Volume 85, Issue 2

The greater part of expected mammalian extinctions will be of smaller-bodied mammals, including rats which are more generally known only as pests and carriers of pathogens. We address the long-tailed nesokia rat, which is among the least studied Palaearctic mammals. The species is known from merely five specimens, collected between March 1974 and January 1977 within a radius of 30 km around Qurna inside the seasonally flooded Mesopotamian marshes in southern Iraq. In the 1990s, this extensive aquatic habitat has been deliberately reduced to <15% of its original area and the IUCN expressed fear that such a disaster “almost certainly” caused the extinction of the long-tailed nesokia. Although the interventions after 2003 reversed the shrinking trend and marshes started to expand, the continuous presence of the long-tailed nesokia could not be unambiguously confirmed. We provide meagre evidence suggesting that the rat might be still present in the marshes. Next, our habitat modelling shows that the area of the long-tailed nesokia might be more extensive than expected with a highly suitable habitat covering 15,650 km 2 of Mesopotamian marshland in Iraq (between Basra and Salah Ad Din provinces) and the Hawizeh Marshes in the adjacent Iranian Khuzestan.

Eld’s deer ( Rucervus eldi ) was once thought to be extinct in the wild in Lao PDR. In early 2000, however, conservationists discovered that they still exist in Savannakhet Province. In 2004, the government of Lao PDR established the Xonnabouly Eld’s Deer Sanctuary with an area of about 93,000 ha. However, no population size estimates for this significant population are available for guiding conservation efforts of preserving this important species. In this study, we used the line transect method to assess the Eld’s deer density and abundance during the survey. During our surveys, we made 27 visual observations of Eld’s deer. We estimated the average detection probability to be 0.57 (CI: 0.45–0.72) and the average density to be 0.58 (CI: 0.33–1.01). We estimated the total number of Eld’s deer in the surveyed area of the Xonnabouly Eld’s Deer Sanctuary to be 173 (95% CI: 99–305). The population in the Xonnabouly Eld’s Deer Sanctuary seems to be the most important Eld’s deer population for R. e. siamensis subspecies as well as for the R. eldii , at least in the continental part of Asia. With the sharp decline of Eld’s deer populations in other protected areas (especially in Cambodia and Myanmar), we should pay special attention and give more priority on the conservation efforts of preserving the remaining population in Xonnabouly Eld’s Deer Sanctuary.

Selective logging is very widespread across the tropics and can alter the habitat for myriad wildlife species. But while many studies have assessed the impacts of past logging on forest animals, far fewer have investigated how species respond to logging while the timber operations are actually going on. This is an important knowledge gap because, considering the prevalence of logging across the world, numerous areas will be undergoing active extraction at any given time. We compared the occurrence and diel activity patterns of individual species of medium- to large-bodied terrestrial mammals, as well as the richness of the entire assemblage, among sites that were either unlogged, had been logged historically, or had ongoing ‘reduced impact’ timber extraction in the Kapit Region of Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo. We found no significant differences in estimated occupancy or activity patterns of particular species, or in overall species richness, among logging treatments. Across sites, species richness in this area appeared to be as high as or higher than in many other parts of the state, including some protected areas. Though monitoring is needed to assess potential long-term impacts, our results suggest that reduced-impact logging could allow economic development that is sustainable for many wildlife populations.

In this study, we establish the seasonal variation of the Culpeo fox’s diet in a seasonal ecosystem of south-central Chile. By scat analyses, 21 prey taxa were identified, 16 were animal and five were plant species. Mammals (88.47%) were the main biomass contribution with small seasonal fluctuations. Plants contributed the most to the differences observed in all seasons since they showed very marked changes. We determined that the Culpeo fox inhabiting the Andes of south-central Chile feeds mainly on small non-native mammals all year round, and supplements its diet opportunistically from items whose abundance oscillates seasonally.

