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Animals that depend on ephemeral, patchily distributed prey often use public information to locate resource patches. The use of public information can lead to the aggregation of foragers at prey patches, a mechanism known as local enhancement. However, when ephemeral resources are distributed over large areas, foragers may also need to increase search efficiency, and thus apply social strategies when sampling the landscape. While sensory networks of visually oriented animals have already been confirmed, we lack an understanding of how acoustic eavesdropping adds to the formation of sensory networks. Here we radio-tracked a total of 81 aerial-hawking bats at very high spatiotemporal resolution during five sessions over 3 y, recording up to 19 individuals simultaneously. Analyses of interactive flight behavior provide conclusive evidence that bats form temporary mobile sensory networks by adjusting their movements to neighboring conspecifics while probing the airspace for prey. Complementary agent-based simulations confirmed that the observed movement patterns can lead to the formation of mobile sensory networks, and that bats located prey faster when networking than when relying only on local enhancement or searching solitarily. However, the benefit of networking diminished with decreasing group size. The combination of empirical analyses and simulations elucidates how animal groups use acoustic information to efficiently locate unpredictable and ephemeral food patches. Our results highlight that declining local populations of social foragers may thus suffer from Allee effects that increase the risk of collapses under global change scenarios, like insect decline and habitat degradation.

Altres ajuts: J.G. is the recipent of a postdoctoral contract [ESPDOC20/83] from the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) and her work was also supported by the Eusko Jaurlaritza [IT1485-22]. B.M.-S. was funded by the Consellería de Cultura, Educación e Universidade, Xunta de Galicia, Spain (ED481D-2022-013). Here we present the results of a study of the small mammal assemblage recovered from a now disappeared karstic fissure located in a quarry called 'Pedrera del Corral d'en Bruach'. The site was located at 330 m a.s.l. in the Garraf Massif, ca. 20 km south of Barcelona. An archaeological rescue excavation was conducted in 2006 by the Grup de Recerca del Quaternari, focusing on sieving the sediments that had accumulated at the foot of the quarry face. Fortunately, some faunal remains and sediment were recovered, which were later processed and sorted. Two hundred and seventy small mammal remains were identified at genus or species level, bringing to light 15 taxa. The assemblage is typical of the Mammal Neogene 17 (MN17) biozone, placing this site in the Gelasian stage of the Early Pleistocene. It is noteworthy that the first record of the glirid Glirulus pusillus in Iberia is documented. Based on the small mammals identified, the surrounding environment of the Garraf Massif is judged to have been characterised by open forest landscape and more humid environmental conditions than nowadays. Finally, the site provides a remarkable contribution to what is known of the Iberian small mammals of this time period.

Among seven species of the order Eulipotyphla (from southern Gansu and northern Sichuan Provinces, Central China) studied cytogenetically, karyotypes of one talpid species, Uropsilus aff. soricipes (2n = 36, NFa = 54), and three soricid species, Chodsigoa hypsibia (2n = 65, NFa = 66), Sorex cansulus (2n = 42, NFa = 64) and Sorex thibetanus (2n = 42, NFa = 60), are described cytogenetically for the first time. All four species are endemic to China with distribution ranges restricted to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and adjacent mountain ranges. The Ch. hypsibia karyotype consists of mostly acrocentric autosomes and one metacentric pair of autosomes; besides, a B chromosome was identified. No polymorphism was detected among karyotypes of other species, including shrews Sorex bedfordiae (2n = 26, NFa = 44), Anourosorex squamipes (2n = 48, NFa = 92) and Crocidura suaveolens (2n = 40, NFa = 44). The Chinese shrew mole U. aff. soricipes and three shrew species (S. bedfordiae, Ch. hypsibia and A. squamipes) represent autochthonous fauna of Central/Western China, whereas S. thibetanus, S. cansulus and C. suaveolens belong to phylogenetic groups occurring mostly to the north and west from China; therefore, they should be considered relatively recent colonisers. Thus, considering the relationships of the species within phylogenetic groups, our results on karyotypes are in good agreement with molecular genetic data.

