Volume 79, Issue 3

After World War II, primate studies began on Japanese macaques and artificial provisioning facilitated short-distance observation. During these early stages of primate field research, this method allowed for individual recognition and long-term studies whereby individual and social behaviors could be described in detail and, ultimately, social structure. Owing primarily to provisioning, monkeys and apes were able to innovate some cultural behaviors. However, provisioning influences the behavior of animals. Artificially fed primate populations in Japan grew rapidly and social relationships among individuals changed. After the 1980s, scientific reports tended to not mention the incidence of provisioning in descriptions of the environment. Such omissions could inadvertently lead to misleading interpretations of the data. Therefore, authors must describe the provisioning situation as an important element of the environment. Even in the early stages of the primate studies, it should have been noted that provisioning was an experimental method and was partly an artificial living condition applied to wild populations of animals, which could have both positive and negative outcomes. In this paper I defined the terms wild, provisioning, free-ranging and habituation in appropriate words.

Worldwide vicugna numbers are slowly recovering after the implementation of conservation measures in several areas of the Andean Puna. Amongst some communities, vicugnas are sustainably managed through captures, shearing, and release schemes. In this study, we explored habitat use and interactions between vicugnas and domestic livestock in Jujuy, Northwest Argentina. We measured the habitat selectivity of vicugna by evaluating the relationship between the availability and its use of vegetation. We estimated the extent and overlap of habitat niche, as well as the foraging effort of vicugnas on the basis of their individual behaviour. Vicugnas and domestic livestock were highly selective in their use of land. They also had similar foraging preferences, grazing rather on the mixed steppe grasses and grasslands that offered greater grass cover. The distribution of vicugna in relation to domestic animals differed according to species and density. With mean density of llamas, vicugnas showed mixed herds but with any other livestock and greater densities, they were segregated. In mixed grazing, when vicugnas engaged with llamas, no behavioural interaction or competition was observed. The presence of herders with dogs was the main stress factor for vicugnas. Here we discuss the importance of a multi-specific management approach.

We investigated the dietary differences among four extant suid genera using 3D dental microwear texture analysis on the enamel surfaces of molar shearing facets. We tested the differences among four taxa for four variables: complexity, anisotropy, and heterogeneity at two scales. This enabled us to distinguish omnivorous taxa ( Sus s crofa and Potamochoerus sp.) from herbivorous ones ( Phacochoerus africanus and Hylochoerus meinertzhageni ) in terms of complexity. Heterogeneity likely distinguishes the suids displaying specialized diets (homogenous surfaces in the grazer Ph. africanus ) from the more generalized suids (heterogeneous surfaces in the omnivorous S. scrofa and Potamochoerus sp., and mixed feeder herbivorous H. meinertzhageni ). This study represents the first step toward a better comprehension of the diet and ecology of extant and fossil suids and also puts forward new hypotheses to be tested, especially on the effects of rootling behavior.

Phenetic and ecological plasticity in Arvicola has caused a long-standing dispute over the number of species within the genus, which is currently thought to consist of two aquatic ( sapidus , amphibius ) and one fossorial species ( scherman ). We used mitochondrial cytochrome b (cyt b ) gene sequences to reconstruct phylogenetic relationships between the fossorial and the aquatic water voles from the various regions of their European and Asiatic range. These two types differed morphologically and exhibited allopatric ranges. Our study provided 50 new haplotypes, generating a total dataset of 70 different water vole cyt b haplotypes. Phylogenetic reconstructions retrieved two major lineages that were in a sister position to A. sapidus : a fossorial Swiss lineage and a widespread cluster, which contained aquatic and fossorial water voles from Europe and western Siberia. The phylogeographic architecture in water voles is explained by Quaternary climatic dynamics. Our results show that A. scherman in its present scope is not a monophyletic taxon.

The occurrence of the red giant flying squirrel, Petaurista petaurista , in Lao PDR is confirmed on the basis of a single adult male specimen obtained from an informal food market in Thatlouang village, Xekong Province in the south of the country. This individual was reported to have been collected from close-by Thatlouang in the mixed deciduous forest or dry dipterocarp forest on the Bolaven Plateau. The record extends the known distribution of this species by approximately 700 km eastwards. Information is provided on the external, cranial, dental, and bacular characters of the new Lao specimen. It is compared with the holotypes and/or type descriptions of seven taxa, namely, barroni , candidula , cicur , melanotus , penangensis , taylori , and terutaus , described from mainland Southeast Asia, all of which are currently included in the synonymy of P. petaurista. On the basis of its external pelage colour, the Lao specimen is referred to P. p. barroni, which was described from southeast Thailand and is considered here to be a valid subspecies.

