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Biodiversity conservation is increasingly being recognized as an important co-benefit in climate change mitigation programmes that use nature-based climate solutions. However, the climate co-benefits of biodiversity conservation interventions, such as habitat protection and restoration, remain understudied. Here we estimate the forest carbon storage co-benefits of a national policy intervention for tiger (Panthera tigris) conservation in India. We used a synthetic control approach to model avoided forest loss and associated carbon emissions reductions in protected areas that underwent enhanced protection for tiger conservation. Over a third of the analysed reserves showed significant but mixed effects, where 24% of all reserves successfully reduced the rate of deforestation and the remaining 9% reported higher-than-expected forest loss. The policy had a net positive benefit with over 5,802 hectares of averted forest loss, corresponding to avoided emissions of 1.08 ± 0.51 MtCO2 equivalent between 2007 and 2020. This translated to US$92.55 ± 43.56 million in ecosystem services from the avoided social cost of emissions and potential revenue of US$6.24 ± 2.94 million in carbon offsets. Our findings offer an approach to quantitatively track the carbon sequestration co-benefits of a species conservation strategy and thus help align the objectives of climate action and biodiversity conservation.

The trophic interactions between plants, insect herbivores and their predators are complex and prone to trophic cascades. Theory predicts that predators increase plant biomass by feeding on herbivores. However, it remains unclear whether different types of predators regulate herbivores to the same degree, and how intraguild predation impacts these trophic interactions. Specifically, we lack a more comprehensive look at the effects of various groups of predators on a global scale. Here we report a meta-analysis of 486 experiments gathered from 157 publications reporting the effect of insectivorous vertebrates (birds and bats) and ants on abundances of predatory (spiders, ants, others) and herbivorous (chewers and others) arthropods; on arthropod richness and plant damage. Generally, the absence of vertebrate predators led to the increase of predatory arthropods by 18%, herbivorous arthropods by 75%, and plant damage by 47%. In contrast, after the removal of ants, the increase in the abundances of other predatory arthropods did not compensate for missing ants, herbivore arthropods increased their abundances by 53%, and plant damage increased by 146%. The effects of ant exclosures were stronger in communities at lower elevations and latitudes, while we did not detect any clear geographical patterns in the effect of vertebrate exclosures. Neither precipitation nor NDVI had a significant impact on most of the measured effects, and the effect of exclosures was robust for both plant growth forms and different habitat types. We found vertebrate insectivores to be the more dominant predators of arthropods, but we detected that the strength of their trophic cascades was weakened by intraguild predation. On the other hand, we found that although ants were relatively less dominant as predators, and their influence was detectable only in the most productive sites, the effect of trophic cascades on plants they caused was stronger than that of vertebrate insectivores.

A single adverse environment event can threaten the survival of small-ranged species while random fluctuations in population size increase the extinction risk of less-abundant species. The abundance-range-size relationship (ARR) is usually positive, which means that smaller-ranged species are often of low abundance and might face both problems simultaneously. The ARR has been reported to be negative on tropical islands, perhaps allowing endemic species in such environments to remain extant. But there is a need to understand how endemism and land-use interact to shape ARR. Using 41 highly replicated transects along the full elevational gradient of Sri Lanka, we determined the following: (a) the direction of ARR, (b) if endemism affects ARR and (c) if land-use (rainforest, buffer and agriculture) changes ARR differently for endemics and non-endemics. Additionally, (d) we identified endemics that had both lower abundances and smaller range sizes, and ranked them from most threatened (specific to rainforests) to least threatened using a weighted-interaction nestedness estimator. (a) We found a positive relationship between species abundances and range size. This positive ARR was maintained among endemic and non-endemic species, across land-use types and at local and regional scales. (b) The ARR interacted with endemicity and land-use. Endemics with smaller range sizes had higher abundances than non-endemics, and particularly higher in rainforests compared to agriculture. In contrast, species with larger range sizes had similar abundances across endemicity and land-use categories. Many endemics with smaller range sizes are globally threatened; therefore, higher abundances may buffer them from extinction risks. (c) Nine (29%) endemics had both below average abundance and elevational range size. The nestedness estimator ranked the endemics Sri Lanka Whistling Thrush Myophonus blighi, Red-faced Malkoha Phaenicophaeus pyrrhocephalus, Sri Lanka Thrush Zoothera imbricata and White-faced Starling Sturnornis albofrontus as the four most vulnerable species to local extinction risk, which corresponds to their global extinction risk. We demonstrate that ARR can be positive on tropical islands, but it is influenced by endemism and land-use. Examining shifts in ARR is not only important to understand community dynamics but can also act as a tool to inform managers about species that require monitoring programmes.