The late Oligocene faunas from central France are often rich and provide crucial information for understanding the evolution of mammals during the Oligocene-Miocene transition. The locality of Coderet-Bransat, where Amphechinus arvernensis was so far the only known hedgehog, yielded new specimens hitherto identified as Galerix minor and Amphechinus pomeli. The new specimen of Amphechinus pomeli, together with a new study of the type specimens from Peublanc, confirm the previously questioned validity of this species, the smallest of all hedgehogs. The similarities between the faunal lists of Coderet-Bransat and Peublanc indicate a very close age (MP30), whereas some aquatic taxa only found in Peublanc suggest a slightly different palaeoenvironmental context compared to Coderet-Bransat.

Peninsular effect is an anomalous gradient in plant and animal species richness from base to tip of a given peninsula. This pattern has been studied intensely on various taxonomic groups, but with scarce attention for using standardized data. Here, using presence-absence data normalized by the field effort, the peninsular effect on the species richness of some mammalian groups (Eulipotyphla [i.e. Soricomorpha + Erinaceomorpha], Rodentia, and Chiroptera) was analyzed along the Italian peninsula. Specifically, species richness at each 30'-wide latitudinal band and the normalized species richness were compared, and generalized linear models (GLM) were used to assess whether habitat diversity, altitudinal range and area of each latitudinal band were the main predictors in explaining the peninsular effects in each of the three mammalian orders. In both Rodentia and Chiroptera, species richness was better predicted by habitat heterogeneity and by the interaction term habitat heterogeneity × field effort. For Eulipotyphla, GLM models gave no significant results. Our study highlighted the importance of taking into account the sampling effort in order to proper evaluate the peninsular effects on species richness in animals., SCOPUS: ar.j, DecretOANoAutActif, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

During their annual migration, avian migrants alternate stopover periods, for refuelling, with migratory flight bouts. We hypothesise that European Nightjars (Caprimulgus europaeus) adapt their daily migration tactics in association with biomes. We tracked the autumn migration of 24 European Nightjars, from breeding populations in Mongolia, Belgium and UK, using GPS-loggers and multi-sensor data loggers. We quantified crepuscular and nocturnal migration and foraging probabilities, as well as daily travel speed and flight altitude during active migration in response to biomes. Nightjars adopt a rush tactic, reflected in high daily travel speed, flight altitude and high migration probabilities at dusk and at night, when travelling through ecological barriers. Migration is slower in semi-open, hospitable biomes. This is reflected in high foraging probabilities at dusk, lower daily travel speed and lower migration probabilities at dusk. Our study shows how nightjars switch migration tactics during autumn migration, and suggest nightjars alternate between feeding and short migratory flight bouts within the same night when travelling through suitable habitats. How this may affect individuals’ fuel stores and whether different biomes provide refuelling opportunities en route remains to be investigated, to understand how future land-use change may affect migration patterns and survival probabilities.

The landscape of south-western Slovakia is characterised by anthropogenous reshaping, while fragments of undisturbed, waterlogged habitats have been preserved in what remains of the meandering ancient Žitava River. These refuges are inhabited by various small mammal species and their blood-sucking ectoparasites. Between 2014 and 2018, research on them was carried out in Slovakia’s Danubian Lowland (Podunajská nížina) during three out of the four seasons (spring, summer and autumn). The small mammals were captured at 27 localities. The occurrence of nine flee species from the Hystrichopsyllidae, Ctenophthalmidae and Ceratophyllidae families was documented on 12 small burrowing mammals. During the course of all the seasons in which research was conducted, Ctenophthalmus agyrtes, C. assimilis, Megabothris turbidus a Nosopsyllus fasciatus were found, among the most dominant species to be seen on small burrowing mammals.