The Upper Guinea rainforest zone in West Africa is considered a biodiversity hotspot and contains important habitats for threatened and endemic mammals, yet this region remains poorly known particularly for small mammals. The aim of this study was to survey small mammals in a Liberian and Guinean cross-border conservation area, the Ziama-Wonegizi-Wologizi landscape. We recorded a total of 52 small mammal species, including 26 bats, 15 rodents, 10 shrews, one otter-shrew, of which one rodent species was new to science ( Colomys sp. nov.). We also documented the first country records of the bats Chaerephon aloysiisabaudiae , Pseudoromicia brunnea and Pipistrellus inexspectatus from Guinea, and the shrews Crocidura douceti and Crocidura grandiceps from Liberia. Furthermore, we recorded the recently described bat Nycticeinops happoldorum from Wologizi and Ziama, and we documented the presence of Micropotamogale lamottei at Wologizi, which represents the fourth known locality for this globally threatened species. Finally, the forests of Wologizi and Ziama support numerous threatened species. The results of our survey demonstrate the importance of this region for small mammals and support the creation of a transboundary protected area that will encompass the entire forest landscape.

Chaetophractus villosus and Dasypus hybridus are the most widespread and abundant armadillos inhabiting the Pampas grasslands. Studies on the parasitic fauna from an ecological perspective are scarce in both species. We describe and compare the component communities of C. villosus and D. hybridus in the Pampas ecoregion of Argentina and analyse if the composition and structure of the parasitic communities of these host species reveal trophic behaviour and/or habitat use. In the population of C. villosus 10 species of helminths were found, namely Ancylostoma caninum , Aspidodera fasciata , Aspidodera scoleciformis , Mazzia bialata , Moennigia celinae , Orihelia anticlava , Strongyloides sp., Trichohelix tuberculata (Nematoda) and Mathevotaenia sp. (Cestoda), whereas in the population of D. hybridus four species were found, A. fasciata , Delicata abbai , Pterygodermatites chaetophracti and Strongyloides sp. Only A. fasciata and Strongyloides sp. were present in both species. Prevalences and intensities were similar in Strongyloides sp. In A. fasciata , however, there were differences regarding mean intensity. Diversity was higher in C. villosus than in D. hybridus. The differences may be related to the diet, behaviour, evolutionary histories or immune response of the species studied. A combination of several of these factors would possibly influence the composition of their parasitic fauna.

The bush dog ( Speothos venaticus ) is rare, elusive, and difficult to study in the wild. Guyana contains a wealth of intact tropical forest (∼18.4 million ha) and savanna (1.6 million ha) habitats, but management of this species is hindered by a lack of data. We present two photographic records (consisting of nine individuals) of bush dogs from camera-traps set in the Kanuku Mountains Protected Area (KMPA) – the first of this species in Guyana. These records highlight the importance of Guiana Shield forests and Guyana’s expanding protected areas system to the conservation of these wide-ranging carnivores. Additionally, we recommend that detailed measurement and reporting of site variables become standard, as it will improve the efficacy of camera-trap studies of bush dogs and allow for broad-scale modelling of space use not otherwise possible due to the low detection rates at the scale of each individual study.

We report on phyllostomid assemblages just after a wildfire and again three months later across burned and unburned forest patches. We recorded 10 species throughout the fire disturbance gradient, mainly determined by changes in the understory. Burned patches presented high abundance of predator bats right after fire, including gleaning insectivorous, carnivorous, and sanguivorous. Three months later, burned forests were empty of predators and dominated by large frugivores that occurred throughout the whole gradient in both periods. The fire appears to create ephemeral opportunity to predator phyllostomids right after its passage, but subsequent vegetation recovery seems to reduce diversity in burned forests.

The Nicobar treeshrew Tupaia nicobarica (Zelebor 1869) is an endemic species found in the Great & Little Nicobar Islands in the Andaman Sea, India. A unique nest site of an adult male of Nicobar treeshrew was directly recorded which was found in a fallen dead palm tree at the littoral forests of Galathea National Park, Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve.

