannot be implemented. Here, we investigated the main environmental factors that explain the nesting preferences of the yellow-legged gull (Larus michahellis) in urban areas, using the population in the city of Barcelona (NE Spain) as study model. We conducted an integrated analysis that combines micro-scale habitat selection assessments of 148 urban nesting sites with a macro-scale assessment of gull movements derived from GPS tracking of breeding yellow-legged gulls. We also analysed the type and abundance of litter in nests and main factors related to this. Nests were mainly found on flat roofs or above a structure on the main roof located at corner placements and situated on gravel substrate. Nest selection showed a negative relation to port distance and a building height beyond 12 m. The presence of litter was detected in more than 80% nests and was related to population density. Understanding the ecology of yellow-legged gulls in urban areas has implications for urban population management to prevent nest establishment.

The increased use of social media and classified advertisement websites has made wildlife trade more accessible, and the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, during which people were advised or mandated to stay at home, may have exacerbated this trend. The purpose of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of wildlife trade in a data-deficient region, where social media platforms are popular ways of exchanging different goods and products. Focussing on Algeria, for one year (January to December 2020), we tracked the parrot trade in 12 Facebook groups specialising in the pet bird trade. There were 1143 advertisements offering a minimum of 7000 specimens across 29 parrot species. Six of these species were listed on CITES Appendix I, precluding all commercial international trade, while another 19 were listed on CITES Appendix II, regulating all international trade. Our findings indicate that notably, close to 1460 specimens of the African grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus and P. timneh) have been traded during this period, underscoring the critical need for regulatory attention and conservation efforts.

Human-wildlife conflict is among the major constraint for wildlife management. It often can result in biodiversity decline and jeopardize the delicate balance of ecosystems. The human-saltwater crocodile conflict (hereafter referred to as HCC) is a major wildlife management issue in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (ANI). Analyzing the long-term trends is vital for better understanding and management of HCC. We used diverse approaches like interviews with local community and victims, HCC register maintained by the Department of Environment and Forest (DoEF), and Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) to understand the patterns in the reported HCC events in ANI. During the past four decades (1983–2023), 36 fatal and non-fatal HCC were documented in the Andaman Islands. The HCC in ANI exhibited 75% increase after the catastrophic 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. A comparison of gender involved in HCC indicates that men are often (56%) become victim of HCC owing to their frequent involvement in outdoor activities like fishing, swimming, farming, cattle rearing, etc. The highest number (79%) of HCC and crocodile sightings were documented during the wet season (June-December). The majority of HCC (53%) were reported in the creeks. South Andaman accounts for the highest number of HCC (53%) compared to the rest of the Andaman Islands. High relative frequency of sightings of saltwater crocodile in the creeks of South Andaman like Manglutan nallah (21.47), Dhanikhari nallah (16.56), Collinpur nallah (14.72), and Guptapara nallah (11.04) were recorded between 2016 to 2023. The current scenario demands an urgent need for more fundamental research focusing on the changes in Saltwater crocodile habitats post 2004 tsunami, factors driving the HCC, and development and implementation of an updated management plan to ensure the co-existence of humans and crocodiles in the ANI.