Optimal foraging theory has typically paid little attention to species feeding on mobile prey and has emphasised energy intake rather than the nutritional contribution of food. The difficulty of capturing food has rarely been included in foraging models, even when it is a potentially important modulator of time devoted to foraging. From the central place foraging and provisioning perspectives, it is posited that at high levels of prey selectivity, the time spent to capture prey is longer than at low levels of prey selectivity. Furthermore, in the case of carnivorous predators, it is thought that nutritional composition does not influence foraging strategies. To explore these issues, we investigated the influence of abundance, size, difficulty of capture, gross energy and nutritional composition (fat, protein, protein-fat ratio and amino acid contents) of prey species on the foraging behaviour of a predator species, the common kestrel Falco tinnunculus, in a region of high diversity of prey species. Our results show that capturability index and load-size explain the foraging behaviour of kestrels. Preferred prey take longer to be provisioned, both selectivity and capturability might explain this result. It is also shown that specific nutritional components, such as protein and amino acid contents, are likely to explain food preference in this carnivorous-insectivorous species., was supported by a Formación de Personal Investigador (FPI) grant from Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MIMECO). Research was funded by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) through projects CGL2007–61395, CGL2010–15726, CGL2013–42451-P and PGC2018–095070-B-I00. This is a contribution of the El Ventorrillo Biological Station.

Little research on coronaviruses has been conducted on wild animals in Africa. Here, we screened a wide range of wild animals collected in six provinces and five caves of Gabon between 2009 and 2015. We collected a total of 1867 animal samples (cave-dwelling bats, rodents, non-human primates and other wild animals). We explored the diversity of CoVs and determined the factors driving the infection of CoVs in wild animals. Based on a nested reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, only bats, belonging to the Hipposideros gigas (4/156), Hipposideros cf. ruber (13/262) and Miniopterus inflatus (1/249) species, were found infected with CoVs. We identified alphacoronaviruses in H. gigas and H. cf. ruber and betacoronaviruses in H. gigas. All Alphacoronavirus sequences grouped with Human coronavirus 229E (HCoV-229E). Ecological analyses revealed that CoV infection was significantly found in July and October in H. gigas and in October and November in H. cf ruber. The prevalence in the Faucon cave was significantly higher. Our findings suggest that insectivorous bats harbor potentially zoonotic CoVs; highlight a probable seasonality of the infection in cave-dwelling bats from the North-East of Gabon and pointed to an association between the disturbance of the bats’ habitat by human activities and CoV infection.

The Oriental rat flea, Xenopsylla cheopis (Rothschild 1903), is a cosmopolitan flea usually found infesting domestic rats. This flea is a well-known major human plague vector in Madagascar. As part of field sampling, fleas and small mammals were collected in the village of South Andranofeno and the natural reserve of Sohisika, two sites of the district of Ankazobe, located in the Central Highlands of Madagascar. Rats inside houses and forest small mammals were trapped using Besancon Technical Services and pitfall traps, respectively. Their fleas were collected and preserved for laboratory works. Collected fleas from the village and forest belonged to five species, which were X. cheopis, Synopsyllus fonquerniei (Wagner and Roubaud 1932) (Siphonaptera: Pulicidae), Echidnophaga gallinacea (Westwood 1875) (Siphonaptera: Pulicidae), Ctenocephalides felisstrongylus (Jordan 1925) (Siphonaptera: Pulicidae), Pulex irritans (Linnaeus 1758) (Siphonaptera: Pulicidae). After sampling in the forest zone, one specimen of X. cheopis was unexpectedly collected while infesting an endemic tenrec Setifer setosus (Schreber 1777) (Afrosoricida: Tenrecidae). Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) diagnosis on all collected fleas allowed detecting plague bacterium Yersinia pestis (Lehmann and Neumann 1896) (Enterobacterales: Yersiniaceae) on nine specimens of the endemic flea S. fonquerniei collected inside forest. The presence of the oriental rat flea in forest highlights the connection between human and wild environments due to animal movements and the fact that the rat flea can infest various hosts. As only one specimen of X. cheopis was collected on S. setosus, we hypothesize that flea was carried from the village to forest. Yersinia pestis infection of forest fleas outlines plague circulation in this sylvatic area.

The complete mitogenome sequence of Talpa aquitania, a recently described Talpa species, was assembled using whole-genome sequencing data. It varies in length from 16,776 to 16,846 bp, contains 13 protein-coding genes, two ribosomal RNA genes, 22 transfer RNA genes, one origin of L-strand replication, and a control region. In the control region, which varied from 1320 to 1390 bp, we identified the extended termination-associated sequence (ETAS-1 and ETAS-2) and the conserved sequence blocks (CSB-1, 2, 3, B, C, D, E, F). In addition, this region includes a 10 bp tandem repeat DNA sequence, with a variable number of repeats that suggest the existence of heteroplasmy. Phylogeny reconstructions based on Maximum Likelihood, Neighbor-joining and Bayesian inference analyses yielded phylogenies with similar topologies demonstrating that T. aquitania and T. occidentalis are sister species.