In the last 50 years, intensive agriculture has replaced large tracts of rainforests. Such changes in land use are driving niche-based ecological processes that determine local community assembly. However, little is known about the relative importance of these anthropogenic niche-based processes, in comparison to climatic niche-based processes and spatial processes such as dispersal limitation. In this study, we use a variation partitioning approach to determine the relative importance of land-use change (ranked value of forest loss), climatic variation (temperature and precipitation), and distance between transects, on bird beta diversity at two different spatial scales within the Western Ghats-Sri Lanka biodiversity hotspot. Our results show that the drivers of local community assembly are scale dependent. At the larger spatial scale, distance was more important than climate and land use for bird species composition, suggesting that dispersal limitation over the Palk Strait, which separates the Western Ghats and Sri Lanka, is the main driver of local community assembly. At the smaller scale, climate was more important than land use, suggesting the importance of climatic niches. Therefore, to conserve all species in a biodiversity hotspot, it is important to consider geographic barriers and climatic variation along with land-use change.

Natural climate solutions (NCS) are an essential complement to climate mitigation and have been increasingly incorporated into international mitigation strategies. Yet, with the ongoing population growth, allocating natural areas for NCS may compete with other socioeconomic priorities, especially urban development and food security. Here, we projected the impacts of land-use competition incurred by cropland and urban expansion on the climate mitigation potential of NCS. We mapped the areas available for implementing 9 key NCS strategies and estimated their climate change mitigation potential. Then, we overlaid these areas with future cropland and urban expansion maps projected under three Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP) scenarios (2020-2100) and calculated the resulting mitigation potential loss of each selected NCS strategy. Our results estimate a substantial reduction, 0.3-2.8 GtCO

Large-scale reforestation can potentially bring both benefits and risks to the water cycle, which needs to be better quantified under future climates to inform reforestation decisions. We identified 477 water-insecure basins worldwide accounting for 44.6% (380.2 Mha) of the global reforestation potential. As many of these basins are in the Asia-Pacific, we used regional coupled land-climate modeling for the period 2041-2070 to reveal that reforestation increases evapotranspiration and precipitation for most water-insecure regions over the Asia-Pacific. This resulted in a statistically significant increase in water yield (p .05) for the Loess Plateau-North China Plain, Yangtze Plain, Southeast China, and Irrawaddy regions. Precipitation feedback was influenced by the degree of initial moisture limitation affecting soil moisture response and thus evapotranspiration, as well as precipitation advection from other reforested regions and moisture transport away from the local region. Reforestation also reduces the probability of extremely dry months in most of the water-insecure regions. However, some regions experience nonsignificant declines in net water yield due to heightened evapotranspiration outstripping increases in precipitation, or declines in soil moisture and advected precipitation.

