This study examined the effects of different types on anthropogenic disturbance on behaviours of grey herons Ardea cinerea, and great egrets Ardea alba, that gather in an Important Bird Area near Belgrade (Serbia), during their autumn migration, with the goal of assessing how diverse human-caused stimuli affect the behaviours of foraging and resting birds. I obtained behavioural data through scan sampling, with six categories of behaviour distinguished: vigilant, flying, feeding, comfort, inactive and other. In total, I collected 5,065 observations of individual birds: 1,293 for grey herons and 3,772 for great egrets. Significantly more birds were vigilant or in flight when they were disturbed by construction vehicles, military jets, and rural free-ranging dogs, whereas no statistical significance was associated with shooting and passing cars. Using a linear mixed model, it was shown that a greater proportion of birds was vigilant during disturbance than following disturbance or in the absence of disturbance, whereas air temperature and wind speed were not statistically significant. This study demonstrates that anthropogenic disturbance can alter the behaviour of the study species, which could aid future management and conservation planning.
Taxonomic issues within Trypanorhyncha, e.g., the inaccurate light microscopic visualisation of the hook patterns, are solvable by confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). We applied CLSM imaging to study Trygonicola macropora (Shipley et Hornell, 1906) and Dollfusiella michiae (Southwell, 1929) from Neotrygon caeruliopunctata Last, White et Séret from Bali, Indonesia. To illustrate the strength and limitations of CLSM, images of Otobothrium cysticum (Mayer, 1842) and Symbothriorhynchus tigaminacantha Palm, 2004, both permanent mounts from a collection, were also processed. The CLSM created image stacks of many layers, and edited with IMARIS Software, these layers resulted in three-dimensional images of the armature patterns and internal organs of both species. BABB (benzylalcohol and benzylbenzuolate) clearing was applied to T. macropora. We conclude that trypanorhynch cestodes stained with Mayer-Schuberg's acetic carmine permanently mounted in Canada balsam are suitable for CLSM, allowing detailed analyses of museum type-material as well as freshly collected and processed worms. BABB resulted in imaging the testes in detail, suggesting other stains to be used for CLSM in trypanorhynch cestode research. Application of CLSM for studies of other cestode groups is highly recommended.
We analysed and compared the structure and parameters of the songflight calls of expansive Pipistrellus kuhlii and Pipistrellus lepidus, that recently colonized Central Europe from the south and east, respectively. Bat calls were recorded mainly in urban areas of Central Europe and the Balkans, including a narrow zone of these species' recent parapatric or sympatric occurrence (around the Carpathians and the eastern part of the Pannonian Basin). The newly described songflight calls of P. lepidus consist of more elements (median 6), are longer (mean 56.4 ms) and of a higher frequency of maximum energy (mean 25.7 kHz) than those of P. kuhlii (median 3, mean 41.0 ms and mean 14.0 kHz, respectively). This finding provides new evidence that P. lepidus represents a different species, in accordance with results from previous genetic and morphological studies. Reported differences in songflight calls permit the acoustic discrimination of P. kuhlii and P. lepidus, which is not possible based on overlapping parameters of their echolocation calls. Our findings enable distributional and ecological studies of these two species, based on acoustic methods, in the context of their rapid European expansion and the local co-occurrence.
A three-year-old male South China tiger died in the tiger enclosure of the China Tiger Park in the Meihua Mountains on December 2018 after being bitten by a tick. This tiger presented clinical symptoms like whole-body severe jaundice, hepatosplenomegaly, kidney, and lymph node hemorrhages. The Colpodella sp.-specific 18S rRNA gene was detected using nested PCR. Interestingly, the DNA isolated from the blood of the tiger was found to be 100% similar to that of the tick by NCBI BLAST analysis. However, the DNA fragments isolated from the tiger's blood were 90.1% similar to the Colpodella sp. strain human erythrocyte parasite (HEP, MH208621) and 90.4% similar to the Colpodella sp. strain Heilongjiang (HLJ, KT364261). To investigate the species of ticks and ticks-carried Colpodella parasites in this region, the species of ticks obtained from the grasses outside the tiger enclosure and the species of Colpodella carried by ticks were identified. The DNA from ticks as well as that from the tick-borne Colpodella sp. were amplified from each tick using PCR followed by amplicon sequencing. In total 402 adult ticks samples were collected, among which 22 were positive for Colpodella sp. (5.5%), and the species were further determined by morphology, DNA sequencing and phylogenetic analyses. Interestingly, one Colpodella sp. was found to have 94.2% sequence similarities to the Colpodella sp. strain HEP (MH208621). This strain was previously reported to infect a woman in Yunnan, China. In addition, three Colpodella sp. showed 87-91% sequence similarities to the Colpodella sp. strain HLJ (KT364261), which was previously reported to infect human in Heilongjiang, China. This study disclosed the possibility of zoonotic transmission of Colpodella sp. by ticks in China. Finally, it provides a basis for urgently determining and monitoring the repertoire of ticks-borne piroplasmid pathogens, with the ultimate aim of strategic control.