Small mammals such as rodents can to carry zoonotic pathogens. Currently, there is impaired knowledge on zoonotic pathogens in rodents and insectivores in the Netherlands. This limits opportunities for preventive measures and complicates risk‐assessments for zoonotic transmission to humans. Leptospira spp. and Toxoplasma gondii are present on a list of prioritized emerging pathogens in the Netherlands and were therefore the focus of this study. Both pathogens have the ability to survive under moist environmental conditions. In total, a group of 379 small mammals (rodents & insectivores) were tested on pathogenic Leptospira spp., and 312 on T. gondii. Rodents and insectivores were trapped at various sites, but mostly on pig and dairy farms throughout the country. Over five percent of the animals (5.3%, n = 379) tested positive for Leptospira DNA, and five of the animals (1.6%, n = 312) tested were positive for T. gondii DNA. The animals positive for T.gondii were all brown rats and the ones for Leptospira spp. were various species. Our results show that insectivores and rodents might be used as an indicator for the environmental contamination and/or the contamination in wildlife for Leptospira spp., Over five percent of the rodents and insectivores (5.3%, n = 379) tested positive for Leptospira DNA and five of the animals (n = 312) tested were positive for Toxoplasma gondii DNA. Leptospira spp. and T. gondii are present in the Dutch population of wild small mammals, indicating the importance of the studies for these infectious agents. Both rodent ánd insectivore species might be considered as potential sources for human leptospirosis in The Netherlands and as an indicator for the environmental contamination and the contamination in, and of wildlife.

Open Research: The complete data set is available as Supporting Information and are also available in Figshare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.14938437 Mammals are threatened worldwide, with ca. 26% of all species being included in the IUCN threatened categories. This overall pattern is primarily associated to habitat loss or degradation, and human persecution for terrestrial mammals, and pollution, open net fishing, climate change and prey depletion for marine mammals. Mammals play a key role in maintaining ecosystems functionality and resilience, and therefore information on their distribution is crucial to delineate and support conservation actions. MAMMALS IN PORTUGAL is a publicly available data set compiling unpublished georeferenced occurrence records of 92 terrestrial, volant, and marine mammals in mainland Portugal and archipelagos of Azores and Madeira that includes 107,852 data entries between 1873 and 2021 (72% of the data occurring in 2000 and 2021). The methods used to collect the data were: live observations/captures (42%), sign surveys (38%), camera trapping (16%), bioacoustics surveys (4%) and radio-tracking and inquiries that represent less than 1% of the records. The data set includes 13 types of records: 1) burrows | soil mounds | tunnel, 2) capture, 3) colony, 4) dead animal | hair | skulls | jaws, 5) genetic confirmation, 6) inquiries, 7) observation of live animal, 8), observation in shelters, 9) photo trapping | video, 10), predators diet | pellets | pine cones/nuts, 11) scat | track | ditch, 12) telemetry and 13) vocalization | echolocation. The spatial uncertainty of most records ranges between 0 and 100 m (76%). Rodentia (n = 34,754) has the highest number of records followed by Chiroptera (n = 18,858), Carnivora (n = 18,594), Lagomorpha (n = 17,679), Cetartiodactyla (n = 11,568) and Eulipotyphla (n = 6,400). The data set includes records of species classified by the IUCN as threatened (e.g., Oryctolagus cuniculus (n = 12,407), Monachus monachus (n = 1512), and Lynx pardinus (n = 197)]. We believe that this data set may stimulate the publication of other European countries data sets which would certainly contribute to ecology and conservation-related research, and therefore assisting on the development of more accurate and tailored conservation management strategies for each species. There are no copyright restrictions; please cite this data paper when the data are used in publications info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion

