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Simple Summary: Tree climbing is an extremely rare behavior among ungulates and has rarely been reported in forest-dwelling ungulates. We collected 15 tree-climbing records of Formosan serows, mainly from social media platforms. They climbed trees to forage throughout the year in many locations in Taiwan. This is the first report of tree-climbing behavior in the Formosan serow, which is typically a forest dweller. Ungulates are terrestrial herbivores, basically adapted to running fast on the ground; tree-climbing behavior has been reported only in seven species, and five of them live in open habitats (Capra hircus, C. aegagrus, C. falconeri, C. cylindricornis, Oreotragus oreotragus). Tree-climbing behavior may also be evolved in ungulates inhabiting dense forests with abundant trees; however, this has rarely been reported in such species (Moschus leucogaster, M. moschiferus), probably due to the difficulty of observing in the wild. The numerous publicly available records in social networks hold potentially valuable information on the atypical behaviors of wild ungulates. Here, we explored the tree-climbing behavior of a forest-dwelling ungulate, the Formosan serow in Taiwan, a subtropical island, by extracting information from online social media platforms. We researched images and videos of Formosan serows through Facebook and YouTube and collected a total of 15 tree-climbing events. In these materials, Formosan serows climbed 10 tree species, including evergreen coniferous and broad-leaved trees, and a variety of parts, ranging in height from 0.6 to 4 m, and from branches of shrubs to trunks of tall trees. Tree-climbing behavior was recorded throughout Taiwan and from lowlands to subalpine zones, suggesting that tree climbing may be a common behavior in this species. Foraging while climbing trees was frequently observed (53.3%), suggesting that the purpose or benefit for climbing is to obtain additional food other than plants growing near the ground surface. In contrast to other tree-climbing ungulates, Formosan serows climbed trees not only in winter, but also in other seasons, when food is relatively abundant. This is the first scientific report of tree-climbing behavior in the Formosan serow that is typically a forest dweller. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The diet of myrmecophagous mammals is usually studied by investigating the chitinous remains of termites and ants obtained from stomachs, guts, and faeces; however, this process is time and labour intensive. Moreover, faeces of obligate myrmecophagous mammals contain other materials such as soil, sand, rocks, and plant matter, which hinder the accurate and efficient identification of faeces' contents; this makes estimating the biomass of each prey species difficult. This study tested non-filtering and filtering faecal analysis procedures and compared their identification accuracy and efficiency in the analysis of Formosan pangolin Manis pentadactyla pentadactyla faeces. In the non-filtering procedure, 1 g of dried faeces was distributed over an area greater than 360 cm2 to be able to see most ant capsules and termite mandibles. In the filtering procedure, 0.5 cm3 of filtered chitinous remains of termites and ants was spread over a 45 cm2 area to obtain a high resolution of the diet composition. The filtering procedure can sieve out insect remains from the debris, which facilitates further identification of the insect chitin. Using the two proposed faecal analysis procedures, the prey species composition and the number of prey remains could be obtained. Our results provide a quantitative method to evaluate the diversity of wild pangolin's diets for determining their ecological requirements and developing in-situ and ex-situ conservation plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese pangolin Manispentadactyla is critically endangered because of over-exploitation and illegal trafficking and includes three subspecies. However, the taxonomic status of the three subspecies of the Chinese pangolin has not been well resolved, which impedes regional conservation and illegal trade traces. In this study, the complete mitogenome sequence of M.p.pentadactyla , an endemic subspecies of the Chinese pangolin in Taiwan, was determined. The complete mitogenome of M.p.pentadactyla is 16,570 base pairs (bp) in length with 13 protein-coding genes (PCG), 23 transfer RNAs (tRNAs), two ribosomal RNAs and a 1164 bp control region. The overall base composition of the genome showed a slight A + T bias (59.9%), positive AT skew (0.1515) and negative GC skew (-0.3406), which is similar to that of other pangolins. All PCGs started with a typical ATN codon and all tRNAs were typical cloverleaf-shaped secondary structures, except for tRNA-Ser (GCU) . Phylogenetic analysis indicated a monophyletic relationship for M.p.pentadactyla and M.p.aurita and was monophyletic for M.p.pentadactyla , but paraphyletic for M.p.aurita . The paraphyly of M.p.aurita resulted from an incomplete lineage sorting. This study enriched the mitogenome database of the Chinese pangolin and the molecular information obtained should be very useful for future research on mitogenome evolution and genetic diversification in M.pentadactyla ., (Nick Ching-Min Sun, Chi-Chun Huang, Yu-Wei Tseng, Tulshi Laxmi Suwal, Meng-Jou Chi, Nian-Hong Jang-Liaw, Kuo-Hsiang Hung.)