Before 1990, mass wintering of the noctule bat ( Nyctalus noctula ) in Ukraine was known from the Ukrainian Transcarpathia and the south of the country. For the rest of Ukraine, as for other regions of Europe to the north and the northeast, the species was considered a migratory one. Today, the noctule bat is known in winter for 23 (of 25) administrative provinces of Ukraine, and winter colonies have been recorded in most of them. In Ukraine, N. noctula is a seasonal epilithic species, which hibernates mostly in multi-storey buildings serving as cliff-like structures. The retrospective analysis of bat data from Ukraine and adjacent countries shows that new records refer to the expansion of the species’ winter range, which occurred during the last decades. The border of the winter range of N. noctula in Eastern Europe now lies at least 500–600 km northward than previously assumed. The analysis of the air temperature datasets demonstrates that warming of winters cannot be the only factor determining this process. Mass appearance of high buildings and roosts associated with them is thought to be an important condition driving the expansion.

São Tomé and Príncipe are unique islands off the Gulf of Guinea on account of the high degree of endemism in these areas due to isolation. These islands are known to harbor, among others, two species of shrews of the genus Crocidura : C. thomensis , endemic to São Tomé; and C. poensis , found on Príncipe and common in central Africa. Owing to the uncertainty surrounding the taxonomic status of the population of C. poensis from Príncipe Island, we conducted morphometric and molecular analyses of newly collected specimens and compared them against São Tomé and mainland African specimens. Our results show that the shrew population from Príncipe Island is a separate species: Crocidura fingui sp. nov.

Even though Paraguay has had a long history of Mammalogy, since 2007, several new rodent, bat, marsupial, and armadillo species have been added to the list of known species for the country. Herein, we add two new species of marsupials to the fauna of Paraguay, Philander opossum and Cryptonanus unduaviensis . These records improve the understanding of both species in South America. The Paraguayan records of P. opossum , corresponding to the subspecies Philander opossum canus , fill in a major gap in its known distribution between Bolivia and Argentina, while the record of C. unduaviensis accounts for an extension of at least 290 km toward the southeast and is the first record reported outside of Bolivia. These two new species increase the known Paraguayan marsupial fauna to 18 species.

Raphia taedigera is a wetland palm species that occurs in monospecific stands in Central and South America, Africa, and Madagascar. Use of this ecosystem by wildlife is largely unknown. We surveyed R. taedigera stands at the Osa Biological Corridor in Costa Rica using 26 camera traps to identify which large (>1 kg) mammal species use this habitat and the distance each species will travel into it from the surrounding habitats. We conclude that R. taedigera provides habitat and a connectivity function in the Osa region for coati ( Nasua narica ), raccoon ( Procyon sp.), collared peccary ( Pecari tajacu ), white-faced capuchin ( Cebus capucinus ), ocelot ( Leopardus pardalis ), northern tamandua ( Tamandua mexicana ), and paca ( Cuniculus paca ). Other species were detected only on the edges of stands or not at all. On the basis of literature review, interviews with farmers, frequent detections of collared peccary, and detection in adjacent habitat, the jaguar ( Panthera onca ) is also expected to traverse R. taedigera stands. Raphia taedigera stands can be considered an important habitat for maintaining connectivity across the Osa Biological Corridor and potentially provide a similar function in other Neotropical landscapes.

Chironectes minimus is a marsupial with unique morphological and ecological characteristics. Owing mainly to its semi-aquatic habits, it is rarely collected by conventional methods, being consequently underrepresented in scientific collections. Its distribution in South America is currently considered disjunct, with a north-west and a south-east portion, and a large gap of more than one thousand kilometers that comprises central Amazonia and a large portion of the Cerrado. On the basis of four museum specimens and two photographed live animals, we present six new records for the species. These records extend the species’ distribution, showing that its range is continuous from southern Amazonia and through Cerrado gallery forests, to the southern portion of its range in southeastern South America. Most known records of C. minimus are from preserved riparian forests that usually present certain characteristics, such as fast-flowing water, stony substrate, and/or natural holes used as dens. Therefore, we hypothesize that the occurrence of this species is more closely related to well-preserved riparian forests containing these types of habitats than to the biomes themselves. Consequently, this species is probably found through most tropical and subtropical South American biomes that present the aforementioned habitat types. Therefore, the previous distributional gap of the species, now filled on its central-east portion, was probably a sampling artifact.

The nominate subspecies of the lesser woolly horseshoe bat Rhinolophus beddomei, Andersen, 1905 was known only from the Western Ghats and two localities in the Eastern Ghats in the peninsular India. In the past few years, we have observed this species from other locations spanning between these two hill ranges, and through this short note we report its presence from central peninsular region of India based on voucher specimens. We also provide the echolocation call characteristics of this species and suggest that the Thailand record of R. beddomei could possibly represent a separate species.