Evidence of abnormal coloration in wild animals provides useful information to better understand its adaptive function and its impact on survival. For this reason, we need to know the frequency and ...distribution of these abnormal phenotypes in wild populations. Here, we report two records of hypopigmentation in European pine marten Martes martes, obtained during a camera‐trapping survey on Elba Island, Central Italy. We do not know what has caused anomalous coloration of pine marten on Elba Island, but it is possible that the inbreeding may have played a role in this isolated population. Although the light coloration certainly entails an increased visibility of pine martens, it is possible that the low predator pressure and the absence of other wild carnivore populations in our study could mitigate the mortality risk due to the light phenotype. The increased use of camera traps across the world can potentially facilitate the discovery of cases of anomalous colorations in wild populations, providing an unprecedented insight into the occurrence of this phenomenon in wild mammal species.
Evidence of abnormal coloration in wild animals provides useful information to better understand their adaptive function and their impact on survival. For this reason, it is useful to know the frequency and distribution of these abnormal phenotypes in wild populations. Here, we report two records of hypopigmentation in European pine marten Martes martes, obtained during a camera‐trapping survey on Elba Island, Central Italy.
The wood mouse
is common in woodlands and open areas of the Western Palearctic. Despite extensive research, little is known about its population ecology in fields in the Mediterranean area, where the ...climate involves great seasonal changes in environmental features. Here, we investigated wood mice seasonal fluctuations in the number of captures and population structure by sampling long-fallow fields and woodlands, i.e., oak forest and conifer plantation, in a heterogeneous landscape of central Italy. Mice were live-trapped every two months for three years (23.814 trap-days). The number of captures, mice body weight, and proportion of adult, residents and breeding individuals were analyzed. Mice dynamics changed across seasons and habitats. In fields, we recorded more captures, more reproductive individuals, and fewer non-adults and resident individuals in the warmer months compared to the colder months; mice were heavier in warmer months. During the cold season, the captures and adult proportion in fields were lower than in resource-rich woodlands. Breeding and non-resident mice were more abundant in fields than in woodlands in warmer months. Overall, the seasonal demographic variations we recorded provide evidence that fields can represent a suboptimal habitat in Mediterranean heterogeneous landscapes, acting nonetheless as a source of food resources, cover, and mates for mice in spring-summer.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Strong mutual relationships exist between rodents and ecosystems. By modifying the structure and functioning of ecosystems, human activity can affect rodent behaviour and ecology. The yellow-necked ...mouse
Apodemus flavicollis
is widespread in Europe, and its spatial ecology has been studied in various habitats, but studies are lacking for Mediterranean forests often altered by forest management practices. We investigated the spatial behaviour of
A. flavicollis
in a sub-Mediterranean deciduous oak forest of central Italy subject to forest management. We radio-tracked 27 individuals in two different coppice stands, i.e. a recently cut area and a high forest, differing in terms of species-specific habitat quality and rodent population density. We analysed the size of home ranges in relation to habitat type and sex. Our results revealed that home range and core area size did not differ between habitat types or sexes. The spatial behaviour of
A. flavicollis
thus did not appear to be influenced by population density and habitat quality. The lack of sex-related differences confirms the current knowledge on the species’ spatial ecology. Our findings provide the first useful information on the spatial behaviour of
A. flavicollis
in sub-Mediterranean deciduous oak forests, whose ecological processes may be markedly influenced by this key species at several trophic levels.
The European Union (EU) has recently adopted a regulation on invasive alien species that foresees the possibility of developing lists of species of National Concern. We developed a prioritisation ...process for alien mammals already established in Italy, but not yet included in the EU list (n = 6 species) and a systematic horizon-scanning procedure to obtain ranked lists for those species that are already introduced worldwide or traded in Italy (n = 213). Experts were asked to score these species, by evaluating their likelihood of establishment and spread and the magnitude of their potential impacts on biodiversity, economy, human-health and society. The manageability of each species was also evaluated, both for the proritisation and the horizon-scanning processes. We produced five lists that ranked species according to their potential spread and impacts and their manageability. These will allow policy-makers to select outputs according to a balance between risk assessment and risk management, establishing priorities for alien species management at the national level.
Understanding the role of land-use patterns in determining the distribution of nocturnal birds has important implications for the conservation of these species and for land management. One important ...step for effective conservation is to develop statistical models to assess how the probability of birds’ presence can be influenced by land-use types in order to support decision making in conservation planning at the landscape or regional scale. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of extent and configuration of land-use types in determining the distribution of some nocturnal birds of prey (Strigiformes) and the European Nightjar
Caprimulgus europaeus
in agricultural landscapes. We surveyed six nocturnal birds (Eurasian Scops Owl
Otus scops
, Little Owl
Athene noctua
, Barn Owl
Tyto alba
, Long-eared Owl
Asio otus
, Tawny Owl
Strix aluco
and European Nightjar) in 123 listening stations located in nine protected areas of southern Tuscany, Central Italy. Nocturnal birds were present in 97 % of the stations, where variables relative to the extent and configuration of land-use types were measured. The probability of Tawny Owl presence increased with increasing forest cover, the probability of Little Owl presence increased with increasing amount of arable land, whilst the probability of Eurasian Scops Owl and Long-eared Owl presence increased with increasing amount of open areas. The model of European Nightjar showed that the probability of presence increased with increasing amount of forest edge and scrubs. Our results suggest that heterogeneous agricultural landscapes may favour the coexistence of several nocturnal birds, since the different species are each associated with different land-use types.
