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Conservation translocations may be a useful tool for the restoration of declining freshwater invertebrates, but they are poorly represented in the literature. We conducted a before‐after/control‐impact (BACI) experiment to test the efficacy of conservation translocation for re‐establishing abundant populations of the amphipod Gammarus lacustris, a declining species and wildlife food resource in depressional wetlands in the upper Midwest of the United States of America. Each study site (n = 19) contained at least one treatment wetland receiving translocated G. lacustris from a local donor and one control wetland. We selected study wetlands based on a suite of wetland characteristics and randomly assigned recipient versus control treatment. Gammarus lacustris was detected post‐translocation at only 2 of 22 recipient wetlands (1 of 19 sites). Overall, there was a statistical increase in G. lacustris density in recipient wetlands compared to controls; however, the results were of minimal biological significance due to being driven by a single site with low G. lacustris densities. Accordingly, our results suggest that future conservation translocations of amphipods might be successful if limited to recently restored wetlands or informed by a more complex habitat suitability model to differentiate dispersal limitations from habitat limitations. To develop such a model would involve identifying the fewest, most influential physical and biological factors (e.g. wetland size/structure, fish, aquatic vegetation, and water chemistry) from the numerous inter‐related factors that correlate with the abundance of naturally occurring G. lacustris; candidate wetlands to receive amphipods would be those for which the model predicts abundant G. lacustris but in which they do not presently occur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community‐based conservation (CBC) is a popular governance approach that asks rural populations to sustainably manage local wildlife resources. CBC programs often rely on the distribution of wildlife benefits to communities to foster tolerance of wildlife, with the idea that those benefits can offset costs arising from human‐wildlife conflict. A survey of residents in four Namibian CBC areas found that different benefit types varied significantly in their relationship with whether respondents felt that wildlife improved their lives. Some higher monetary value benefits evidenced a negative and/or non‐significant relationship with respondents' perceptions, whereas meat‐based benefits were associated with a greater likelihood of residents feeling that they benefited from wildlife. These findings suggest that the impact of different benefit types in CBC programs may depend on a host of cultural/social, psychological, and community‐specific factors. From a practical standpoint, the form of direct monetary benefits may matter, and cultural considerations likely play an important role in determining which and when specific benefits are more effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The document is an open letter to graduate students in the field of wildlife management. The author, a professor with decades of experience, addresses recurring patterns among graduate students that can impact their professional success. The letter emphasizes the importance of personal qualifications, such as enthusiasm for wildlife and its conservation, as well as the willingness to use intellectual tools from various fields. The author encourages students to go beyond their assigned research, help others, develop professional relationships, and continuously learn and improve their skills. The letter concludes with a reminder of the importance of the students' work in maintaining and managing wildlife and wildlife habitats. [Extracted from the article]

The Kunming‐Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework requires effective actions to bend the curve of biodiversity loss by 2030. Wildlife trade, a direct drive of biodiversity decline, calls for more effective regulations to both protect wildlife populations in the wild and facilitate sustainable use of wildlife resources to meet human needs. This call has become particularly urgent in light of the COVID‐19 pandemic. In 2021, China's List of State Key Protected Wild Animals, a list of fauna under the strictest protection by national legislation, has been updated in the year 2021, 32 years after its first release, increasing its coverage (from the original 13%) an 11% of species across taxa. Combined with the updated List of State Protected Terrestrial Wild Animals which covers species with lower protection priority, these two national lists already cover 77% terrestrial vertebrate species of China. Such a blacklist approach, placing threatened species under a list of legal protection, is a common practice globally in species conservation. We discussed pros and cons of this dominant strategy and further explored the potential integration with a whitelist approach, listing all wildlife and only permitting regulated uses of certain species. We propose a mixed approach combining black and whitelists at different administration levels which could perhaps be first adopted in China. This is mainly due to the fact that in addition to illegal harvesting from the wild, traded wildlife in China are mostly from captive breeding and related laundering of wild‐caught animals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article, titled "Natural Vegetation Biomass and the Dimension of Forest Quality in Tropical Agricultural Landscapes," explores the measurement of aboveground biomass (AGB) in Brazilian agro-industrial regions to assess habitat quality and wildlife conservation. The study finds that most areas mapped as forests are actually sparse pioneer woodlands, regardless of land use types, ages, and intensities. Agricultural expansion has significantly reduced natural AGB, posing a threat to trophic resources for wildlife. The article emphasizes the importance of small forests for both wildlife and rural communities. [Extracted from the article]

Anthropogenic developments alter the environment and resources available to wildlife communities. In response to these real or perceived threats from this development, species may adjust their spatial occurrence. Additionally, wildlife species may adjust when in diel time (24‐h light–dark cycle) they occupy sites on the landscape to adapt to changing conditions. However, many wildlife studies only focus on where a species does and does not occur, ignoring how species may shift their diel activity at sites to mitigate threats. We used a multi‐state diel occupancy modeling framework to investigate how a community of mammals (mesocarnivores, urban‐adapted omnivores, and herbivore/small mammals) respond to differing levels of anthropogenic development and forest cover across two climatic seasons. We collected camera trap data at 240 survey locations across the summer and winter of 2021–2022. We modeled multi‐state diel occupancy for 14 mammal species with extent of development/forest and season hypothesized to influence diel occupancy and season hypothesized to influence the probability of detection. We found that all species displayed heterogeneity in both diel occupancy and detection either by extent of development/forest and or season. Within the mesocarnivore species group, coyote and red fox were less sensitive to development and had higher occupancy probability at these sites in general but used them more during the night, while more sensitive mesocarnivores including fisher and bobcat occupied the day state only when there was increasing forest cover. Our results highlight the importance of incorporating diel activity in habitat modeling to better understand the relationship between a species and its landscape, particularly in a region that is vulnerable to increased anthropogenic pressure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the use of anthropogenic resources by wildlife in degraded habitats has been frequently documented, the use of such alternative resources in natural and semi‐natural habitats is not yet well understood. We explored the use of artificial water sources by bats in a semi‐natural habitat by conducting acoustic monitoring surveys at swimming pools on Amakhala Game Reserve in the Eastern Cape of South Africa from 2018 to 2020. We identified 7 of 23 local species in 24,909 recorded activities associated with resource use at the swimming pools, including 1,374 feeding