19 Pág. Centro de Biotecnología y Genómica de Plantas (CBGP), The immune systems of all vertebrates contain cathelicidins, a family of antimicrobial peptides. Cathelicidins are a type of innate immune effector that have a number of biological functions, including a well-known direct antibacterial action and immunomodulatory function. In search of new templates for antimicrobial peptide discovery, we have identified and characterized the cathelicidin of the small mammal Talpa occidentalis. We describe the heterogeneity of cathelicidin in the order Eulipotyphla in relation to the Iberian mole and predict its antibacterial activity using bioinformatics tools. In an effort to correlate these findings, we derived the putative active peptide and performed in vitro hemolysis and antimicrobial activity assays, confirming that Iberian mole cathelicidins are antimicrobial. Our results showed that the Iberian mole putative peptide, named To-KL37 (KLFGKVGNLLQKGWQKIKNIGRRIKDFFRNIRPMQEA) has antibacterial and antifungal activity. Understanding the antimicrobial defense of insectivores may help scientists prevent the spread of pathogens to humans. We hope that this study can also provide new, effective antibacterial peptides for future drug development., This research was funded by projects APOGEO (Cooperation Program INTERREG-MAC 2014–2020, with European Funds for Regional Development-FEDER, “Agencia Canaria de Investigación, Innovación y Sociedad de la Información (ACIISI) del Gobierno de Canarias”, Project ProID2020010134 “Bioprospección y biotecnología en el descubrimiento de péptidos antimicrobianos contra patógenos resistentes” and Caja Canarias, Project 2019SP43. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Research into small mammals and their ectoparasites was carried out in the Belianske Tatras during 2010–14, evaluating flea communities found on small mammals on the basis of species richness, abundance and level of infestation. Flea infestation of host species occurred mostly in C. glareolus with the highest infestation rates recorded in S. alpinus, the earlier mentioned C. glareolus, N. anomalus and N. fodiens. Based on their prevalence in all the examined hosts, the most frequent flea communities found were M. turbidus, C. agyrtes, A. penicilliger and P. soricis. In addition, flea prevalence in all the captured host species was evaluated. The most frequent flea communities were M. turbidus, P. soricis and D. dasycnema (8 host species); C. agyrtes and H. orientalis (7); A. penicilliger and P. bidentata (4); C. uncinatus, P. sylvatica and R. integela (3); and M. rectangulatus, N. fasciatus and C. bisoctodentatus (2), while A. nuperus and A. arvicolae were recorded in only one host species.

The striped-back shrew group demonstrates remarkable variation in skull and body size, tail length, and brightness of the dorsal stripe; and karyotypic and DNA variation has been reported in recent years. In this study, we investigated the phylogenetic structure of the group, as well as speciation patterns and demographic history in Mountains of Southwestern China and adjacent mountains, including the southern Himalayas, Mts. Bashan, Wushan, and Qinling. We sequenced a total of 462 specimens from 126 localities in the known range of the group, which were sequenced and analyzed based on 6.2 kb of sequence data from two mitochondrial, six nuclear, and two Y chromosome markers. Phylogenetic analyses of the concatenated mtDNA data revealed 14 sympatric and independently evolving lineages within the striped-back shrew group, including Sorex bedfordiae, S. cylindricauda, S. excelsus, S. sinalis and several cryptic species. All concatenated data (ten genes) showed a consistent genetic structure compared to the mtDNA lineages for the group, whereas the nuclear and the Y chromosome data showed a discordant genetic structure compared to the mtDNA lineages for the striped-back shrew group. Species delimitation analyses and deep genetic distance clearly support the species status of the 14 evolving lineages. The divergence time estimation suggested that the striped-back shrew group began to diversify from the middle Pleistocene (2.34 Ma), then flourished at approximately 2.14 Ma, followed by a series of rapid diversifications through the Pleistocene. Our results also revealed multiple mechanisms of speciation in the Mountains of Southwestern China and Adjacent Mountains with complex landscapes and climate. The uplifting of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, Quaternary climate oscillations, riverine barriers, ecological elevation gradients, topographical diversity, and their own low dispersal capacity may have driven the speciation, genetic structure, and phylogeographic patterns of the striped-back shrew group.