Despite the important contribution of fungi to forest health, biomass turnover and carbon cycling, little is known about the factors that influence fungal phenology. Therefore, in order to further our understanding on how macrofungal fruiting patterns change along a gradient from temperate to tropical climate zones, we investigated the phenological patterns of macrofungal fruiting at five sites along a combined altitudinal and latitudinal gradient in SW China and NW Laos, ranging from temperate to tropical climates. Observations were conducted in the dominant land use types at these study sites: mixed forest (all sites), coniferous forest (temperate sites) and grassland (temperate sites). In total, 2866 specimens were collected, belonging to 791 morpho species, 162 genera, and 71 families. At the site level, the fruiting of ectomycorrhizal (EcMF) and saprotrophic fungi (SapF) occurred at the same time among all land use types. The fruiting season of fungi in the tropical sites began earlier and ended later compared to that of fungi in the temperate sites, which we attribute mainly to the higher temperature and more abundant rainfall of the tropical areas. EcMF taxa richness in temperate forests (both coniferous and mixed forest) showed a distinct peak at the end of the rainy season in August and September, while no significant peak was observed for SapF taxa richness. Neither functional fungal groups showed significant seasonal fluctuations in tropical areas. The temporal turnover of fungal fruiting significantly increased with the shift from tropical to temperate forests along the elevation gradient. In the grasslands, macrofungal abundance was less than 22% of that of corresponding forest sites, and taxa richness was 42% of that of corresponding forest sites. Fungal fruiting showed no significant fluctuations across the rainy season. This work represents a case study carried out over one year, and further measurements will be needed to test if these results hold true in the longer term.

Habitat fragmentation in heterogeneous landscapes is a non-random process, with farmers selecting lands with flat topography and fertile soils. To understand the persistence of biodiversity in forest fragments in such landscapes, it is necessary to distinguish between factors associated with fragmentation (e.g., area and distance to edge) and characteristics of where fragments are located (e.g., topography and soil conditions). Location factors have been previously demonstrated to be important in explaining the persistence of trees in fragments in the environmentally diverse region of Xishuangbanna, China (Liu and Slik, Biological Conservation, 2014). However, it is unknown how location factors influence more mobile, short-lived organisms. We sampled 42 of the previous study's plots for birds and herpetofauna across two years. A multi-model inference approach indicated that topography was the most important predictor of amphibian diversity, with valleys having more than three times the species in other locations. Topography interacted with fragment size for bird species, and particularly forest interior (FI) species: diversity in valley plots climbed strongly with fragment area, but the relationship between area and diversity was less strong in other locations. Soil type (limestone or not) most strongly influenced the score of plots on the first axis of a NMDS ordination of FI birds. These results suggest that managers should consider the location of fragments in the landscape in prioritizing forest fragments for protection. For Xishuangbanna, all valley fragments are important to protect amphibians; amalgamating them into large fragments > 1000 ha will make them most useful for bird conservation.

Many agamid lizards are known to show sexual dimorphism in body shape, colour and ornamentation or a combination of these traits. Adult males of Salea horsfieldii have a discontinuous dorsal crest at the nuchal region, which is a sexually dimorphic character. However, there is no information about the age or size at which this dimorphic ornamentation develops and if the species exhibits sexual shape dimorphism (SShD). The authors studied the morphology of S. horsfieldii and found that its ornamentation is an ontogenetically stable character present in all males, including juveniles. Seven morphological characters were measured to determine if they exhibited SShD at adult and juvenile stages. Analysis of covariance was used to identify differences in morphology between sexes. The results show that only adults exhibited SShD, but not juveniles. Adult males had larger head and foot lengths in comparison to females of the same size. Larger head length in adult males is a sexual fitness trait, which in...

Although deforestation and forest degradation have long been considered the most significant threats to tropical biodiversity, across Southeast Asia (Northeast India, Indochina, Sundaland, Philippines) substantial areas of natural habitat have few wild animals (>1 kg), bar a few hunting-tolerant species. To document hunting impacts on vertebrate populations regionally, we conducted an extensive literature review, including papers in local journals and reports of governmental and nongovernmental agencies. Evidence from multiple sites indicated animal populations declined precipitously across the region since approximately 1980, and many species are now extirpated from substantial portions of their former ranges. Hunting is by far the greatest immediate threat to the survival of most of the region's endangered vertebrates. Causes of recent overhunting include improved access to forests and markets, improved hunting technology, and escalating demand for wild meat, wildlife-derived medicinal products, and wild animals as pets. Although hunters often take common species, such as pigs or rats, for their own consumption, they take rarer species opportunistically and sell surplus meat and commercially valuable products. There is also widespread targeted hunting of high-value species. Consequently, as currently practiced, hunting cannot be considered sustainable anywhere in the region, and in most places enforcement of protected-area and protected-species legislation is weak. The international community's focus on cross-border trade fails to address overexploitation of wildlife because hunting and the sale of wild meat is largely a local issue and most of the harvest is consumed in villages, rural towns, and nearby cities. In addition to improved enforcement, efforts to engage hunters and manage wildlife populations through sustainable hunting practices are urgently needed. Unless there is a step change in efforts to reduce wildlife exploitation to sustainable levels, the region will likely lose most of its iconic species, and many others besides, within the next few years.