buzzes and 9,286 drinking buzzes. This study confirmed that bats were using swimming pools in the game reserve as a foraging and drinking resource and indicates that such anthropogenic features could be of value to bats and potentially other wildlife in natural and semi‐natural habitats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human‐wildlife conflict is a global issue that poses a major threat to biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. Wildlife adapted to human‐modified landscapes in developing countries can threaten the safety and livelihood of local communities. In such landscapes, where people and wildlife compete for resources, community involvement is promoted to achieve workable coexistence. We used a choice experiment methodology approach to identify community‐preferred policy alternatives in Chitwan National Park in south‐central Nepal. The results indicated that conflicts between the local community and wildlife are on the rise, crop damage being the highest form of damage and most perceived compensation and fencing as conflict‐mitigation tools. The choice experiment showed that residents have a positive preference for enhancing livelihood diversification skills, cultivating buffer crops, promoting alternative livelihoods, and strengthening rapid response teams. We identified concerned mitigators who are younger age group, encountered and concurred that HWC is increasing, and agreed that fencing and compensation are conflict‐mitigation tools. We designed scenario planning using community‐preferred policy alternatives to assist the park management. This is the first‐choice experiment study to design an evaluation framework under community resilience perspectives to achieve workable coexistence. Our study has potential implications for promoting coexistence in a human‐dominated landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We developed an R package for the Inland Fisheries Division of the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission to help team members share R functions and data sets. The {NCIFD} package stores several functions that were developed for agency research, including cleanBIODE(), which cleans query results from a database of standardized fish samples and imports the data into an R session. In addition, {NCIFD} stores a variety of data sets including observations from ongoing research projects, hatchery records, and administrative information. Stored in a package, data sets are instantly available for exploration and analysis in an R session, can share a common naming convention, and retain their metadata. Although developing an R package requires effort, we believe it is a useful tool that other fisheries agencies should encourage interested staff to explore. We share advice to help others get started while avoiding some missteps we encountered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teeth are commonly preserved in the zooarchaeological record and can be used to estimate the age of individuals in a faunal assemblage. However, there are currently no criteria for discerning the sex of elk based on dental metric characteristics. Here, we present the results of an osteometric analysis of modern elk (Cervus elaphus manitobensis) from Great Smoky Mountains National Park to create an age profile for the sample, establish metrical parameters for evaluating sex, and discern the relationship between age and size. The analysis of tooth development stages in younger elk was combined with the assessment of occlusal wear in older elk to create an age profile of our sample population. The length and breadth of mandibular third molars produced bimodal distributions that suggest these measurements can be used to differentiate sex in this population, and diastema length showed a curvilinear association with age (R2 = 0.71). This dataset provides a useful comparative sample for future studies on ageing and sexing in zooarchaeology, conservation paleobiology, and wildlife resources management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding wildlife spatiotemporal dynamics at protected area boundaries is critical to conservation. In SE Asia, protected areas are often bordered by indigenous communities whose traditional practices result in increased landscape heterogeneity within their community managed forests (CF). Because SE Asian forests exhibit supra‐annual mast fruiting (3–7 yrs) and sustained fruit scarcity, wildlife using CF may benefit from greater availability of fruits and seeds encouraged by traditional management, but incur greater risk of being hunted. We examined shifts in wildlife activity in forests within and adjacent to Lanjak Entimau Wildlife Sanctuary (LEWS), in Sarawak, Malaysia. Using camera traps and surveys of fruiting phenology, we related presence of fruits and seeds to shifts in large mammal activity over 3 years (October 2016–2019). We first compared relative frequency of five focal species (sun bear, bearded pig, muntjac, mouse deer, and sambar) by forest type for a given survey year and season (rainy vs. dry). We then modeled activity to assess how fruit availability, landscape features, and proxies for hunting risk, influence seasonal shifts in habitat use. Our results suggested seasonal variation in concert with increased landscape heterogeneity influenced patterns of activity. We found no evidence that CF excluded any detected mammal species, suggesting CF contribute important habitat to wildlife, particularly during periods of fruit scarcity in primary forest. However, our findings also imply increased hunting risk for wildlife attracted to resources near human settlements, emphasizing the need to consider the influence of both annual and supra‐annual seasonality when developing best practices for the sustainable management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hunters can affect the behavior of wildlife by inducing a landscape of fear, selecting individuals with specific traits, or altering resource availability across the landscape. Most research investigating the influence of hunting on wildlife resource selection has focused on target species and less attention has been devoted to nontarget species, such as scavengers that can be both attracted or repelled by hunting activities. We used resource selection functions to identify areas where hunters were most likely to kill moose (Alces alces) in south‐central Sweden during the fall. Then, we used step‐selection functions to determine whether female brown bears (Ursus arctos) selected or avoided these areas and specific resources during the moose hunting season. We found that, during both day and nighttime, female brown bears avoided areas where hunters were more likely to kill moose. We found evidence that resource selection by brown bears varied substantially during the fall and that some behavioral changes were consistent with disturbance associated with moose hunters. Brown bears were more likely to select concealed locations in young (i.e., regenerating) and coniferous forests and areas further away from roads during the moose hunting season. Our results suggest that brown bears react to both spatial and temporal variations in apparent risk during the fall: moose hunters create a landscape of fear and trigger an antipredator response in a large carnivore even if bears are not specifically targeted during the moose hunting season. Such antipredator responses might lead to indirect habitat loss and lower foraging efficiency and the resulting consequences should be considered when planning hunting seasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we propose a socioecological model to describe the effects of visiting tourists in biological attractive sites. We model conditioned interactions between the forest resources and the wildlife with the tourists. This allows us to describe the net benefits–costs rates that the species and their habitats receive from the interaction with tourists. We show that when a scenario of sustainable tourism exists, it is always at risk. This occurs because there is at least a component of the socioecological system that can go to zero when the initial conditions belong to the basin of attraction of a border equilibrium. However, a sustainable equilibrium can be reached when the initial conditions belong to the basin of attraction of a positive attractor. The analysis of the model shows that increasing the tourism carrying capacities can lead to different dynamical patterns. Sometimes, these patterns describe scenarios of unsustainable tourism. When this is the