A male Pipistrellus nathusii ringed in Pape Natural Park (S Latvia) in August 2015 was recovered recently dead in Pitillas’ Lagoon Natural Reserve (N Spain) in March 2017. At 2224 km in SSW direction, this is the first documented bat migration between these countries and worldwide the longest migration record of a bat. We also report other observations of this species in autumn in Northern Spain, suggesting that the Iberian Peninsula may be an important wintering area for Nathusius’ pipistrelles. Conservation measures should be agreed on by countries along the migration routes to improve the protection of this species.

To date, there have been no studies that have evaluated small mammal utilization of the understory of forests. In this study, we described the use of vertical strata by small mammals in patches of unflooded forests, known as “cordilheiras”, in the Nhecolândia sub-region of the Pantanal, Brazil. We collected all species using the ground and understory, including the terrestrial didelphid Monodelphis domestica . We suppose that local habitat features (e.g., Acuri palms), rather than intrinsic species characteristics, may be more conducive to the use of understory vegetation by small mammals in the Nhecolândia region.

Albinism, a congenital disorder that results in a lack of melanin deposition, is common in domesticated animals but rare in nature. Among the ∼2500 species of rodents worldwide, only 67 have published reports of albinism. Here we report the capture of an albino murid (Muridae: Rodentia) from Mt. Singgalang in West Sumatra, Indonesia. The specimen is an adolescent but sexually mature male Maxomys hylomyoides , a montane Sumatran endemic. To our knowledge, this specimen represents the first reported albino rodent from Indonesia and Sundaland, and only the second from Southeast Asia.

The Canary Islands are home to a large variety of endemic fauna. The Canary shrew ( Crocidura canariensis ) has a distribution restricted to Fuerteventura, Lanzarote and the islets of Lobos and Montaña Clara. One of the main threats to the insular fauna is the arrival of exotic species. The greater white-toothed shrew ( Crocidura russula ) is an easily transportable animal and a potential competitor for C. canariensis . Therefore, C. russula should be taken into account in the management protocols for invasive species. One of the most easily applicable techniques for detecting shrews is the analysis of pellets. This study aims to assess which morphological characters are diagnostic and easy to use when identifying both species of shrews. For this purpose, a blind specific assignment has been made using seven previously described characters and another three added in the present study. The results show that the observer’s experience did not improve the correct identification rate and that only three of the evaluated characters have a high discriminant capacity. Finally, it was found that the combined use of the maximum number of characters and the identification by two independent observers reduces the probability of making a mistake in the determination to minimum values.

The occurrence of biofluorescence across Mammalia is an area of active study. We examined three specimens of the platypus ( Ornithorhynchus anatinus ) from Tasmania and New South Wales, Australia, housed in the Field Museum of Natural History (Chicago, Illinois, USA) and the University of Nebraska State Museum (Lincoln, Nebraska, USA) under visible light and ultraviolet (UV) light. The pelage of the animals appeared uniformly brown under visible light and green or cyan under UV light, due to fluoresced wavelengths that peaked around 500 nm. Our observations are the first report of biofluorescence in a monotreme mammal.

The genus Molossops includes two species that are restricted to South America: Molossops neglectus and Molossops temminckii . The smaller dog-faced dwarf Molossops temminckii is distributed from Colombia to Argentina and has a wide morphological variation and vocal plasticity. In Colombia, this species remains poorly known. To fill distributional gaps, we present novel records from Arauca, Atlántico, Bolívar, Córdoba, and Huila departments. We also present an analysis of the morphometric variation in South America using Principal Component Analyses. These show an external and cranial difference of specimens of Colombia in respect of other and South America populations. In Colombian landscapes dominated by the floodplain savanna of the Orinoco region, Molossops temminckii is smaller than in the other regions of the country, and the previously suggested existence of cryptic diversity within the taxon should be evaluated. Therefore, we suggest further integrative analyses to investigate a possible subspecific status of some Colombian populations.

Hypsugo cadornae bats have been found in India, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. In 2017 and 2018, 15 medium size Hypsugo bats were collected from Shaoguan, Guangzhou, and Huizhou in Guangdong, China. Molecular and morphological examinations identified them as H. cadornae . This is the first record of H. cadornae in China. Morphological and ultrasonic characteristics of H. cadornae were compared with its close relative, Hypsugo pulveratus .