The relationship between β-diversity and latitude still remains to be a core question in ecology because of the lack of consensus between studies. One hypothesis for the lack of consensus between studies is that spatial scale changes the relationship between latitude and β-diversity. Here, we test this hypothesis using tree data from 15 large-scale forest plots (greater than or equal to 15 ha, diameter at breast height ≥ 1 cm) across a latitudinal gradient (3–30 o ) in the Asia-Pacific region. We found that the observed β-diversity decreased with increasing latitude when sampling local tree communities at small spatial scale (grain size ≤0.1 ha), but the observed β-diversity did not change with latitude when sampling at large spatial scales (greater than or equal to 0.25 ha). Differences in latitudinal β-diversity gradients across spatial scales were caused by pooled species richness (γ-diversity), which influenced observed β-diversity values at small spatial scales, but not at large spatial scales. Therefore, spatial scale changes the relationship between β-diversity, γ-diversity and latitude, and improving sample representativeness avoids the γ-dependence of β-diversity.

Traditional assessments of anthropogenic impacts on biodiversity often ignore hunting pressure or use subjective categories (e.g. high, medium or low) that cannot be readily understood by readers or replicated in other studies. Although animals often appear tame in habitats without hunting compared to habitats with hunting, few studies have demonstrated such effects. We determined the flight initiation distance (FID; i.e. human-animal distance when the animal begins to flee) of a common frugivorous bird of Southeast Asia, Sooty-headed Bulbul ( Pycnonotus aurigaster) across a gradient of hunting pressures in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, SW China. Controlling for confounding effects, we show that FID increased with hunting pressure, which was quantitatively measured through encounters with hunters. As FIDs respond more specifically to hunting than other defaunation metrics, we suggest they can be used as behavioral indicators of hunting pressure in developing conservation strategies.

AimForest fragmentation is often accompanied by an increase in hunting intensity. Both factors are known drivers of species extirpations, but understanding of their independent effects is poor. Our goal was to partition the effects of hunting and fragmentation on bird species extirpations and to identify bird traits that make species more vulnerable to these two stressors. LocationMenglun, Yunnan, SW China MethodsWe studied the landscape within 10km radius of Menglun town, where forests have become highly fragmented by monoculture rubber plantations. We compiled data on birds recorded between 1954 and 1983 before forest loss and compared it with a checklist prepared between 2011 and 2014. We used countryside and matrix-calibrated species-area models (SAMs) to estimate the observed slope of forest bird extirpations in Menglun and compared it with the slope expected in the absence of hunting. We also investigated six ecological traits to determine those that best explained bird extirpation probability (EP). ResultsWe found that 34% of the bird fauna had been extirpated from the study landscape, and the estimated slopes of countryside and matrix-calibrated SAMs for forest birds were around 1.4 and 1.7 times higher, respectively, than the 0.35 expected without hunting. Bird EP was strongly associated with size, and understorey insectivores that are known to be susceptible to fragmentation were less susceptible to hunting than frugivores. Given evidence of past and present hunting activity in the area, and the lack of support for alternative explanations, we suggest that hunting increased forest bird extirpations by around 1.3- to 1.6-fold. ConclusionsThis study highlights the importance of using species-area relationships to separate area effects from the impacts of hunting. Our results suggest that hunting substantially increases species extirpations in tropical fragmented landscapes and conservation interventions that only target deforestation will therefore be inadequate.