The knowledge of morphological features of species can help to understand other related biological aspects. In Italy the European pine marten Martes martes seems to show a recent expansion of its ...distribution, however information on this species in our Country are scarce. Very few data on biometric measurements are available, mainly referred to the Sardinian population, and the only published study on peninsular populations was based exclusively on cranial morphology. For this reasons we aimed to provide external morphological data on thirty-three pine marten in Tuscany, central Italy. In addition, we found that pine marten appear to be quite distinguishable from the sibling species stone marten M. foina by inspection of coat colour and marking pattern, showing that qualitative diagnosis of external morphological traits can be very useful to identify this species in central Italy. In fact, genetic analyses on samples of hair confirmed the correct attribution.
A set of 13 polymorphic microsatellite markers were isolated and characterized from a genomic library enriched for dinucleotide repeats in the European pine marten
Martes martes
. Microsatellite loci ...amplification was tested on a panel of 12 tissue samples and 9 distinct hair samples collected from either road-killed or trapped animals in Tuscany, Italy. Allelic diversity was 6 and the number of alleles per locus ranged from 2 to 10. Mean observed and expected heterozygosity were 0.610 (range: 0.238–0.905) and 0.698 (range: 0.400–0.856), respectively. This novel set of microsatellite loci will be particularly useful for non-invasive genetic studies to assess population distribution and patterns of population structure and dispersal of
M. martes
in woodlands and fragmented habitats.
Since 2005, nocturnal birds have been counted twice in each breeding season at points randomly distributed along routes within 26 10km UTM-grid cells selected according to a systematic sampling ...protocol, yielding a semi-quantitative description of nocturnal bird distribution in Tuscany.
The invasive house mouse
Mus musculus
represents a great threat to islands. Eradicating house mouse populations is thus often necessary, entailing actions that could be optimised on the basis of the ...species’ demography and spatial behaviour. Currently, information on these aspects is scarce on small Mediterranean islands, where house mouse management programs are rising. Using spatially explicit capture–recapture analysis, we estimated the population density, capture probability and home range size of house mice on three small islands in the Tavolara Punta Coda Cavallo Marine Protected Area (Sardinia, Italy). Capture sessions were carried out for 6 consecutive days in spring–summer 2022, totalling 984 trap days. Out of 705 total captures, we trapped 258 individuals on Isola Piana, 39 on Spalmatore di Terra and 100 on Isolotto Rosso. With mean values of approximately 160 and 130 individuals per hectare, respectively, the densities on Isola Piana and Isolotto Rosso were an order of magnitude higher than those on Spalmatore di Terra (approximately 9 ind./ha), suggesting that the latter represents a lower quality habitat. The capture probability was the lowest on Isola Piana while the estimated home range size was far smaller on Isolotto Rosso than on the other islands. The patterns we found suggest that habitat quality together with local factors, such as vegetation cover, may have determined differences in mouse population density, site-specific detectability and spatial behaviour. Our study is thus an important step towards a deeper knowledge of house mouse populations on small Mediterranean islands and it can contribute to an optimization of mice eradication, not only in such environments, but also in different biogeographical contexts.
•Forest management strongly affected population density of the studied species.•Survival was only partially affected by forest management.•Recently coppiced stands did not create high-density ...sinks.•Recently coppiced stands instead enhanced the carrying capacity of the habitats.
Several studies have shown that small mammal communities are influenced by silvicultural activities, possibly because these affect the quality of wildlife habitats. Previous research mainly focused on community parameters and abundance of target species, however the most robust way to study the impacts of forestry on wildlife is to follow a demographic-response approach. Investigating multiple demographic measurements is essential to understand how populations respond to forest management, nevertheless studies focusing on multiple demographic parameters are lacking. Our analyses targeted individual survival and population density, to understand the demographic mechanisms by which forest management exerts its effects on small mammals. We focused on the populations of Apodemus flavicollis, A. sylvaticus and Myodes glareolus, constituting the guild of forest- and ground-dwelling rodents in central Italy. Populations were monitored for three years in a continuous forest subject to different management practices (mainly coppicing activities and conifer afforestation). We identified four forest management types (three coppice stands logged in different years and a conifer plantation) where we selected 12 sampling areas. We sampled a total of 31,752 trap-nights capturing more than 1350 individuals. We also gathered quantitative data on the amount of trophic and cover resources in each area to better interpret the response of populations to silvicultural activities. For all the three species, coppicing activities had strong positive effects on population density, which were, in some cases, matched by similar effects on individual survival whereas afforestation of conifer plantations negatively affected populations of A. flavicollis and M. glareolus. We found that different types of forest management, such as the recently coppiced stands, did not create high-density sinks but, rather, enhanced the carrying capacity of the habitats by increasing the availability of cover and food resources. On the contrary, the high forest resulted to be less preferred habitat for A. sylvaticus and M. glareolus, possibility due to its lack of food and cover resources. Our analyses encompassing multiple population parameters allowed us to highlight the mechanisms by which forest management affects small mammal populations.
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