Therya最新文献

{"title":"Importance of demography in understanding disease ecology in small mammals","authors":"H. Henttonen","doi":"10.12933/therya-22-1190","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12933/therya-22-1190","url":null,"abstract":"Small rodents are increasingly used as model animals in disease ecological research.  However, many students in the field have an inadequate knowledge of the significance of demographic heterogeneity of reservoir rodent populations and how that affects infection parameters.  I summarize here some of the common problems and give a solution, the use of the concept of functional groups, to gain more detailed information and avoid common mistakes (e. g., by drawing conclusion from pooled population samples).  I emphasize the importance of seasonality and demography (roles of various population functional subgroups) for parasite/pathogen studies and sampling design to cover the essential components of populations.","PeriodicalId":37851,"journal":{"name":"Therya","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45931505","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Reproduction, relative abundance, and variability in North American arvicoline rodent populations","authors":"G. O. Batzli","doi":"10.12933/therya-22-1182","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12933/therya-22-1182","url":null,"abstract":"The ecological and life history characteristics of North American arvicoline rodents vary greatly.  A general model suggests that changes in reproduction, as a response to changes in climatic harshness and habitat type, likely affect variation in relative abundance of arvicoline populations.  Previous work indicated that variability in abundance does not always increase with mean litter size or with latitude, but litter size does tend to increase as the length of the breeding season decreases.  I therefore propose the reproductive potential (RP) hypothesis which states that under favorable conditions, populations with higher reproductive potential can grow more rapidly and can reach higher densities during the breeding season, which leads to greater variability in abundance because very high populations eventually decline to low densities.  I define reproductive potential as the maximum number of offspring a typical female could produce during a year and calculate it as the product of mean litter size (m) and length of the breeding season in weeks (b) divided by 3 (RP = mb/3).  I then review the problems associated with estimation of the necessary parameters and indicate my criteria for accepting data.  To test the RP hypothesis I correlate RP to a measure of variability in abundance for populations with at least 10 years of data, and I compare populations of the same or different arvicoline species at the same and different sites.  Most results did not support the RP hypothesis.  However, three species had different litter sizes in habitats with different vegetation, and all three reached higher maximum densities where reproductive potential was greater.","PeriodicalId":37851,"journal":{"name":"Therya","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45870475","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"In praise of emigration and Bill Lidicker’s classic 1962 paper","authors":"C. Krebs","doi":"10.12933/therya-22-1124","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12933/therya-22-1124","url":null,"abstract":"In 1962 Bill Lidicker, a budding young biologist at Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, published a short paper on the possibility that emigration might be involved in population regulation.  He discussed this possibility largely with respect to small mammals and the possibility that genetic differences might be involved in emigration behavior.  The paper contained no data, but it generated much interest in both the ecology and the genetics of emigration.  I review in this paper how this stimulus to study emigration developed in the 60 years since Bill Lidicker opened this door for mammalian studies.  The first attempts to analyze emigration involved removal experiments, carried out mostly on small rodents, which showed that many individuals could be attracted to an empty habitat via experimental removals.  This finding influenced both important issues in pest control and theoretical questions about the quality of emigrants in natural populations.  The idea that emigrants might be genetically distinct from resident individuals was gradually abandoned since studies of social organization and in particular territoriality and infanticide focused on social interactions over space in small rodents.  Further studies of emigration blossomed in behavioral ecology as more and more studies were carried out on interactions over resources in many other vertebrates.  