Biodiversity conservation in forested landscapes outside protected areas is important to sustain populations of species with restricted ranges. However, such habitats face many anthropogenic threats, including logging, extraction of firewood and leaf-litter for mulch in plantations. In this study, we determined the effects of forest degradation on amphibians and reptiles in forests outside protected areas by measuring their species richness and community composition across a disturbance gradient from near pristine to highly degraded forests in Agumbe, Western Ghats, India. Twenty-one strip 15 m × 150 m transects were laid across the disturbance gradient and diurnal visual encounter surveys were conducted. Sampling was repeated three times per transect covering the dry, intermediate and wet seasons. Amphibian and reptile communities were affected by the decrease in canopy cover and leaf litter volume, respectively. Our results indicate that the collection of firewood and leaf-litter can severely affect amphibian and reptile populations. Structured conservation planning outside of protected areas is therefore imperative.

Classical biological control agents fail to achieve an impact on their hosts for a variety of reasons and an understanding of why they fail can help shape decisions on subsequent releases. Ornamental Ficus microcarpa is a widely planted avenue fig tree that is invasive in countries where its pollinator (Eupristina verticillata) is also introduced. This tree also supports more than 20 species of non-pollinating fig wasps (NPFW) that feed in the figs and have the potential to reduce the plant’s reproduction. Odontofroggatia galili, one of the most widely introduced NPFW, has larvae that develop in galled ovules that might otherwise develop into seeds or support pollinator larvae. We examined the distribution and relative abundance of the pollinator and O. galili on F. microcarpa in China, towards the northern limit of the tree’s natural range, and in Italy where the two species have been introduced. Where they co-existed, we also recorded the impact of varying densities of O. galili on F. microcarpa seed and pollinator production. O. galili and E. verticillata displayed contrasting habitat preferences in China, with O. galili almost absent from warmer sites. O. galili abundance and sex ratios varied between the natural and introduced ranges. Figs with more O. galili contained fewer seeds and pollinator offspring, but reproduction was rarely inhibited totally. Additional species with a greater impact in the figs they occupy are needed if biocontrol of F. microcarpa is to be effective.

Rising global demand for natural rubber is expanding monoculture rubber (Hevea brasilensis) at the expense of natural forests in the Old World tropics. Conversion of forests into rubber plantations has a devastating impact on biodiversity and we have yet to identify management strategies that can mitigate this. We determined the life-history traits that best predict bird species occurrence in rubber plantations in SW China and investigated the effects of surrounding forest cover and distance to roads on bird diversity. Mistletoes provide nectar and fruit resources in rubber so we examined mistletoe densities and the relationship with forest cover and rubber tree diameter. In rubber plantations, we recorded less than half of all bird species extant in the surrounding area. Birds with wider habitat breadths and low conservation value had a higher probability of occurrence. Species richness and diversity increased logarithmically with surrounding forest cover, but roads had little effect. Mistletoe density increased exponentially with rubber tree diameters, but was unrelated to forest cover. To maximize bird diversity in rubber-dominated landscapes it is therefore necessary to preserve as much forest as possible, construct roads through plantations and not forest and retain some large rubber trees with mistletoes during crop rotations.

Cnemaspis heteropholis Bauer, 2002 was hitherto defined based only on its holotype, an adult female collected from Gund hill range, Western Ghats, India. Recently we observed adult male and juvenile specimens of this species at Agumbe, ca. 200km south of its type locality and consequently we recharacterize and expand the definition of this species by providing information about intraspecific variation based on the new specimens. Colouration in life and natural history data are also provided.

Some geckos lay eggs at communal egg deposition sites with as many as 300 eggs per site. Selection of egg deposition sites is important to avoid egg damage and predation. We investigated survival rates of communal egg clutches of the Indian Golden Gecko Calodactylodes aureus (Reptilia: Gekkonidae). Our results show that communal clutches have a higher survival rate in sites with water bodies and without anthropogenic activities, in comparison to sites having the opposite combination. These findings are discussed in the context of the status of this gecko.