case, by decreasing the negative impact due to the nature and wildlife‐based tourism industry, a tourism sustainability can be reached. Among the scenarios of unsustainable tourism, there are scenarios without wildlife and/or tourists or without both; scenarios in which the ecological and the social variable show sustained oscillations, or scenarios with chaotic patterns for these variables. We show numerical solutions of the model to display different scenarios when the touristic carrying capacities are varied. Recommendations for Resource Managers: Sustainable tourism is possible if one proposes moderated values for the carrying capacities of the touristic site.The socioecological system is sustainable if the initial conditions belong to the basin of attraction of a positive attractor (a sustainable scenario). When this is not the case, an extinction scenario of the wildlife or a scenario without tourist or a scenario without wildlife and tourists occurs.An increase in the carrying capacity of the forest resources and the wildlife of the touristic site can lead to sustained oscillations. This undesirable scenario can be avoided if the tourists are more friendly with nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historically, the North American river otter (Lontra canadensis; otter) was distributed across North Carolina, USA, but populations were decimated by the early 1900s. Otter trapping was prohibited in 1938, reopened in 1947, and gradually expanded until it was opened statewide in 2005. Between 1986 and 1992, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission and Great Smoky Mountains National Park released 404 otters to restore populations in western North Carolina. Our objective was to determine if the age structure and reproductive rates of otters throughout North Carolina shifted from 1978 to 2018 between remnant and reintroduced populations. During the 1978–1980 (period 1; Coastal Plain) and the 2009–2013 and 2014–2016 (period 2; statewide) trapping seasons, we collected 1,439 otter carcasses from licensed trappers, fur buyers, and wildlife damage control agents throughout the 3 Furbearer Management Units (FMUs) and 14 river basins in North Carolina. We conducted necropsies, used cementum annuli of the lower canine for age analysis, and counted corpora lutea and fetuses for fecundity estimates. Age distributions for all otters were skewed toward the younger age classes and did not differ between collection periods. During period 1, adults in the Coastal Plain had higher corpora lutea counts than during period 2, whereas Coastal Plain yearlings and juveniles had higher numbers of corpora lutea during period 2. During period 2, corpora lutea counts differed among FMUs; counts in the Mountain FMU (x̄ = 2.56) were higher than in the Coastal Plain FMU (x̄ = 1.62) or the Piedmont FMU (x̄ = 1.91). Within the Coastal Plain FMU and pooling all age classes, fecundity increased by 45% from period 1 to period 2. Adult fecundity in the Coastal Plain FMU declined 16% from period 1 to period 2, while juveniles and yearlings began reproducing between the periods, indicating that reproduction has shifted to younger age classes between 1978 and 2018. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Invasive weeds may provide habitat for wildlife in altered landscapes. We compare fauna within three types of sites in You Yangs Regional Park in central Victoria, Australia, that is, sites with an invasive shrub understory (African boneseed, Chrysanthemoides monilifera subsp. monilifera (DC.) T. Norl.), native shrub understory (snowy mintbush Prostanthera nivea), and sites without an understory (open sites). Sites with an understory dominated by boneseed provided habitat for avian species and an introduced small mammal, comparable with sites with mintbush as the understory. Species‐specific models of common species suggest vegetation structure, rather than composition, drove this effect. Open sites differed in terms of avifaunal assemblage, and the abundance of three common native birds and one common invasive small mammal. Boneseed additionally showed phenological differences in fruiting and flowering and differences in flowering abundance when compared with mintbush, comparably offering resources to wildlife. Transitioning vegetation communities to more natural states should consider wildlife already depending on weeds, a dependency likely driven by a paucity of alternative native vegetation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many agencies and interest groups are committed to re-establishing components of Guam's native avifauna through the reintroduction of captive-reared birds or translocation from other islands in the Marianas if the Brown Treesnake ( I Boiga irregularis i ; BTS) can be eliminated. The Guam Rail (Gallirallus owstoni), known locally as the Ko'ko', is a ground-dwelling bird that was driven extinct in the wild by Brown Treesnake predation but reintroduced to Cocos Island, adjacent to Guam, from a captive breeding colony. Our simulations indicate that bird persistence in Guam's forests would only be possible at a suppression level just short of full eradication. [Extracted from the article]

It is important to assess whether anthropogenic activity affects wildlife distribution and resource use to appraise the efficacy of multi‐use protected areas. Habitat degradation and vegetation damage as indicators of competitive and facilitative livestock‐wildlife interactions were the focus of this study. Foot transects were conducted in the dry season of 2011, wet season of 2012, and dry season of 2012 in five wildlife sanctuaries in the Amboseli ecosystem, Kenya, to determine whether habitat degradation and vegetation damage affected wildlife distribution and wildlife‐livestock interactions. Simpson's and Jaccard's biodiversity indices and Pianka's niche overlap index were used to assess wildlife‐livestock interactions across a gradient of habitat degradation. In the dry season, Jaccard's, Pianka's, and Simpson's indices (0.50, 0.84, and 0.99, respectively) peaked at the highest level of degradation. In the wet season, Jaccard's index (0.42) peaked at a fairly high level of habitat degradation, Pianka's index (0.82) at a fairly low level, and Simpson's (0.80) at the lowest level. Two‐way ANOVA revealed that there was no effect of degradation or vegetation damage on wildlife distribution irrespective of the feeding guild. Therefore, it appears that continued shared use of the Amboseli landscape by wildlife and livestock is feasible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropogenic provisioning of food to wildlife is ubiquitous across the globe. It may be intentional such as in the form of bird feeders or offering of food to animals by tourists, or unintentional when animals use anthropogenic food sources like crops, plantations or garbage dumps. Provisioning has profound effects on wildlife ecology and behaviour, but the consequences of these changes to mutualistic and antagonistic interactions have rarely been investigated. Here we demonstrate how provisioning can affect the role of wildlife as seed dispersers. As provisioning directly influences the amount and quality of resources, it can substantially impact fruit removal by wildlife, seed displacement and the probability of germination at the sites of deposition – more often in ways that are detrimental. In most cases, fruit removal decreases as animals choose to feed more on the abundant and higher‐calorie anthropogenic foods. However, for animals whose size and abundance are increased by provisioning, dispersal quantity could be enhanced. Seed dispersal distances are also reduced by provisioning, and seeds are often deposited at sites unsuitable for germination. More studies are required to understand how these broad patterns might vary across different contexts and wildlife species. Provisioning has the potential to greatly modify plant communities through the direct impacts it has on resources and wildlife seed dispersal services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior to the emergence of the A/goose/Guangdong/1/1996 (Gs/GD) H5N1 influenza A virus, the long‐held and well‐supported paradigm was that highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreaks were restricted to poultry, the result of cross‐species transmission of precursor viruses from wild aquatic birds that subsequently gained pathogenicity in domestic birds. Therefore, management agencies typically adopted a prevention, control, and eradication strategy that included strict