Some generality has been achieved by a focus on the simple questions put forward in this short paper by Bill Lidicker in 1962.","PeriodicalId":37851,"journal":{"name":"Therya","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44219717","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Why environmental impact assessments often fail","authors":"W. Laurance","doi":"10.12933/therya-22-1181","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12933/therya-22-1181","url":null,"abstract":"The environmental impact assessment (EIA) is a nearly universal instrument intended to limit or to offset the environmental tolls of development projects.  Here, I describe some of the key shortcomings of EIAs in terms of their real-world application, especially in developing nations that harbor much of the world’s imperiled biodiversity.  A surprisingly large number of EIAs suffer from major inaccuracies and some are green-lighting projects that will have serious environmental and societal costs.  I summarize by proposing eight strategies to help improve the conservation capacities of EIAs.","PeriodicalId":37851,"journal":{"name":"Therya","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45424393","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Habitat heterogeneity facilitates coexistence of two syntopic species of Peromyscus in a temperate forest of Central México","authors":"Ivan Mijail De-la-Cruz, A. Castro-Campillo, A. Salame-Méndez","doi":"10.12933/therya-21-1113","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12933/therya-21-1113","url":null,"abstract":"An essential topic in ecology is to understand how the structure of the habitat and its changes in space and time (i. e., habitat heterogeneity) affect the frequency and interactions between cohabiting species.  Here, we assessed the effect of the biotic and abiotic components that configure the microhabitat heterogeneity and its temporal shifts (dry and rainy seasons), on the frequency (total and by sex) of two congeneric species, Peromyscus difficilis and P. melanotis, that co-occurs in a temperate forest of Central Mexico.  To address this, an experimental plot composed of 120 sampling stations was placed within a temperate forest in the National Park Desierto de los Leones, Mexico City.  In each sampling station, we set Sherman traps to capture mice of two syntopic Peromyscus, and we also evaluated six variables related to the spatial heterogeneity of the habitat during two rainy seasons.  Our results revealed differential effects of habitat heterogeneity on the frequency of each species.  Moreover, habitat heterogeneity also had a different effect on male and female frequencies of each Peromyscus species.  While P. difficilis was captured more frequently in sampling stations with high presence and coverage of logs in the soil, P. melanotis was regularly captured in sampling stations with high vegetation cover and plant species richness.  Thus, it seems that the different requirements and habitat preferences of these two Peromyscus species facilitate their spatial and temporal coexistence in this mid-latitude temperate forest.  In general, we provide evidence of the importance of studying the heterogeneity of the habitat to better understand the interactions between syntopic species, offering new insights into the spatial and temporal mechanisms that could determine its coexistence at local scale.","PeriodicalId":37851,"journal":{"name":"Therya","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48214768","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Use of distribution models in the conservation of a Mexican endemic lagomorph","authors":"Luis José Aguirre López, T. Escalante","doi":"10.12933/therya-21-1088","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12933/therya-21-1088","url":null,"abstract":"The volcano rabbit (Romerolagus diazi), endemic to the central-eastern Transmexican Volcanic Belt, is one of the most threatened lagomorphs worldwide.  Several factors threaten to decrease its geographical distribution, which is already restricted to the Pelado, Tláloc, Iztaccíhuatl, and Popocatépetl volcanoes.  Our study aimed to propose priority areas for the conservation of this rabbit within Iztaccíhuatl-Popocatépetl National Park (IPNP) based on species distribution models.  Volcano rabbit presence data were collected through different field sampling techniques and public and private databases.  The environmental predictors used to model suitability were obtained from both open-access remote sensors and topographic information.  The models’ performance was adjusted by evaluating different sets of variables and data to improve the certainty of the results.  We obtained an area of 132.5 km2 within the IPNP potentially occupied by the volcano rabbit and a high suitability area of 7 km2.  In addition, four priority conservation polygons for the volcano rabbit were identified within the National Park.  We showed that the suitability and potential distribution are not uniform in the park, being the alpine meadow dominated by Muhlenbergia sp., the most suitable area for R. diazi.  Therefore, the conservation strategies should focus on preserving these meadows in the prioritized polygons, avoiding tourist and unskilled personnel’s access.  