IDENTIFICATION KEY FOR SHREW SPECIES PRESENT AT MOUNT NIMBA (abbreviations see Material and methods) 1. Tail skin naked and ringed; four pairs of maxillary unicuspids............................. S. megalura (Jentink, 1888) ��� Tail skin hairy or non ringed, three pairs of maxillary unicuspids................................................................ 2 2. Ratio TL/HB> 1............................................................................................... C. muricauda (Miller, 1900) ��� Ratio TL/HB 110 mm............................................................................................................................................ 5 ��� HB between 70 and 110 mm...................................................................................................................... 6 4. Ratio TL/HB C. obscurior / eburnea Heim de Balsac, 1958 ��� Ratio TL/HB between 0.8 and 1................................................................. C. douceti Heim de Balsac, 1958 5. HB> 130 mm............................................................................................ C. nimbasilvanus Hutterer, 2003 ��� HB between 110-130 mm, brownish, black hairs................................................... C. olivieri (Lesson, 1827) 6. HF> 17 mm...................................................................................................... C. grandiceps Hutterer, 1983 ��� HF 50%.; fur color brown................................................................... 8 ��� Proportion of tail covered by vibrissae C. buettikoferi Jentink, 1888 8. End of tail with visible skin, spare hairs...................................................... C. theresae Heim de Balsac, 1968 ��� Hair covering at end of tail.......................................................................................................................... 9 9. HF> 14 mm................................................................................................ C. nimbae Heim de Balsac, 1956 ��� HF C. jouvenetae Heim de Balsac, 1958, Published as part of Denys, Christiane, Jacquet, Fran��ois, Kadjo, Blaise, Missoup, Alain Didier, Aniskine, Vladimir, Go��y de Bellocq, Joelle, Soropogui, Barr��, Douno, Mory, Sylla, Morlaye, Nicolas, Violaine, Lalis, Aude & Monadjem, Ara, 2021, Shrews (Mammalia, Eulipotyphla) from a biodiversity hotspot, Mount Nimba (West Africa), with a field identification key to species, pp. 729-757 in Zoosystema 43 (30) on page 741, DOI: 10.5252/zoosystema2021v43a30, http://zenodo.org/record/5747444, {"references":["HEIM DE BALSAC H. 1958. - La reserve naturelle integrale du mont Nimba. XIV. Mammiferes insectivores. Memoires de l'Institut Francais d'Afrique Noire 53: 339 - 357.","HEIM DE BALSAC H. 1968. - Recherches sur la faune des Soricidae de l'Ouest Africain (du Ghana au Senegal). Mammalia 32: 379 - 418.","HEIM DE BALSAC H. 1956. - Diagnoses de Crocidura inedites d'Afrique Occidentale. Mammalia 20: 131 - 139."]}

Abstract Asiatic shrews of the genus Chodsigoa (Soricidae, Eulipotyphla) currently comprise nine species, mostly occurring in southwest China. From May 2017 to August 2020, 11 specimens of Chodsigoa were collected from the Dabie Mountains in Anhui Province, eastern China. Their morphology was compared with other species within the genus and one mitochondrial (cytochrome b) and two nuclear (apolipoprotein B and breast cancer 1) genes were sequenced to estimate the phylogenetic relationships of these specimens. Based on morphological and molecular evidence, these specimens are recognized as a distinct species, Chodsigoadabieshanensissp. nov., which is formally described here. Morphologically, the new species is most similar to Chodsigoahypsibia, but it is distinguishable from all known congeners by the combination of dark brownish pelage, small size, and relatively short tail. Phylogenetic analyses revealed that C.dabieshanensissp. nov. forms a phylogenetic lineage sister to the clade containing C.parva + C.hypsibia. The-Kimura 2-parameter genetic distances of the cytochrome b (CYT B) gene between the new species and other nominal Chodsigoa species ranged between 8.6 and 17.6%. The new species is distributed at elevations from 750 to 1250 m in the Dabie Mountains and is geographically distant from other species in the genus.