biosecurity for domestic bird production, isolation of infected and exposed flocks, and prompt depopulation. In most cases, this strategy has proved sufficient for eradicating HPAI. Since 2002, this paradigm has been challenged with many detections of viral descendants of the Gs/GD lineage among wild birds, most of which have been associated with sporadic mortality events. Since the emergence and evolution of the genetically distinct clade 2.3.4.4 Gs/GD lineage HPAI viruses in approximately 2010, there have been further increases in the occurrence of HPAI in wild birds and geographic spread through migratory bird movement. A prominent example is the introduction of clade 2.3.4.4 Gs/GD HPAI viruses from East Asia to North America via migratory birds in autumn 2014 that ultimately led to the largest outbreak of HPAI in the history of the United States. Given the apparent maintenance of Gs/GD lineage HPAI viruses in a global avian reservoir; bidirectional virus exchange between wild and domestic birds facilitating the continued adaptation of Gs/GD HPAI viruses in wild bird hosts; the current frequency of HPAI outbreaks in wild birds globally, and particularly in Eurasia where Gs/GD HPAI viruses may now be enzootic; and ongoing dispersal of AI viruses from East Asia to North America via migratory birds, HPAI now represents an emerging disease threat to North American wildlife. This recent paradigm shift implies that management of HPAI in domestic birds alone may no longer be sufficient to eradicate HPAI viruses from a given country or region. Rather, agencies managing wild birds and their habitats may consider the development or adoption of mitigation strategies to minimize introductions to poultry, to reduce negative impacts on wild bird populations, and to diminish adverse effects to stakeholders using wildlife resources. The main objective of this review is, therefore, to provide information that will assist wildlife managers in developing mitigation strategies or approaches for dealing with outbreaks of Gs/GD HPAI in wild birds in the form of preparedness, surveillance, research, communications, and targeted management actions. Resultant outbreak response plans and actions may represent meaningful steps of wildlife managers toward the use of collaborative and multi‐jurisdictional One Health approaches when it comes to the detection, investigation, and mitigation of emerging viruses at the human‐domestic animal‐wildlife interface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wetland conservation often involves creating hydrological regimes that maximize habitat and resources for wildlife. In the greater Everglades ecosystem in Florida, USA, where wading birds are food‐limited in some years, models predicting the influence of hydropatterns on foraging habitat availability are used to guide the management of water levels for wading bird nesting populations. These models are useful but do not consider that nesting wading birds are central place foragers, and thus resource availability is a colony‐level measure. We examined long‐term nest abundance patterns of the great egret (Ardea alba), snowy egret (Egretta thula), and white ibis (Eudocimus albus) to determine effects of hydropatterns on wading bird nest abundance in a 400‐km2 littoral marsh in Lake Okeechobee, Florida. We developed 2 sets of statistical models for each species: 1 examining variation in nest abundance (1977–1992, 2006–2019) and 1 predicting colony‐level nest abundance (2006–2019). Models of nest abundance predicted that great egret nesting will peak when March–April lake stage is 4.3–4.5 m, coinciding with the peak in area of available foraging habitat. Neither recession rate nor stage explained total snowy egret or white ibis nest abundance, though snowy egret nest abundance has increased since the 1990s, when the water management schedule favored higher lake stages for longer duration. For all species, colony‐level models predicted that nesting increased with increased habitat availability, faster water‐level recession rates, and greater number of days dry in the previous 2 years at nest sites. When applied to simulated hydrological data representing changes to water‐level regulations in Lake Okeechobee, our models predicted that management regimes allowing extreme flooding (stage > 5.18 m) in <220 days per 5.0 years and Carolina willow (Salix caroliniana) recruitment (stage < 3.9 m) >3.0 years per 5.0 years resulted in the highest nest abundance for snowy egret and white ibis. Snowy egret and white ibis nesting decreased by 575 nests/year and 465 nests/year, respectively, when regulation schedules increased the management envelope by 0.46 m, whereas great egret nest abundance increased modestly (149 nests/year). Operational rules that allow intermediate drought disturbance in dry years and prioritize increased habitat availability at short‐hydroperiod colonies in wet years should result in overall benefits to the wading bird community at Lake Okeechobee. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental DNA (eDNA) and invertebrate‐derived DNA (iDNA) are used to survey biodiversity non‐invasively to mitigate difficulties in obtaining wildlife samples, particularly in remote areas or for rare species. Recently, eDNA/iDNA were used to monitor known wildlife pathogens; however, most wildlife pathogens are unknown and often evolutionarily divergent.To detect and identify known and novel mammalian viruses from eDNA/iDNA, we used a curated set of RNA oligonucleotides as viral baits in a hybridization capture system coupled with high‐throughput sequencing.We detected multiple known and novel mammalian RNA and DNA viruses from multiple viral families from both waterhole eDNA and leech‐derived iDNA. Congruence was found between detected hosts and viruses identified in leeches and waterholes.Our results demonstrate that eDNA/iDNA samples represent an effective non‐invasive resource for studying wildlife viral diversity and for detecting novel potentially zoonotic viruses prior to their emergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Expansion of human settlements and development have undeniable impacts on wildlife and habitats. Yet wildlife continues to persist in human‐modified environments. While shifting patterns of wildlife landscape use in response to development is well established, less is known about how risk avoidance by animals impacts their resource access. Our research addresses this question by assessing spatial and temporal patterns in access to water resources for savannah elephants (Loxodonta africana) relative to anthropogenic features in the Okavango Panhandle of Botswana. We combined GPS collar data from 39 elephants (2014–2018) with spatial data on permanent water sources and human development to quantify patterns of water access. We modelled a multi‐scale resource selection function that showed elephants selected water access points in areas with less human development (p < 0.0151). Elephants visited water more evenly across day and night in areas with no buildings nearby, but shifted to a significantly more nocturnal pattern in areas of higher building density (ANOVA, p < 0.001). Analysing spatial and temporal patterns of elephant resource access in the context of anthropogenic features provides compelling insight into the potential consequences of human‐modified landscapes on the behaviour, fitness, and persistence of threatened species and our coexistence with them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scrub vegetation is a valuable habitat and resource for wildlife, but if unmanaged can encroach and dominate adjacent habitats, reducing biodiversity value. A primary task in the management of terrestrial nature reserves in the UK is monitoring and controlling scrub. The methods used to monitor and assess scrub cover are often basic, relying on qualitative assessment. Inaccurate assessments may fail to inform appropriate management of the habitats and lead to loss or degradation of important ecological features. Scrub can be monitored using UAV or satellite‐derived imagery, but it can be difficult to distinguish between other vegetation types without using high‐cost hyperspectral sensors. An alternative method using high‐resolution surface models from photogrammetric point clouds enables the isolation of vegetation types based on height. Scrub can be isolated from woodland, hedgerows, and tall ground vegetation. In this study, we calculate scrub cover using a photogrammetric point cloud modeling approach using UAVs. We illustrate the method with two case