Predators

In arid environments, ecological refuges are often conceptualised as places where animal species can persist through drought owing to the localised persistence of moisture and nutrients. The mesopredator release hypothesis (MRH) predicts that reduced abundance of top-order predators results in an increase in the abundance of smaller predators (mesopredators) and consequently has detrimental impacts on the prey of the smaller predators. Thus according to the MRH, the existence of larger predators may provide prey with refuge from predation. In this study, we investigated how the abundance of an endangered rodent Notomys fuscus is affected by Australia's largest predator, the dingo Canis lupus dingo, introduced mesopredators, introduced herbivores, kangaroos and rainfall. Our surveys showed that N. fuscus was more abundant where dingoes occurred. Generalised linear modelling showed that N. fuscus abundance was associated positively with dingo activity and long-term annual rainfall and negatively with red fox Vulpes vulpes activity. Our results were consistent with the hypothesis that areas with higher rainfall and dingoes provide N. fuscus with refuge from drought and predation by invasive red foxes, respectively. Top-order predators, such as dingoes, could have an important functional role in broad-scale biodiversity conservation programmes by reducing the impacts of mesopredators.

The purpose of the African Chiroptera Report is to collate published information on, and collate specimen records of, African bats. The advent of the internet provides an opportunity for large amounts of information to be easily and economically updated and accessible, which is particularly important for taxonomic information. The electronic, web-based nature of the information is intended to allow information on African bats to be corrected/updated more frequently than a printed format allows, and to be available to users in an affordable form that can be manipulated to their specific requirements. It is hoped this tool will facilitate research and conservation planning, and possibly stimulate interactions across different areas of research. The report is generated from data collated in the African Chiroptera Database and will hopefully grow and develop with the addition of new and corrected information.
The incorporation of information other than taxonomic (see the various section headings in the description of the layout below), is still patchy in its execution across the taxa. Information that may answer specific requirements of a user, i.e. more information about the voucher specimens, or specimen collectors, has been drawn from across the database and is presented in separate appendices. Published identification keys for African bat species, have, where necessary, been updated to include current names, and are presented in appendix 5. In appendix 6 images of type specimens are included as they become available.

Так называемая дорожная традиция – это условия, обстоятельства и ситуации, которыми в прежние века сопровождались сухопутные перемещения на дальние расстояния. Опасности на российских дорогах в прошлом могли быть не такими, как сейчас. До середины XIX в. часто случались нападения разбойников. А волки представляли значительную угрозу для пеших и конных путников на протяжении долгого времени, даже в XX в.
Волками и их поведением занимаются зоологи и охотоведы. Ученые-гуманитарии обычно не обращают внимания на эту угрозу, которая была присуща повседневной жизни миллионов людей в России. Только в 2018 г. вышла первая монография о волках в контексте русской культуры.
В этой статье изучены некоторые, зафиксированные письменными источниками, случаи нападений волков на дорогах. Источниками послужили мемуарные тексты, а также архивные документы, в которых имеются описания таких нападений. Кроме того, ущерб от волков фиксировался статистикой, которая к середине XIX в. уже имелась в большинстве губерний Российской империи. В статье используются конкретные материалы, связанные с Вятским краем и шире – северными территориями европейской России. Эти данные относятся преимущественно к XIX и первой половине XX в., когда в сельской местности во многом сохранялся традиционный уклад жизни (и традиционные средства передвижения). С другой стороны, тогда уже имелась хорошая возможность узнавать, запоминать и записывать дорожные происшествия и нападения.
На севере европейской части России, где дороги пролегали через малолюдные места по бескрайним лесам, водилось много агрессивных волков. Несмотря на неточности статистических сведений и мемуарных описаний, можно утверждать, что нападения хищников на дорогах и в самом деле происходили нередко. Более всего страдали дети и подростки. Некоторые местные жители (например, ямщики) приспособились к этой угрозе, зная, в каких ситуациях и когда именно волки опасны, а когда не очень. А на тех путешественников (иностранцев и русских), которые плохо ориентировались в обстановке, волчий вой вблизи дороги производил весьма сильное впечатление, и это находило отражение в текстах, ставших теперь историческими источниками. Волки были опасны и при обычном своем поведении и тем более, когда заболевали бешенством. Волчья угроза постоянно сопровождала повседневную жизнь миллионов людей в нашей стране. Простые люди воспринимали этих хищников мифологизировано. Широко распространялись поверья о нашествии в военные годы волков особенного облика («с гривами»). Тем самым страшный хищник связывался в сознании людей со страшным временем – изнурительным, голодным, кровавым.
/ The so-called road tradition is the conditions, circumstances and situations that in previous times accompanied long-distance land travel. The dangers on Russian roads in the past may not have been the same as they are now. Until the middle of the 19th century robbers often attacked. Wolves posed a significant threat to foot and horse travelers for a long time too, even in the 20th century.
Zoologists and hunting specialists deal with wolves and their behavior. Humanitarians usually do not pay any attention to this threat, which was inherent in the daily life of millions of people in Russia. Only in 2018 the first monograph on wolves in the context of Russian culture was published.
This paper examines some cases of wolf attacks on the roads recorded by written sources. The sources are the memoir texts, as well as archival documents that contain descriptions of such attacks. In addition, the damage from wolves was recorded by statistics, which by the middle of the 19th century was already available in most provinces of the Russian Empire. The paper uses specific materials related to the Vyatka region and the wider northern territories of European Russia). These data relate mainly to the 19th and the first half of the 20th century, when the traditional way of life (and the traditional means of transportation) was largely preserved in rural areas. On the other hand, then was already a good opportunity to recognize, remember and record traffic incidents and aggressive attacks.
In the north of the European part of Russia, where roads ran through sparsely populated places and vast forests, there were many aggressive wolves. Despite the inaccuracies of statistical data and memoir descriptions, it can be argued that the attacks by predators on the roads actually occurred quite often. Children and teenagers suffered the most. Some locals (for example, coachmen) were adapted to this threat, knowing in which situations and when exactly wolves are dangerous, and when not so much. And for those travelers (foreigners and Russians) who were poorly oriented in the situation, the howling of wolves near the road made a very strong impression, and this was reflected in the texts that have now become historical sources. Wolves were dangerous with their usual behavior and even more so when they fell ill with rabies. The wolf threat has constantly accompanied the daily life of millions of people in our country. Ordinary people perceived these predators mythologized. There were widespread beliefs about the invasion of wolves of a special appearance ("with manes") during the war years. Thus, a terrible predator was associated in the minds of people with a terrible time – exhausting, hungry, and bloody.