This work represents a contribution to the conservation of the volcano rabbit and a theoretical and practical tool for use in the IPNP.","PeriodicalId":37851,"journal":{"name":"Therya","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47340581","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Spatial ecological interactions between coyote and gray fox in a temperate forest","authors":"C. R. Rodríguez-Luna, J. Servín, D. Valenzuela-Galván, R. List","doi":"10.12933/therya-21-1128","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12933/therya-21-1128","url":null,"abstract":"Coyotes (Canis latrans) and gray foxes (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) are abundant and widely distributed in México, with no information currently available about their spatial interactions in the country.  Our objectives were to evaluate the habitat use of these species and the environmental interactions between them throughout the overlapping areas of their home ranges in temperate forests of Durango, México.  We expected that their coexistence would be facilitated by the spatial segregation of their ecological niche, exhibited by the low or nil overlap between their home ranges or by differentiated habitat use.  Radio-collars (VHF) were attached to nine individuals — four coyotes (two males and two females) and five gray foxes (females) — that were radio-tracked from September 2017 to August 2019.  We estimated their home ranges and the size of their core areas through the minimum convex polygon and determined the extent of overlap between them.  Also, we evaluated third-order habitat selection and use based on habitat availability using Manly’s habitat-selection ratios and simultaneous Bonferroni confidence intervals (95 %).  The mean home range size for coyotes was larger (12.2 ± 1.74 km2) than for gray boxes (5.3 ± 0.67 km2); the interspecific mean overlap was 42 % (moderate).  Of these two canids, just the gray fox showed a markedly selective habitat use.  Our findings revealed a moderate overlap between the home ranges of both canids, so spatial segregation did not occur.  Although a differential habitat use was observed, explaining the coexistence between these two canids in the areas where they thrive, they tend to avoid agonistic interactions.","PeriodicalId":37851,"journal":{"name":"Therya","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43263213","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Relationship between age-sex classes and prevalence of Giardia spp. and Blastocistys spp. in black and gold howler monkeys inhabiting fragmented forests","authors":"Rumesilda Eliana Alegre, M. S. Gennuso, F. Milano, Martin Kowalewski","doi":"10.12933/therya-21-1156","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12933/therya-21-1156","url":null,"abstract":"Studies have shown that as age increases, parasitism could also be more frequent, on the other hand, the lack of immunity can increase the risk of infection in younger individuals.  Regarding sex, there is a general tendency for males to be more parasitized than females, in the case of primates, this is related to the effort made by males into attaining and maintain a high rank, implying high levels of testosterone, a hormone with immunosuppressive effects. Immunosuppressive effects of stress hormones can also increase susceptibility in dominant or subordinate individuals, nevertheless, in a study, the level of exposure to parasites seems to be more important than the immunosuppressive effects of stress in explaining why dominant females have more infections from directly transmitted parasites.  In this study, we investigated the relationship between the prevalence of Giardia spp. and Blastocystis spp. and the categories of age and sex in black and golden howler monkeys (Alouatta caraya) of Argentina.  We analyzed 375 fecal samples from 27 individuals (juveniles and adults of both sexes), using microscopy and techniques of flotation and sedimentation.  To analyze the relationship between age, sex, and infection prevalence, a Generalized Linear Mixed Model was used.  In adults, the prevalence of infection was 78.5 % while in juveniles, all individuals (100 %) were infected with both protozoa.  Males had a infection prevalence 84.6%, in females it was 92.8 %.  When comparing infection prevalence between ages and between sexes, no significant differences were found (P > 0.05).  Research suggests that parasite infection rates may be influenced by specific form of transmission, in this sense, these protozoa, are transmitted through ingestion of cysts which are infectious immediately after defecation has occurred.  On the other hand, all members of the group tend to defecate simultaneously, leaving all the members of the group exposed to infection.  