studies from the UK. The scrub cover at Daneway Banks, a calcareous grassland site in Gloucestershire, was calculated at 21.8% of the site. The scrub cover at Flat Holm Island, a maritime grassland in the Severn Estuary, was calculated at 7%. This approach enabled the scrub layer to be readily measured and if required, modeled to provide a visual guide of what a projected management objective would look like. This approach provides a new tool in reserve management, enabling habitat management strategies to be informed, and progress toward objectives monitored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wildlife provides food, medicine, clothing, and other necessities for humans, but overexploitation can disrupt the sustainability of wildlife resources and severely threaten global biodiversity. Understanding the characteristics of consumer behavior is helpful for wildlife managers and policy makers, but the traditional survey methods are laborious and time‐consuming. In contrast, culturomics may more efficiently identify the features of wildlife consumption. As a case study of the culturomics approach, we examined tiger bone wine consumption in China based on social media and Baidu search engine data. Tiger bone wine is one of the most purchased tiger products; its consumption is closely related to tiger poaching, which greatly threatens wild tiger survival. We searched a popular social media website for the term "tiger bone wine" and focused on posts that were originally created from 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2018. We filtered and classified posts related to the purchase, sale, or consumption of tiger bone wine and extracted information on providers, consumption motivations, year of production, and place of origin of the tiger bone wines based on the texts and photos of these posts. We found 756 posts related to tiger bone wine consumption, 113 of which mentioned providers of tiger bone wine, including friends (53%), elder relatives (37%), peer relatives (7%), and others (3%). Out of the 756 posts, 266 indicated the motivations of tiger bone wine consumption. Tiger bone wines were consumed as a tonic (34%), medicine (23%), game product (30%), and a symbol of wealth (28%). Some posts indicated ≥2 consumption motivations. These findings were consistent with the search queries from Baidu index. Such information could help develop targeted strategies for tiger conservation. The culturomics approach illustrated by our study is a rapid and cost‐efficient way to characterize wildlife consumption. Article impact statement: Studying wildlife consumption with social media data cost‐efficiently reveals consumption motivations and origins of wildlife products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Southwest Virginia offers a plethora of fishing opportunities for wild trout (Brook Trout Salvelinus fontinalis, Brown Trout Salmo trutta, and Rainbow Trout Oncorhynchus mykiss) in headwater and large valley floor streams. However, low productivity in most area streams, including the South Fork Holston River, limits growth leading to populations where individuals seldom exceed 25 cm. The Buller Fish Hatchery, located in Smyth County, Virginia, offers anglers a unique 1.6‐km special‐regulation catch‐and‐release trout fishery on the South Fork Holston River limited to single‐hook artificial lures. Historically, this section was dominated by wild Rainbow Trout that seldom reached 25 cm. A supplemental feeding program was initiated by the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources in March 2015 in hopes of significantly increasing the size distribution of Rainbow Trout. This limited feeding program improved the size distribution within the first year, and 24% of Rainbow Trout exceeded 30 cm. Annual monitoring (2015–2018) documented that 17–34% of Rainbow Trout collected at the treatment reach exceeded 30 cm, with densities varying from 215 to 554 fish/km for fish greater than 30 cm. Relative weight greater than 100 shifted from 0% of the population in 2014 to 8–25% of the population in 2015–2018. Rainbow Trout size structure and relative weight remained unchanged during the survey period at the control reach and were lower than at the treatment reach once supplemental feeding began. Annual costs associated with supplemental feeding at this reach were calculated at US$1,271/year and averaged $2.34/fish (>30 cm) within the catch‐and‐release area. Results suggest that supplemental feeding can be an effective tool for improving wild trout size structure in low‐productivity waters. Feeding was not cost prohibitive and was within Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources budget guidelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first challenge primarily concerns the practical aspects of coexistence, particularly the ecological dimension involving human interactions with wildlife and related ecological processes. Such negative impacts of wildlife on humans are commonly believed to decrease people's tolerance toward wildlife, reduce support for conservation efforts, and encourage possible retaliation. Conservationists and their allies worldwide are dedicated to effective management of human B - b wildlife interactions in order to minimize conflicts for coexistence (CBD [2]). [Extracted from the article]

The weed soil seedbank is of interest in agroecosystems as a major source of weed infestation in fields and as a reservoir of plant and seed‐feeder diversity. A seedbank is a characteristic of annual plants and has been the focus of numerous studies, as it reflects the past aboveground vegetation and is the reservoir of the future vegetation. Therefore, it potentially can be used to evaluate the past, present and future annual weed communities. The goal of this paper was to provide guidelines to help researchers to do a weed seedbank survey. Through a qualitative review of 60 weed seedbank articles, we investigate why and how the seedbank has been studied in agronomy. It shows that seedbank studies have been performed to address the following four major objectives: (a) the assessment of weed management practices on weed communities; (b) the relationship between seedbank and aboveground vegetation; (c) the study of composition and diversity of seedbank in a given area; and, (d) the quantification of seedbank as a food resource for wildlife. Because the analysis highlighted a wide range of methodologies to estimate the seedbank, we critically reviewed them. We show that the selected methodology strongly affects the seedbank estimate. Nevertheless, in our sample of research articles, the analysis revealed that the choice of the methodology was not always justified in terms of achieving a particular scientific goal, but was often determined by the resources available for the experiment (e.g., workload). While studying the soil seedbank remains of interest for scientists (proved by the amount of recent publications), it is time consuming and requires considerable botanical skill. Innovative methods of estimation are scarce and novel methodological developments are needed to increase the quality and reliability of the data obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tree cavities are a keystone resource for many wildlife species worldwide. In Andean temperate forests of South America, many species of birds, mammals and reptiles use cavities to achieve their life history requirements. However, information on cavity supply and drivers of cavity production in these forests remains largely undocumented. We examined the patterns of tree‐cavity supply in successional native forests, exploring the potential drivers of cavity occurrence and relative abundances in Andean temperate ecosystems of southern Chile. In 10 forest stands, we established 369 vegetation plots and measured 7951 trees. For each tree, we recorded the species and measured the diameter at breast height (DBH), decay class and number of cavities. While tree density was much higher in secondary than in old‐growth forest stands, the density of nonexcavated cavities was higher in old‐growth than in secondary forests. Cavity occurrence and relative abundances (number of cavities per tree) were higher in large decaying and standing dead trees (i.e. habitat legacies) than in young healthy trees. Importantly, DBH and decay had a stronger influence on the supply of nonexcavated than excavated cavities. Our results highlight the importance of old‐growth forest stands, tree decay processes and habitat legacies for securing a continuous supply of a keystone