We analyzed the species composition and abundance of birds and mammals at a fruiting hemi-epiphytic fig ( Ficus caulocarpa) in Maliau Basin, Sabah, Malaysia. Observations were conducted for 32 hours over five days. Forty-four species of birds and three mammal species were recorded. Of these, 28 birds and 2 mammals fed on the figs. In addition, nine species of insectivorous or omnivorous birds that did not feed on the figs were observed foraging in the tree, presumably on the large quantities of fig wasps produced. Inter- and intra-specific aggression was also observed among the species foraging in the tree. Overall the assemblage of large birds, such as hornbills, and mammals was poor, which seems to be due to the small size of the figs (

Although deforestation and forest degradation have long been considered the most significant threats to tropical biodiversity, across Southeast Asia (Northeast India, Indochina, Sundaland, Philippines) substantial areas of natural habitat have few wild animals (1 kg), bar a few hunting-tolerant species. To document hunting impacts on vertebrate populations regionally, we conducted an extensive literature review, including papers in local journals and reports of governmental and nongovernmental agencies. Evidence from multiple sites indicated animal populations declined precipitously across the region since approximately 1980, and many species are now extirpated from substantial portions of their former ranges. Hunting is by far the greatest immediate threat to the survival of most of the region's endangered vertebrates. Causes of recent overhunting include improved access to forests and markets, improved hunting technology, and escalating demand for wild meat, wildlife-derived medicinal products, and wild animals as pets. Although hunters often take common species, such as pigs or rats, for their own consumption, they take rarer species opportunistically and sell surplus meat and commercially valuable products. There is also widespread targeted hunting of high-value species. Consequently, as currently practiced, hunting cannot be considered sustainable anywhere in the region, and in most places enforcement of protected-area and protected-species legislation is weak. The international community's focus on cross-border trade fails to address overexploitation of wildlife because hunting and the sale of wild meat is largely a local issue and most of the harvest is consumed in villages, rural towns, and nearby cities. In addition to improved enforcement, efforts to engage hunters and manage wildlife populations through sustainable hunting practices are urgently needed. Unless there is a step change in efforts to reduce wildlife exploitation to sustainable levels, the region will likely lose most of its iconic species, and many others besides, within the next few years.

Understory avian insectivores are especially sensitive to deforestation, although regional differences in how these species respond to human disturbance may be linked to varying land-use histories. South Asia experienced widespread conversion of forest to agriculture in the nineteenth century, providing a comparison to tropical areas deforested more recently. In Sri Lanka and the Western Ghats of India, we compared understory insectivores to other guilds and to insectivores with different vertical strata preferences, both inside mixed-species flocks and for the whole bird community. Overall species richness did not change across the land-use gradient, although there was substantial turnover in species composition between land-use types. We found that the proportion of species represented by insectivores was ~1.14 times higher in forest compared to agriculture and the proportion of insectivores represented by understory species was ~1.32 times higher in forests. Mass-abundance relationships were very different when analyzed on mixed-species flocks compared to the total community, perhaps indicating reduced competition in these mutualisms. We show that South Asia fits the worldwide pattern of understory insectivores declining with increased land-use intensity and conclude that these species can be used globally as indicator and/or umbrella species for conservation across different disturbance time scales.

The primary approach used to conserve tropical biodiversity is in the establishment of protected areas. However, many tropical nature reserves are performing poorly and interventions in the broader landscape may be essential for conserving biodiversity both within reserves and at large. Between October 2010 and 2012, we conducted bird surveys in and around a recently established nature reserve in Xishuangbanna, China. We constructed a checklist of observed species, previously recorded species, and species inferred to have occurred in the area from their distributions and habitat requirements. In addition, we assessed variation in community composition and habitat specificity at a landscape-scale. Despite the fact that the landscape supports a large area of natural forest habitat (~50,000 ha), we estimate that >40% of the bird fauna has been extirpated and abundant evidence suggests hunting is the primary cause. A large proportion (52%) of the bigger birds (>20 cm) were extirpated and for large birds there was a U-shaped relationship between habitat breadth and extirpation probability. Habitat specificity was low and bird communities were dominated by widespread species of limited conservation concern. We question whether extending tropical protected area networks will deliver desired conservation gains, unless much greater effort is channeled into addressing the hunting problem both within existing protected areas and in the broader landscape.

