Search

Increasing abundance of large ungulates is raising human-wildlife impacts and the effectiveness of recreational hunting to reduce their population growth is increasingly questioned. We report on long-term trends (> 15 years) in wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVC) and hunting bags, and on associations between the annual growth rate of WVC and that of hunting bags for three ungulates – the wild boar, the red deer, and the roe deer – and the grey wolf in northwest Spain to evaluate the regulating capacity of recreational hunting at large spatial scale. Wildlife-vehicle collisions increased by 332% in 16 years and 91% of all traffic accidents were caused by collisions with these three ungulates. All ungulate species showed significant positive trends in WVC and hunting bags, but we did not observe a negative association between annual growth rate of hunting bags and that of WVC except for the wild boar. Results suggest that recreational hunting was unable to reduce ungulate population growth at the regional scale. There was no upward trend of vehicle collisions with wolves over the study period, possibly reflecting stable wolf populations. Natural mortality due to predation could be promoted through the protection of apex predators, but the lethal management of apex predators, often based on sociopolitical pressures rather than damage levels, can conflict with the strategy for mitigating ungulate impacts. Ungulate management needs to be reconsidered from an ecological perspective that integrates human management measures, including recreational hunting, based on the population dynamics and the recovery of predator–prey interactions by favoring the expansion of apex predators.

A comprehensive review of the natural history of the calandra lark Melanocorypha calandra in Spain.

Habitat degradation and climate change are major threats to the long-term persistence of reptile populations. However, their roles on primary productivity instability remain unclear at certain scales. Besides, the design of protected areas has often overlooked reptiles or assumed that their ecological requirements are represented under the umbrella of more charismatic species. Here, we assess the vulnerability of areas of high diversity of reptiles in the Iberian Peninsula to global change using data from satellite imagery. We focused on primary productivity, climate and land-use change because they are indicators of environmental variability that might impair ecosystem functioning and alter wildlife communities. We used linear regressions to detect monotonic temporal trends in primary productivity (through the enhanced vegetation index, EVI) and climate (mean temperature and accumulated precipitation) at two spatial resolutions (10-km2 UTM squares and CORINE land-cover polygon level) over the period 2000–2020. We also determined how the strength of land-use and climate change affected the intensity of change in primary productivity at both spatial scales with multivariate linear regressions. We identified 339 hotspots (10-km2 UTMsquares) andmonotonic increments of temperature, EVI or both occurred in 43%, 16%and 22%of them, respectively. Positive trends of the EVI were related to increasing temperatures and changes in shrubland and forest cover. Within the hotspots with monotonic increments in EVI and temperature, EVI increments occurred in 65 % of the CORINE polygons that did not change their land-cover type, with stronger increases in tree crops. Finally, the Natura 2000 network provides only moderate protection to reptile hotspots, being most of the vegetation types relatively underrepresented. The proportion of forest and shrubland protected by the Natura 2000 network was higher in hotspots where EVI changed. Our procedures are relevant to prioritize hotspots r

Farmland ecosystems are seasonally dynamic habitats shaped by meteorological fluctuations and anthropogenic land-use changes. Farmland birds may be seasonally constrained with limited foraging and breeding resources (so-called “resource bottlenecks”), especially when there is a loss of natural and semi-natural habitats. During spring, the growth of cereal crops makes a large proportion of arable land unsuitable for specialist steppe birds with narrow vegetation structure requirements. We investigated the existence of a seasonal bottleneck of suitable habitats for steppe birds using the endangered Pin-tailed sandgrouse (Pterocles alchata) as a model species. We used for first time lightweight GPS tags to study habitat selection and movement patterns throughout the cereal crop cycle during three years in north-eastern Spain. We also evaluated if conservation measures promoting suitable vegetation structures for steppe birds (Targeted Fallow Management, TFM) influenced habitat selection. Sandgrouse avoided cereal crops when cereal vegetation was high, resulting in a 30% reduction of suitable habitat area at the start of the breeding season. This proved the existence of a spring habitat bottleneck when sandgrouse only selected open natural habitats and fallows. Sandgrouse similarly selected TFM and conventionally managed fallows during and after the bottleneck, possibly because of their similar vegetation structure and the scarcity of alternative suitable habitats. Halting the ongoing loss of fallow land is paramount for the conservation of steppe birds like sandgrouse because they constitute a key refuge to buffer the impacts of seasonal habitat bottlenecks.

European green agricultural policies have been relaxed to allow cultivation of fallow land to produce animal feed and meet shortfalls in exports from Ukraine and Russia. However, conversion of semi-natural habitats will disproportionately impact long term biodiversity and food security.