Volume 88, Issue 1

Rodent carcasses are a source of food and a biological hazard that can commonly be found in natural and anthropic ecosystems. Therefore, this article aims to determine which organisms consume those carcasses in an urban reserve. For this, 53 rodent carcasses were placed in front of camera traps to record their consumers. The final destiny of 41 carcasses is known: 76 % were consumed by opossums ( Didelphis virginiana ) and 24 % by ringtails ( Bassariscus astutus ). Flies and ants attempted to take advantage of the carcasses but in all cases ended up losing the competition to mammals. Opossums are the most efficient carrion consumers, as they exhibit learning as to where the carcasses are located and are able to consume old carcasses (up to 10 days old). This suggests that mid-size mammals, especially opossums, are providing an important ecological and health service for both natural ecosystems and human populations by removing rodent carcasses that otherwise could become sources of infection.

The brown-eared woolly opossum ( Caluromys lanatus ) is an elusive frugivorous Neotropical canopy specialist marsupial considered primarily arboreal, but here we report the first records of individuals from this species captured on the ground in the Cerrado. We hypothesize two main reasons to explain this behavior: first related to canopy openness, which would force the animals to the ground to keep moving across the landscape; and the second related with search for food on the ground during periods of food scarcity due to increased canopy gaps. Our findings can have important implications for the species conservation and understanding forest ecological dynamics.

Understanding the predatory behavior of a species is critical to its ecological role. Little is known about the predatory behavior of the marsupial Didelphis aurita . Here, we present two cases to shed light on its opportunistic nature: an opossum struggling to locate and attack an immobile juvenile bird, indicating olfactory detection and visual constraints, and an opossum carrying a weakened rat that was host of four blowfly larvae. These events reinforce D. aurita’s opportunistic behavior in attacking debilitated vertebrates.

Reindeer ( Rangifer tarandus ) is an emblematic species with several recognized subspecies. Two reindeer subspecies are present in Norway: the wild and semi-domestic European tundra reindeer ( R. tarandus tarandus ) in continental Norway, and Svalbard reindeer ( R. tarandus platyrhynchus ) endemic to this archipelago. The main aim of this paper is to give a descriptive and quantified analysis of the modern wild reindeer morphological diversity. The morphometric variation was quantified, based on 262 adult specimens of both sexes, by both linear measurements, analysed through log shape ratio computed from post-cranial bones and teeth measurements, and landmarks and sliding semi-landmarks based geometric morphometrics (GMM) to quantify molars size and shape. All anatomical parts (teeth, metatarsals, metacarpals) highlighted differences between the continental and insular subspecies. Our main results pointed out morphometrics characteristics of nowadays reindeer subspecies, like differences in proportions between the size of metapodials or lower cheek teeth with the body size, that could be of great interest for archaeozoological research.

The study of tooth morphology is fundamental for the taxonomic and evolutionary comprehension of mammals. However, dental abnormalities can lead to misidentifications and species invalidations. We present two distinctive dental anomalies observed in Myotis riparius : (i) hypodontia, characterized by the absence of the second upper premolar (P3) on both sides of the dental arch in an adult male from Panama, and (ii) polyodontia, characterized by the presence of three upper incisors on one side of the dental arch in an adult male from Brazil. We discuss the genetic and ecological bases of these anomalies and the importance of these case reports for understanding the evolutionary developmental biology of bats.

We report the first records of Cuniculus paca for the Chaco or Western Region of Paraguay. The evidence consists of 18 records (63 photos and 12 videos) obtained through a camera trap located in a riparian forest of the Humid Chaco. The species showed solitary and nocturnal behavior and appeared near a stream that flows into the Paraguay River.

Bartonellosis is a vector-borne disease which is increasingly threatening the health of humans and animals worldwide consequent to the growing wildlife-animals-human interactions. Little is known about the epidemiology of this disease in Tanzania. In this study we investigated and characterized Bartonella species in small mammals’ ectoparasites from potentially high-risk areas in the country. A total of 141 ectoparasites pools of mites, fleas, ticks, and lice were analyzed using conventional PCR and sequencing. Bartonella DNA was detected in 34.8 % of the tested ectoparasite pools, with mites at 32.9 %, fleas at 40 %, ticks at 12.5 %, and lice at 50 %. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the Bartonella spp. genotypes were closely related to those found in Uganda, Kenya, and South Africa. Different genotypes with independent haplotypes were observed, although most Bartonella spp. from fleas shared the same haplogroup. The confirmed presence of Bartonella elizabethae and Bartonella tribocorum in field and house rodents emphasizes the prevailing transmission risk of zoonotic infections in the study areas and beyond. Screening of humans, companion animals, and livestock in potentially high-risk areas in Tanzania is necessary in order to inform the development of responsive surveillance and control strategies.

Mitochondrial genetic variation was examined in long-eared hedgehogs, Hemiechinus auritus , from the Anatolian Peninsula, the adjacent island of Cyprus and from Azerbaijan. These data were compared with those available from other parts of the species’ range in North Africa and Asia. Two distinct cytochrome- b lineages are present in Anatolia, one of them previously unknown. The lineage found in south-eastern Anatolia has previously been identified in Egypt and is likely present around the eastern coast of the Mediterranean. The close relationship between haplotypes from Cyprus and those from Egypt suggests that the island was colonised from North Africa, or perhaps the Middle East, rather than Anatolia. The new lineage, which can be referred to the subspecies H. a. calligoni , was only found in the extreme eastern part of Anatolia and may have been isolated from neighbouring lineages to the south-west and to the east by the Taurus and Caucasus mountain ranges, respectively.