habitat resource for tree cavity‐using wildlife in a global biodiversity hotspot of South America. Abstract in Spanish is available with online material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For species at risk, it is important that demographic models be consistent with our most recent knowledge because alternate model versions can have differing predictions for wildlife and natural resource management. To establish and maintain this consistency, we can compare predicted model values to current or past observations and demographic knowledge. When novel predictor information becomes available, testing for consistency between modeled and observed values ensures the best models are used for robust, evidence‐based, wildlife management. We combine novel information on the extent of historical disturbance regimes (industrial and fire) to an existing demographic model and predict historical and projected demographics of woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou). Exploring 6 simulation experiments across 5 populations in Alberta, Canada, we identify the relative importance of industrial disturbance, fire, and population density to observed population size and growth rate. We confirm the onset of significant declines across all 5 populations began approximately 30 years ago, demonstrate these declines have been consistent, and conclude they are more likely due to industrial disturbance from the oil and gas sector within contemporary population ranges than historical fire regimes. These findings reinforce recent research on the cause of woodland caribou declines. Testing for consistency between observations and models prescribed for species recovery is paramount for assessing the cause of declines, projecting population trends, and refining recovery strategies for effective wildlife management. We provide a novel simulation method for conducting these tests. © 2020 The Authors. The Journal of Wildlife Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of The Wildlife Society. : We used simulations based on landscape disturbance histories and a population‐level demographic model to evaluate the contribution of industrial disturbances and fire regime to boreal woodland caribou declines in Alberta, Canada. Model predictions matched observed values and implied that Alberta's woodland caribou populations can persist under historical or markedly elevated fire regimes but may quickly vanish under the industrial disturbances that have accumulated in recent decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wildlife professionals are tasked with sustainably managing habitats and wildlife for the benefit of a variety of stakeholders, and hunters are an important user group. But the number of hunters in North America has continued to decline, and as a result, new wildlife professionals entering the field are less likely to be hunters than their predecessors. We find this trend concerning because future wildlife professionals would be better equipped to manage wildlife resources and develop policies if they understand the motivations and culture of the hunter constituents supporting their work. To address this trend, we have developed collegiate hunting experience programs at the University of California Davis (UC Davis) and Louisiana State University (LSU), USA, wherein undergraduates in wildlife programs are provided with the education, training, equipment, and opportunity to hunt waterfowl and deer. The hunting experience is transformative for our students, resulting in a deeper connection to the wildlife resource, and a richer understanding of hunting culture and hunters' stewardship of wildlife habitat. In the 2 programs, we have encountered challenges (e.g., timidity around firearms), and opportunities for expanding our reach to broader segments of society (e.g., leveraging social media). The relative success of our programs indicates that the possibility for implementation of similar opportunities elsewhere is high, and may provide new ways for private landowners, non‐governmental organizations, and corporate outfitters to engage in undergraduate education. © 2020 The Wildlife Society. Graduates from university wildlife programs are less likely to have hunted than previous generations, making them less well‐equipped to engage with hunters as wildlife professionals. In this commentary, we describe 2 university programs that offer students a hunting experience, and describe challenges and opportunities we have encountered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate and land use change modify surface water availability in African savannas. Surface water is a key resource for both wildlife and livestock and its spatial and temporal distribution is important for understanding the composition of large herbivore assemblages in savannas. Yet, the extent to which ungulate species differ in their water requirements remains poorly quantified. Here, we infer the water requirements of 48 African ungulates by combining six different functional traits related to physiological adaptations to reduce water loss, namely minimum dung moisture, relative dung pellet size, relative surface area of the distal colon, urine osmolality, relative medullary thickness, and evaporation rate. In addition, we investigated how these differences in water requirements relate to differences in dietary water intake. We observed strong correlations between traits related to water loss through dung, urine and evaporation, suggesting that ungulates minimize water loss through multiple pathways simultaneously, which suggests that each trait can thus be used independently to predict water requirements. Furthermore, we found that browsers and grazers had similar water requirements, but browsers are expected to be less dependent on surface water because they acquire more water through their diet. We conclude that these key functional traits are a useful way to determine differences in water requirements and an important tool for predicting changes in herbivore community assembly resulting from changes in surface water availability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecosystem‐based management requires consideration of overlapping resource use between humans and other consumers. Pacific salmon are an important resource for both fisheries and populations of wildlife around the Pacific rim, including coastal brown bears (Ursus arctos); salmon consumption has been positively linked to bear density, body size, and reproductive rate. As a case study within the broader context of human–wildlife competition for food, we used 16–22 yr of empirical data in four different salmon‐bearing systems in southwestern Alaska to explore the relationship between sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) availability and consumption by bears. We found a negative relationship between the annual biomass of salmon available to bears and the fraction of biomass consumed per fish, and a saturating relationship between salmon availability and the total annual biomass of salmon consumed by bears. Under modeled scenarios, bear consumption of salmon was predicted to increase only with dramatic (on the order of 50–100%) increases in prey availability. Even such large increases in salmon abundance were estimated to produce relatively modest increases in per capita salmon consumption by bears (2.4–4.8 kg·bear−1·d−1, 15–59% of the estimated daily maximum per capita intake), in part because bears did not consume salmon entirely, especially when salmon were most available. Thus, while bears catching salmon in small streams may be limited by salmon harvest in some years, current management of the systems we studied is sufficient for bear populations to reach maximum salmon consumption every 2–4 yr. Consequently, allocating more salmon for brown bear conservation would unlikely result in an ecologically significant response for bears in these systems, though other ecosystem components might benefit. Our results highlight the need for documenting empirical relationships between prey abundance and consumption, particularly in systems with partial consumption, when evaluating the ecological response of managing prey resources for wildlife populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose improvements for addressing the inadequate sustainable use of wildlife resources in the community‐based natural resource management (CBNRM) programme in game management areas (GMAs) using case study data from Mumbwa and Lupande GMAs in Zambia. Firstly, we assess the sustainability of wildlife