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Wild animals, such as rodents seem to be competent reservoir of bacteria-borne zoonotic diseases which disseminate in human. We investigated the presence of E. coli, Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC), and Salmonella in the feces of six category wild rodent species (Apodemus agrarius, A. peninsulae, A. sylvaticus, Micromys minutus, Myodes regulus, and R. norvegicus) captured from different agricultural regions in South Korea. Among them, A. agrarius, which account for 65% of total (N = 52) individuals, are most widely distributed and abundant in various agroecosystems in South Korea. The bacterial identification was performed by cultural and molecular methods. In cultural method, the fecal cultures from 26 individuals formed colonies on E. coli-selective EMB agar media. Of them, the fecal cultures from 18 individuals also produced colonies on the Shiga toxin-producing E. coli-selective CT-SMAC agar media as well as the EMB agar media. In molecular method, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was carried out to detect two virulence genes (stx1 and stx2) of isolated E. coli. The amplified dataset of stx1 and stx2 genes of E. coli were sequenced. In this manuscript, E. coli and STEC were detected but there were no Salmonella species. The wild rodents’ data would provide important information on reservoirs of those pathogenic bacteria.

Habitat-specific and movement-related behavioral studies are essential for the development of sustainable biodiversity management practices. Although the number of studies on sika deer is increasing, habitat utilization distribution (UD)-related studies remain limited. In this study, we investigated the habitat UD behavior of sika deer (Cervus nippon) using a literature survey and an experimental study on Suncheon Bonghwasan Mountain, South Korea. We reviewed home range-related literature on sika deer published between 1982 and 2019 in order to assess their estimation methods, study region, and research background. We observed that the number of studies on sika deer has increased. The minimum convex polygon (MCP) has been utilized the most to estimate habitat UD, followed by the kernel density (KD), the Brownian bridge model, and a combination of these methods. The average home ranges (95 % utilization distribution) of sika deer from the literature survey were 236.99 ha and 1183.96 ha using the minimum convex polygon and kernel density approaches, respectively. The five female deer in our experimental study on Suncheon Bonghwasan Mountain had a mean home range of 66.831 ± 15.241 ha using the MCP approach and 78.324 ± 20.82 ha using the KD approach. The UD behavior of sika deer explored in this research is expected to benefit future scholars and policymakers when formulating deer management and wildlife conservation strategies.