Morphological characteristics of the acanthocephalan Polymorphus minutus (Goeze, 1782), which was collected from the duck Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus in the Czech Republic, are described. The mitochondrial (mt) genome of P. minutus was sequenced, with a total length of 14,149 bp, comprising 36 genes including 12 protein coding genes (PCGs), 22 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes and two ribosomal RNA genes (rrnL and rrnS). This genome is similar to the mt genomes of other syndermatan species. All these genes were encoded on the same DNA strand and in the same orientation. The overall nucleotide composition of the P. minutus mt genome was 38.2% T, 27.3% G, 26.2% A, and 8.3% C. The amino acid sequences of 12 PCGs for mt genomes of 28 platyzoans, including P. minutus, were used for phylogenetic analysis, and the resulting topology recovers P. minutus as sister to Southwellina hispida (Van Cleave, 1925), and the two taxa form a sister clade to Centrorhynchus aluconis (Müller, 1780) and Plagiorhynchus transversus (Rudolphi, 1819), which are all species in the Palaeacanthocephala, thus supporting the monophyly of this class.
Sibling competition leading to physiological stress and elevated allostatic load is driven by asymmetrical development and limited resources. To investigate these predictions, we studied broods of the lesser kestrel Falco naumanni, from a nest-box population in Armenio, Central Greece. For each nestling reared in nest-boxes, we noted the age (in days) since hatching, measured the wing chord length and body mass. We also clipped the central right rectrix for ptilochronology for subsequent analysis in the laboratory. We measured 206 nestlings from 61 broods (range 2-5 nestlings). In the case of nestlings < 18 days old (n = 198, 96.1% of all) we also measured the length of feathers. As a measure of body condition, we used the residuals of the linear regression for the relationship between wing chord length and body mass, while the growth bar width of feathers was used as a second, independent index of body size and allostatic load. A GLMM and information-theory criterion showed that both measures of body condition decreased incrementally from the first sibling to the most subordinate in the brood. Body condition of subordinate siblings was influenced by the number of siblings in the nest; i.e. the larger the brood size the greater the discrepancy in body condition between siblings. At the same time, we did not find any influence of sex on either measure of fitness. Thus, our results indirectly support the hypothesis that sibling competition may cause physiological developmental stress which is reflected in decreased body condition and increased allostatic load for younger nestlings.
Manus Island is part of the Admiralty Islands, a herpetologically rich but poorly studied area. Seven species of Cornufer (von Tschudi, 1838) are known to occur on the island, five of which have been described. Based on material collected from Manus Island in 2014, we here describe the first female of Cornufer manus and the first male of Cornufer vogti. Additionally, we provide new information on intraspecific variation from a further eight adult males of C. manus, two subadults of C. vogti, as well as the first photographs of both species in life.
The daily activity patterns of animals are modulated by external factors such as habitat selection, temporal niche selection, prey availability and predation risk. Furthermore, different species show a variety of responses to human disturbance; therefore, to understand the effects of human activities on wildlife, it is crucial to consider the disturbance characteristics (e.g. type, frequency, timing and location of human activity). Our objective was to evaluate whether vehicles on forest roads altered the daily temporal activity patterns of three apex predators; Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx), the grey wolf (Canis lupus) and brown bear (Ursus arctos), using an extensive camera trap data set collected across a gradient of forest roads and wildlife trails in the Croatian part of the Dinaric mountains. We expected a low temporal overlap between humans and apex predators but predicted this even lower at sites where vehicles are present. Consistent with our expectations, the general overlap in temporal activity of all three apex predators and humans was low, the former being primarily active at night/dawn/dusk hours and the latter during daylight hours. In contrast, our results showed similarity in the temporal activity of all three predators on wildlife trails and forest roads where human activity was more frequent and diverse.