resources in these GMAs using design principles for enduring common pool institutions. Secondly, we propose the steps required to address the lack of sustainability of wildlife resources in the CBNRM programme in the two GMAs by building on indicators suggested by Ostrom's principles. The resource use patterns in the two GMAs were assessed according to their socio‐economic and institutional factors. Comparisons were made between the two GMAs in relation to Ostrom's design principles. Accordingly, the combination of socio‐economic and institutional factors restrains the sustainable use of wildlife resources in the two GMAs. Unless the Zambian government provides local communities with meaningful decision‐making powers and benefits for the utilisation and management of wildlife, this resource is likely to disappear outside national parks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land clearing for agriculture results in fragmented landscapes with diminished resources for wildlife. Habitat loss and fragmentation are widespread problems; however, their impacts are rarely assessed simultaneously at multiple spatial and temporal scales. We used a focal site, multiscale design to examine how landscape characteristics that affect the probability of koala Phascolarctos cinereus presence varies over multiple spatial and temporal scales in a fragmented rural landscape in north‐western New South Wales, Australia. We modelled the effect of variables representing landscape characteristics at three spatial extents – transect, patch and site – over three seasonal periods (mid‐spring, late‐spring and mid‐summer). Koala activity level (as determined by faecal pellets) varied between surveys, and identifies short‐term seasonal changes in habitat use. Koala presence had the strongest association with patch scale variables (habitat suitability, soil fertility and patch area). Temporal variation in the effect of tree and landscape characteristics on koala presence highlights the limitations of surveys at a single point in time, and emphasizes that further research is needed to advance our understanding of what drives temporal variation in koala habitat use at multiple spatial scales. Our results show that to arrest declining koala populations in rural agricultural landscapes, conservation and management plans must consider landscape scale processes over a variety of time scales, and engage stakeholders across multiple properties and tenures, to conserve both disturbed and suitable habitat on private land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wildlife crimes that involve smuggling threaten national security and biodiversity, cause regional conflicts, and hinder economic development, especially in developing countries with abundant wildlife resources. Over the past few decades, significant headway has been made in combating wildlife smuggling and the related illegal domestic trade in China. Previous studies on the wildlife smuggling trade were based mainly on customs punishment and confiscation data. From the China Judgments Online website, we retrieved cases related to cross‐border wildlife and wildlife products smuggling from 2014 to 2020. In total, 510 available cases and 927 records for more than 110 species were registered. We studied each judgment and ruling file thoroughly to extract information on cases, defendants, species, sentences, and origins and destinations of wildlife and wildlife products. Furthermore, the frequency of origin–destination place occurrences and spatial patterns of cross‐border wildlife crime in China were shown in this data paper. The main purpose of our data set is to make these wildlife and wildlife products trade data accessible for researchers to develop conservation studies. We expect that this data set will be valuable for network analysis of regional or global wildlife trafficking, which has attracted global attention. There are no copyright restrictions on the data; we ask that researchers please cite this paper and the associated data set when using the data in publications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) that affects cervid species throughout North America. We evaluated gene expression in white‐tailed deer collected by Illinois Department of Natural Resource wildlife managers during annual population reduction (e.g., sharpshooting) and disease monitoring efforts throughout the CWD‐endemic area of northcentral Illinois. We conducted comparative transcriptomic analysis of liver and retropharyngeal lymph node tissue samples between CWD‐positive (n = 5) and CWD‐not detected (n = 5) deer. A total of 74,479 transcripts were assembled, and 51,661 (69.36%) transcripts were found to have matched proteins in NCBI‐NR and UniProt. Our analysis of functional categories showed 40,308 transcripts were assigned to at least one Gene Ontology term and 37,853 transcripts were involved in at least one pathway. We identified a total of 59 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in CWD‐positive deer, of which 36 and 23 were associated with liver and retropharyngeal lymph node tissues, respectively. Functions of DEGs lend support to previous relationships between misfolded PrP and cellular membranes (e.g., STXBP5), and internal cellular components. We identified several genes that suggest a link between CWD and retroviruses and identified the gene ADIPOQ that acts as a tumor necrosis factor (TNF) antagonist. This gene may lead to reduced production of TNF and impact disease progression and clinical symptoms associated with CWD (i.e., wasting syndrome). Use of candidate genes identified in this study suggests the activation of endogenous processes in CWD‐positive deer, which in turn may enable earlier detection of the disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus hemionus) populations in North America are a valuable economic wildlife resource, with the managed harvest of this species reflecting societal values and recreational opportunities in many parts of the western United States. Managing mule deer populations while allowing for harvest requires an understanding of the species' population dynamics, including the specific factors associated with population change. We conducted a 7‐year (2005–2012) study designed to investigate habitat use and survival of mule deer in eastern Oregon, USA. We used known‐fate data for 408 adult female radio‐collared mule deer to estimate monthly survival rates and to investigate factors that might affect these rates, including seasonal distribution, temporal effects (seasonal, annual, and trends across season and year), movement behavior, and local weather and regional climatic covariates. Variation in survival rates of female mule deer was best explained by an additive effect of migration behavior, differences in survival during the fall migration period compared to the rest of the annual cycle, and precipitation levels on winter ranges of individual deer. Estimates of annual survival were higher for migrants (0.81–0.82), compared to residents (0.76–0.77). Survival was lower for migrants and residents during fall migration (Oct–Nov) and higher amounts of winter precipitation increased survival of both groups. The results of our study suggest that migrating to potentially higher quality summer foraging areas outweighed the cost of traveling through unfamiliar habitats and energy expenditure associated with migration. © 2018 The Wildlife Society. Higher monthly survival rates of mule deer migrants compared to residents suggested that leaving for potentially higher quality summer foraging grounds outweighed the cost of traveling through unfamiliar habitats and energy expenditure from migration. Migrants and residents had lower monthly survival during the fall migration period (Oct–Nov) and winter precipitation had a positive effect on survival for both groups, possibly because increased average winter precipitation resulted in increased winter forage quantity and quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resource selection functions (RSFs) are tremendously valuable for ecologists and resource managers because they quantify spatial patterns in resource utilization by wildlife, thereby facilitating identification of critical habitat areas and characterizing specific habitat features that are selected or avoided. RSFs discriminate between known-use resource units (e.g., telemetry locations) and available (or randomly selected) resource units based on an array of environmental features, and in their standard form are performed using logistic regression. As generalized