Therefore, we suggest that physiological or behavioral factors do not appear to be important in the risk of protozoan infection.","PeriodicalId":37851,"journal":{"name":"Therya","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46745803","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Ethological studies of native Mexican mammals: A review","authors":"Elaine Mariana Méndez-Muñiz, M. Jowers, Samer Angelone, L. M. Guevara-Chumacero","doi":"10.12933/therya-21-1114","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12933/therya-21-1114","url":null,"abstract":"The number of ethological studies based on Mexican mammals have increased in recent years compared to those from other Latin American countries.  This study conducts an analytical review of the literature on ethological studies of native Mexican mammals.  Specialized publications and electronic bibliographic databases were thoroughly searched to identify ethological studies of Mexican mammals published in scientific journals between 1900 and 2018.  Information on the collection locality, state, first author nationality, country of origin of the journal, and taxa studied were recorded for each article.  The articles were then classified into the 12 major ethological fields, and their data were grouped and summarized in five-year periods, and a map showing the geographic distribution of the studied localities was built using QGIS.  A total of 160 studies were identified; three distinct periods could be recognized: the first (1900 to 1953) with a lack of publications, the second (1954 to1995) with low production (n = 16), and the third (1996 to 2018) with a notable increase in published articles (n = 144); in general, there was a greater participation of Mexican authors (67.5 %).  Most studies (> 70 %) focused on primates, rodents, bats, and carnivores.  Veracruz is the entity with the most articles, while foraging, movement, nesting, rearing, and territorial behavior were the subjects most studied, followed by social behavior, cooperation, and kinship.  The greater number of studies published in the past two decades is likely the result of an increased number of mammologists and their engagement in national and international collaborative partnerships, mainly in areas such as ecology and taxonomy.  Despite a relatively recent development of the field in Mexico, an absence of studies on half of all terrestrial mammals orders, and few studies throughout northern parts of the country, mammalian ethology in Mexico has already made significant contributions and is highly likely to continue its development and consolidation.","PeriodicalId":37851,"journal":{"name":"Therya","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47950281","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Coexistence of three mephitids in Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Biosphere Reserve, México","authors":"V. Farías, González, Karen Haydee Hernández, Mendoza","doi":"10.12933/therya-21-1118","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12933/therya-21-1118","url":null,"abstract":"Three species of mephitids coexist in the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán biosphere reserve (TCBR) and belong to a guild of mammalian carnivores that feed mainly on invertebrates.  To infer the interspecific interactions that allow coexistence, we aimed to compare activity patterns and abundance of hog-nosed skunk (Conepatus leuconotus), hooded skunk (Mephitis macroura), and southern spotted skunk (Spilogale angustifrons) in a tropical dry forest with ecological integrity.  We analyzed activity patterns and overlap, and compared the relative abundance index (IAR) of mephitids, between rainy and dry seasons and among species, and used 235 records for C. leuconotus, 39 for M. macroura, and 42 for S. angustifrons from 15 camera-trap stations in Mount Tepetroja, Puebla, from May 1st, 2013 to April 30th, 2020.  The three mephitids were active mainly during the nocturnal period, although C. leuconotus showed a unimodal pattern with activity peak around midnight, M. macroura had a bimodal pattern with activity peaks during the crepuscular hours at sunset and sunrise, and S. angustifrons had a unimodal pattern with activity peak around 2:00 a.m.  Mean activity of C. leuconotus (µ±SE = 00:42 ± 00:12 h) and M. macroura (01:02 ± 00:33 h) were similar (P = 0.32), and differed from the mean activity of S. angustifrons (01:49 ± 00:23 h, P = 0.02).  C. leuconotus had the highest IAR (2.53 to 7.90) and differed from M. macroura (0.44 to 1.21) and S. angustifrons (0.83 to 0.96) in both seasons (P < 0.01).  C. leuconotus and M. macroura showed higher IAR during the rainy season, in contrast with S. angustifrons that had no differences in IAR between seasons.  The mephitids presented temporal segregation and variability in seasonal abundance as coexistence mechanisms.  S. angustifrons showed the most restricted circadian activity and avoided the other two mephitids’ activity peaks.  C. leuconotus was the most abundant species; thus, we inferred that the hog-nosed skunk determined the dynamics of intraguild interactions among mephitids in the tropical dry forest in the TCBR.","PeriodicalId":37851,"journal":{"name":"Therya","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41616620","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}