We report the rediscovery of Vosmer’s Writhing Skink Lygosoma vosmaerii (Gray, 1839) (Reptilia: Scincidae) based on a specimen collected from Jaggayapet, Krishna district, Andhra Pradesh, which constitutes the second known specimen after the type specimen that was collected 170 years ago. Vosmer’s Writhing Skink differs from the widely-distributed Lined Writhing Skink Lygosoma lineata (Gray, 1839) in possessing five fingers on its forelimbs as compared to four toes in the latter taxon.

Animals often evaluate the degree of risk posed by a predator and respond accordingly. Since many predators orient their eyes towards prey while attacking, predator gaze and directness of approach could serve as conspicuous indicators of risk to prey. The ability to perceive these cues and discriminate between high and low predation risk should benefit prey species through both higher survival and decreased energy expenditure. We experimentally examined whether Indian rock lizards (Psammophilus dorsalis) can perceive these two indicators of predation risk by measuring the variation in their fleeing behaviour in response to type of gaze and approach by a human predator. Overall, we found that the gaze and approach of the predator influenced flight initiation distance, which also varied with attributes of the prey (i.e. size/sex and tail-raise behaviour). Flight initiation distance (FID) was 43 percent longer during direct approaches with direct gaze compared with tangential approaches with averted gaze. In further, exploratory, analyses, we found that FID was 23 percent shorter for adult male lizards than for female or young male (FYM) lizards. In addition, FYM lizards that showed a tail-raise display during approach had a 71 percent longer FID than those that did not. Our results suggest that multiple factors influence the decision to flee in animals. Further studies are needed to test the generality of these factors and to investigate the proximate mechanisms underlying flight decisions.

Windbreaks often form networks of forest habitats that improve connectivity and thus conserve biodiversity, but little is known of such effects in the tropics. We determined bird species richness and community composition in windbreaks composed of remnant native vegetation amongst tea plantations (natural windbreaks), and compared it with the surrounding primary forests. Fifty-one, ten-minute point counts were conducted in each habitat type over three days. Despite the limited sampling period, our bird inventories in both natural windbreaks and primary forests were nearly complete, as indicated by bootstrap true richness estimator. Bird species richness and abundance between primary forests and windbreaks were similar, however a difference in bird community composition was observed. Abundances of important functional groups such as frugivores and insectivores did not vary between habitat types but nectarivores were more abundant in windbreaks, potentially as a result of the use of windbreaks as traveling routes, foraging and nesting sites. This preliminary study suggests that natural windbreaks may be important habitats for the persistence of bird species in a production landscape. However, a better understanding of the required physical and compositional characteristics for windbreaks to sustain bird communities is needed for effective conservation management.

The usage of invasive tagging methods to assess lizard populations has often been criticised, due to the potential negative effects of marking, which possibly cause increased mortality or altered behaviour. The development of safe, less invasive techniques is essential for improved ecological study and conservation of lizard populations. In this study, we describe a photographic capture-recapture (CR) technique for estimating Draco dussumieri (Agamidae) populations. We used photographs of the ventral surface of the patagium to identify individuals. To establish that the naturally occurring blotches remained constant through time, we compared capture and recapture photographs of 45 pen-marked individuals after a 30 day interval. No changes in blotches were observed and individual lizards could be identified with 100% accuracy. The population density of D. dussumieri in a two hectare areca-nut plantation was estimated using the CR technique with ten sampling occasions over a ten day period. The resulting recapture histories for 24 individuals were analysed using population models in the program CAPTURE. All models indicated that nearly all individuals were captured. The estimated probability for capturing D. dussumieri on at least one occasion was 0.92 and the estimated population density was 13±1.65 lizards/ha. Our results demonstrate the potential for applying CR to population studies in gliding lizards (Draco spp.) and other species with distinctive markings.