Denys, Christiane, Jacquet, François, Kadjo, Blaise, Missoup, Alain Didier, Aniskine, Vladimir, Goüy de Bellocq, Joelle, Soropogui, Barré, Douno, Mory, Sylla, Morlaye, Nicolas, Violaine, Lalis, Aude, Monadjem, Ara (2021): Shrews (Mammalia, Eulipotyphla) from a biodiversity hotspot, Mount Nimba (West Africa), with a field identification key to species. Zoosystema 43 (30): 729-757, DOI: 10.5252/zoosystema2021v43a30

Star-nosed moles (Condylura cristata) have an impressive diving performance and burrowing lifestyle, yet no ventilatory data are available for this or any other talpid mole species. We predicted that, like many other semi-aquatic and fossorial small mammals, star-nosed moles would exhibit: (i) a blunted (i.e. delayed or reduced) hypoxic ventilatory response, (ii) a reduced metabolic rate and (iii) a lowered body temperature (Tb) in hypoxia. We thus non-invasively measured these variables from wild-caught star-nosed moles exposed to normoxia (21% O2) or acute graded hypoxia (21–6% O2). Surprisingly, star-nosed moles did not exhibit a blunted HVR or decreased Tb in hypoxia, and only manifested a significant, albeit small (

Research Article Edge effects, abiotic and biotic changes associated with habitat boundaries, are key drivers of community change in fragmented landscapes. Their influence is heavily modulated by matrix composition. With over half of the world’s tropical forests predicted to become forest edge by the end of the century, it is paramount that conservationists gain a better understanding of how tropical biota is impacted by edge gradients. Bats comprise a large fraction of tropical mammalian fauna and are demonstrably sensitive to habitat modification. Yet, knowledge about how bat assemblages are affected by edge effects remains scarce. Capitalizing on a whole-ecosystem manipulation in the Central Amazon, the aims of this study were to i) assess the consequences of edge effects for twelve aerial insectivorous bat species across the interface of primary and secondary forest, and ii) investigate if the activity levels of these species differed between the understory and canopy and if they were modulated by distance from the edge. Acoustic surveys were conducted along four 2-km transects, each traversing equal parts of primary and ca. 30-year-old secondary forest. Five models were used to assess the changes in the relative activity of forest specialists (three species), flexible forest foragers (three species), and edge foragers (six species). Modelling results revealed limited evidence of edge effects, except for forest specialists in the understory. No significant differences in activity were found between the secondary or primary forest but almost all species exhibited pronounced vertical stratification. Previously defined bat guilds appear to hold here as our study highlights that forest bats are more edge-sensitive than edge foraging bats. The absence of pronounced edge effects and the comparable activity levels between primary and old secondary forests indicates that old secondary forest can help ameliorate the consequences of fragmentation on tropical aerial insectivorous bats info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Small mammals (insectivores, rodents, and lagomorphs) from Dmanisi are here reviewed for the first time and used as a tool for paleoenvironmental proxies. The small mammal faunal list is composed of shrews (Beremendia fissidens, cf. Beremendia minor, Crocidura kornfeldi), hamsters (Cricetulus sp., Allocricetus bursae), gerbils (Parameriones aff. obeidiyensis), murids (Apodemus cf. atavus), arvicolids (Mimomys pliocaenicus, Mimomys aff. pusillus), and pikas (Ochotona sp.). A paleoenvironmental reconstruction based on the habitat weighting method has been applied to the rodent assemblage. According to this method, the most common elements indicate an open-dry habitat (36.5%), followed by water edge (25.7%) and rocky (21.0%) elements. Open-wet (15.5%) and woodland elements (1.3%) are rare. Therefore, the habitat occupied by the hominids of Dmanisi was characterized by the prevalence of arid conditions, from steppe or semi-desert to open Mediterranean forest, with stony or rocky substrate and bushy areas. The presence of permanent aquatic environments is also documented. From a biogeographic point of view, the small mammal community from Dmanisi is composed mainly by Western or Central Asian elements, with a poor representation of European elements (Mimomys, Apodemus). It is concluded that Dmanisi hominins most possibly had ecological requirements which were different from those of the Early Pleistocene hominins from Western Europe, which settled on wetter habitats. It could be also possible that Dmanisi hominins entered Southern Caucasus at an interglacial phase before the deposition of the Dmanisi site.