linear models, standard RSFs have some notable limitations, such as difficulties in accommodating nonlinear (e.g., humped or threshold) relationships and complex interactions. Increasingly, ecologists are using flexible machine-learning methods (e.g., random forests, neural networks) to overcome these limitations. Herein, we investigate the seasonal resource selection patterns of mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) by comparing a logistic regression framework with random forest (RF), a popular machine-learning algorithm. Random forest (RF) models detected nonlinear relationships (e.g., optimal ranges for slope and elevation) and complex interactions which would have been very challenging to discover and characterize using standard model-based approaches. Compared with standard RSF models, RF models exhibited improved predictive skill, provided novel insights about resource selection patterns of mule deer, and, when projected across a relevant geographic space, manifested notable differences in predicted habitat suitability. We recommend that wildlife researchers harness the strengths of machine-learning tools like RF in addition to "classical" tools (e.g., mixed-effects logistic regression) for evaluating resource selection, especially in cases where extensive telemetry data sets are available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental decision-making issues in the Atchafalaya River Basin (ARB), Louisiana require innovative approaches that combine scientific understanding and local stakeholder values. Management of the ARB has evolved from strong federal control to establish the ARB as a primary floodway of the Mississippi River and Tributaries Project to a state and federal collaboration to accommodate fish and wildlife resource promotion, recreational opportunities, and economic development. The management policy has expanded to include a growing number of stakeholders, but the decision-making process has not kept pace. Current conflicts among many local stakeholder groups, due in part to their lack of involvement in the decision-making process, impede restoration efforts. The absence of a long-term collective vision for the ARB by both local stakeholder groups and management agencies further confounds these efforts. This paper proposes a process to apply a structured decision-making framework, a values-based approach that explicitly defines objectives, to promote stakeholder-driven restoration efforts in the ARB and to better prepare for and manage long-term environmental issues. The goals of this approach are: (1) to create a process founded on stakeholder values and supported by rigorous scientific assessment to meet management agency mandates and (2) to establish a transparent process for restoration planning in the ARB that incorporates current and future non-governmental stakeholders into the decision-making process. Similar frameworks have been successful in other river basins; we feel the structure of current restoration efforts in the ARB is well-suited to adopt a values-focused management framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The structure and dynamics of cyclone-prone tropical forests are driven in part by variation in tree species resistance to and survival after wind-induced structural damage. We determined the factors associated with tree damage and 3-yr survival following Category 5 Cyclone Olaf on the Polynesian island of Ta'u, American Samoa. Despite sustaining a high rate of severe damage (34.6% of all trees snapped, 23.0% uprooted), system resilience was high with 74.3 percent stem survival overall and an annual mortality rate of 7.9 percent compared with 2.1 percent in nearby undisturbed late successional forest. Three-yr survival rate of trees sustaining severe damage was 63.1 percent, compared to about 89 percent for trees sustaining only branch loss or defoliation. Three-yr survival differed according to damage type, 78.5 percent after snapping vs. 38.4 percent after uprooting. Species differed widely in resistance to and survival after snapping and uprooting. Several species and individual traits were associated with the probability of snapping or uprooting; however, wood density was the only species trait consistently, and negatively, associated with the probability of sustaining either damage type. Survival after snapping was negatively associated with the proportion of the tree snapped off, which was determined by individual tree architecture. Species growth rate was negatively associated with survival after uprooting, indicating the importance of shade tolerance for survival after uprooting. Thus, whereas species traits seemed to exclusively underpin resistance to and survival after uprooting, they only partly accounted for snapping resistance, and did not determine the intensity of snap damage or survival after snapping. Our results highlight the importance of considering each damage type separately when considering ecological trade-offs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to characterize hollows found in selected tree species (in Cawston Ranch in Zimbabwe) as a potential habitat for small mammals because cavities are important as resources for wildlife: for foraging, shelter, roosting and nesting purposes. Four vegetation types were chosen for analysis: Baikiaea plurijuga, Colophospermum mopane, Combretum molle and Commiphora mollis according to abundance and dominance in the plots they occurred. Transect sampling was done to collect vegetation data. The total number of living trees and stags were recorded in each plot. Trees in a plot were thoroughly inspected for hollows. The following dimensions were measured on cavity trees: hollow size (diameter), hollow location and diameter at breast height. The results indicate that the rate of hollow formation and utilization is significantly dependent on tree species. There was a significant difference in the provision of hollows in stem and crown of a tree in each of the vegetation classes analysed. B. plurijuga hollows had the highest utilization whilst C. molle had the least utilization. Hollows are utilized irrespective of their location as long as the animal finds a niche, and stags at advanced stages of decay are not important in providing habitats for animals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy development threatens fish and wildlife resources worldwide. This study used constrained ordinations to show fish assemblage structure associated with oil and gas well densities in the Colorado River Basin, Wyoming, but well densities explained only 6.4% of assemblage structure when compared to other factors. Threshold Indicator Taxonomic ANalysis showed significant negative threshold responses by some species to small levels of development (<0.15 wells km−2), whereas positive thresholds were less distinct. Some native and imperilled species could be disproportionately affected if future oil and gas development proceeds in a manner that will impact aquatic resources. Although existing development has not substantially influenced regional fish assemblage structure, it appears to affect a subset of species. Understanding assemblage-level responses to development can help land managers determine appropriate development levels, prioritise areas for monitoring associated with future development and identify where land protection measures may be needed to offset potential risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditionally, the identity of indigenous people was defined in relation to closeness to nature and use of wildlife resources. Such an identity has been put under pressure due to development programmes, neo-liberal policies and increasing market economy, forcing these people to redefine their identity within new socio-economic and geopolitical contexts. Based on ethnographic research, the situation of the Vedda people in Sri Lanka is analysed. First, we unravel how they define their identity through a 'meaningful relationship' with the place in which they used to live prior to their displacement because of a large scale development project. Second, we analyse how the Veddas (re-)negotiate their identity in a context of limited access to land, lack of education, unemployment, and an increasing demand for indigenous tourism. It is found that the Veddas redefine their identity by pursuing two survival strategies: tourist development and re-indigenization, and integration into mainstream Sinhalese society. Both strategies pose challenges and opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]