We report the first record of the three-banded skink Eutropis trivittata (Hardwicke and Gray, 1827) (Reptilia: Scincidae) for Andhra Pradesh, India, based on a specimen from Araku, Vishakapatnam district. This report also helps in understanding the distribution of this species in South East India.

When searching for food, great tits (Parus major) can use herbivore‐induced plant volatiles (HIPVs) as an indicator of arthropod presence. Their ability to detect HIPVs was shown to be learned, and not innate, yet the flexibility and generalization of learning remain unclear.We studied if, and if so how, naïve and trained great tits (Parus major) discriminate between herbivore‐induced and noninduced saplings of Scotch elm (Ulmus glabra) and cattley guava (Psidium cattleyanum). We chemically analyzed the used plants and showed that their HIPVs differed significantly and overlapped only in a few compounds.Birds trained to discriminate between herbivore‐induced and noninduced saplings preferred the herbivore‐induced saplings of the plant species they were trained to. Naïve birds did not show any preferences. Our results indicate that the attraction of great tits to herbivore‐induced plants is not innate, rather it is a skill that can be acquired through learning, one tree species at a time.We demonstrate that the ability to learn to associate HIPVs with food reward is flexible, expressed to both tested plant species, even if the plant species has not coevolved with the bird species (i.e., guava). Our results imply that the birds are not capable of generalizing HIPVs among tree species but suggest that they either learn to detect individual compounds or associate whole bouquets with food rewards., Naïve birds did not show a significant preference for herbivore‐induced saplings, while elm and guava‐trained birds preferred herbivore‐induced saplings of the species on which they were trained in most of the cases.

Supplementary figures and tables

Large tracts of tropical rainforests are being converted into intensive agricultural lands. Such anthropogenic disturbances are known to reduce species turnover across horizontal distances. But it is not known if they can also reduce species turnover across vertical distances (elevation), which have steeper climatic differences. We measured turnover in birds across horizontal and vertical sampling transects in three land-use types of Sri Lanka: protected forest, reserve buffer and intensive-agriculture, from 90 to 2100 m a.s.l. Bird turnover rates across horizontal distances were similar across all habitats, and much less than vertical turnover rates. Vertical turnover rates were not similar across habitats. Forest had higher turnover rates than the other two habitats for all bird species. Buffer and intensive-agriculture had similar turnover rates, even though buffer habitats were situated at the forest edge. Therefore, our results demonstrate the crucial importance of conserving primary forest across the full elevational range available.

Large tracts of tropical rainforests are being converted into intensive agricultural lands. Such anthropogenic disturbances are known to reduce species turnover across horizontal distances. But it is not known if they can also reduce species turnover across vertical distances (elevation), which have steeper climatic differences. We measured turnover in birds across horizontal and vertical sampling transects in three land-use types of Sri Lanka: protected forest, reserve buffer and intensive-agriculture, from 90 to 2100 m a.s.l. Bird turnover rates across horizontal distances were similar across all habitats, and much less than vertical turnover rates. Vertical turnover rates were not similar across habitats. Forest had higher turnover rates than the other two habitats for all bird species. Buffer and intensive-agriculture had similar turnover rates, even though buffer habitats were situated at the forest edge. Therefore, our results demonstrate the crucial importance of conserving primary forest across the full elevational range available.

Supplementary figures and tables

Large tracts of tropical rainforests are being converted into intensive agricultural lands. Such anthropogenic disturbances are known to reduce species turnover across horizontal distances. But it is not known if they can also reduce species turnover across vertical distances (elevation), which have steeper climatic differences. We measured turnover in birds across horizontal and vertical sampling transects in three land-use types of Sri Lanka: protected forest, reserve buffer and intensive-agriculture, from 90 to 2100 m a.s.l. Bird turnover rates across horizontal distances were similar across all habitats, and much less than vertical turnover rates. Vertical turnover rates were not similar across habitats. Forest had higher turnover rates than the other two habitats for all bird species. Buffer and intensive-agriculture had similar turnover rates, even though buffer habitats were situated at the forest edge. Therefore, our results demonstrate the crucial importance of conserving primary forest across the full elevational range available.

Supplementary figures and tables