Many mammals use adaptive heterothermy (e.g., torpor, hibernation) to reduce metabolic demands of maintaining high body temperature (

Mammals are threatened worldwide, with ~26% of all species being included in the IUCN threatened categories. This overall pattern is primarily associated with habitat loss or degradation, and human persecution for terrestrial mammals, and pollution, open net fishing, climate change, and prey depletion for marine mammals. Mammals play a key role in maintaining ecosystems functionality and resilience, and therefore information on their distribution is crucial to delineate and support conservation actions. MAMMALS IN PORTUGAL is a publicly available data set compiling unpublished georeferenced occurrence records of 92 terrestrial, volant, and marine mammals in mainland Portugal and archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira that includes 105,026 data entries between 1873 and 2021 (72% of the data occurring in 2000 and 2021). The methods used to collect the data were: live observations/captures (43%), sign surveys (35%), camera trapping (16%), bioacoustics surveys (4%) and radiotracking, and inquiries that represent less than 1% of the records. The data set includes 13 types of records: (1) burrows | soil mounds | tunnel, (2) capture, (3) colony, (4) dead animal | hair | skulls | jaws, (5) genetic confirmation, (6) inquiries, (7) observation of live animal (8), observation in shelters, (9) photo trapping | video, (10) predators diet | pellets | pine cones/nuts, (11) scat | track | ditch, (12) telemetry and (13) vocalization | echolocation. The spatial uncertainty of most records ranges between 0 and 100 m (76%). Rodentia (n=31,573) has the highest number of records followed by Chiroptera (n=18,857), Carnivora (n=18,594), Lagomorpha (n=17,496), Cetartiodactyla (n=11,568) and Eulipotyphla (n=7008). The data set includes records of species classified by the IUCN as threatened (e.g., Oryctolagus cuniculus [n=12,159], Monachus monachus [n=1,512], and Lynx pardinus [n=197]). We believe that this data set may stimulate the publication of other European countries data sets that would certainly contribute to ecology and conservation-related research, and therefore assisting on the development of more accurate and tailored conservation management strategies for each species. There are no copyright restrictions; please cite this data paper when the data are used in publications.

International audience; Three Palearctic members of the subgenus Pholeoixodes, i.e., Ixodes canisuga, Ixodes hexagonus and Ixodes kaiseri are frequently collected from dogs, cats, red foxes, badgers and other carnivorous/insectivorous hosts in Europe. While a pictorial identification key has been reported for female Pholeoixodes ticks, a similar work has not been done on their male, nymphal and larval specimens. This study was initiated in order to clarify and re-examine those morphological characters of these three tick species, which can be used relatively easily to identify/distinguish them. In the case of larvae the aims included finding alternatives to chaetotaxy, which is difficult to observe and its usefulness is also affected by uncertainties in literature data. For this, 609 Pholeoixodes ticks (males, nymphs and larvae) were collected from carnivores, hedgehogs and their environment in six European countries (representing Western, Central and Southeastern Europe), followed by detailed morphological examination and/or molecular analyses to confirm the identity of their species. Based on the morphology of 84 molecularly analyzed specimens and a new identification key compiled accordingly, altogether 116 I. canisuga, 277 I. hexagonus and 216 I. kaiseri males, nymphs and larvae were identified. Ixodes kaiseri was not found in Western Europe, where I. canisuga predominated. In Central Europe, all three Pholeoixodes species were collected, the largest number of specimens represented by I. hexagonus. On the other hand, in Southeastern Europe I. kaiseri had the highest abundance. In conclusion, the morphology of internal spur on the first coxae (as the traditionally used character to distinguish I. hexagonus from other Pholeoixodes species) is trustworthy to recognize males but is less informative in the case of nymphs and larvae. The latter can be identified more properly by observing the morphology of basis capituli. In particular, nymphs and larvae of I. canisuga have anteriorly flattened basis capituli, forming a plateau that surrounds the base of the hypostome. On the other hand, nymphs and larvae of I. hexagonus and I. kaiseri lack a similar plateau, but (unlike I. canisuga) have cornuae, which are either posterolaterally or caudally directed, respectively.