The Cambrian Explosion is arguably the most extreme example of a biological radiation preserved in the fossil record, and studies of Cambrian Lagerstätten have facilitated the exploration of many facets of this key evolutionary event. As predation was a major ecological driver behind the Explosion-particularly the radiation of biomineralising metazoans-the evidence for shell crushing (durophagy), drilling and puncturing predation in the Cambrian (and possibly the Ediacaran) is considered. Examples of durophagous predation on biomineralised taxa other than trilobites are apparently rare, reflecting predator preference, taphonomic and sampling biases, or simply lack of documentation. The oldest known example of durophagy is shell damage on the problematic taxon Mobergella holsti from the early Cambrian (possibly Terreneuvian) of Sweden. Using functional morphology to identify (or perhaps misidentify) durophagous predators is discussed, with emphasis on the toolkit used by Cambrian arthropods, specifically the radiodontan oral cone and the frontal and gnathobasic appendages of various taxa. Records of drill holes and possible puncture holes in Cambrian shells are mostly on brachiopods, but the lack of prey diversity may represent either a true biological signal or a result of various biases. The oldest drilled Cambrian shells occur in a variety of Terreneuvian-aged taxa, but specimens of the ubiquitous Ediacaran shelly fossil Cloudina also show putative drilling traces. Knowledge on Cambrian shell drillers is sorely lacking and there is little evidence or consensus concerning the taxonomic groups that made the holes, which often leads to the suggestion of an unknown 'soft bodied driller'. Useful methodologies for deciphering the identities and capabilities of shell drillers are outlined. Evidence for puncture holes in Cambrian shelly taxa is rare. Such holes are more jagged than drill holes and possibly made by a Cambrian 'puncher'. The Cambrian arthropod Yohoia may have used its frontal appendages in a jack-knifing manner, similar to Recent stomatopod crustaceans, to strike and puncture shells rapidly. Finally, Cambrian durophagous and shell-drilling predation is considered in the context of escalation-an evolutionary process that, amongst other scenarios, involves predators (and other 'enemies') as the predominant agents of natural selection. The rapid increase in diversity and abundance of biomineralised shells during the early Cambrian is often attributed to escalation: enemies placed selective pressure on prey, forcing phenotypic responses in prey and, by extension, in predator groups over time. Unfortunately, few case studies illustrate long-term patterns in shelly fossil morphologies that may reflect the influence of predation throughout the Cambrian. More studies on phenotypic change in hard-shelled lineages are needed to convincingly illustrate escalation and the responses of prey during the Cambrian.

Este trabajo expone los primeros avances teóricos en torno a la discusión teórica acerca de la tensión hombre / animal a partir de la categoría de depredación. A la luz de la semiótica de la cultura y de la ecosemiótica, la pregunta por el devenir depredadorpuede plantearse desde un nuevo sistema de relaciones teóricas que, al considerar prácticas culturales y formas de comportamiento, explicaría cómo el
hombre se representa a sí mismo en sus configuraciones animalizadas y cómo los sujetos-otro se producen y transforman discursivamente.

The systematics of the Galaxias olidus hyper-species complex from south-eastern, mainland Australia is revised. Galaxias olidus Günther 1866 is redescribed, Galaxias fuscus Mack 1936 and Galaxias ornatus Castelnau 1873, previously synonymised with G. olidus (sensu lato), are reinstated as valid taxa and redescribed, and 12 taxa are described as new: Galaxias aequipinnis sp. nov., Galaxias arcanus sp. nov., Galaxias brevissimus sp. nov., Galaxias gunaikurnai sp. nov., Galaxias lanceolatus sp. nov., Galaxias longifundus sp. nov., Galaxias mcdowalli sp. nov., Galaxias mungadhan sp. nov., Galaxias oliros sp. nov., Galaxias supremus sp. nov., Galaxias tantangara sp. nov., and Galaxias terenasus sp. nov. These species are morphologically similar and, whilst there is extensive overlap in meristic counts and morphometric characters, each can be diagnosed from unique combinations of characters, including allozyme loci and colour pattern; morphological diagnosis is improved greatly if based on freshly formalin-fixed material. Galaxias schomburgkii Peters 1868, G. bongbong Macleay 1881, G. kayi Ramsay & Ogilby 1886 and G. oconnori Ogilby 1912 are retained as junior synonyms of G. olidus (sensu stricto). The types for G. findlayi Macleay 1882 are lost and no specimens matching its description were collected or examined from the Mt. Kosciuszko region; it is also currently retained as a junior synonym of G. olidus s.s. G. terenasus sp. nov. and G. arcanus sp. nov. are the most morphologically specialised in the complex and G. olidus s.s remains the most morphologically variable species. It also remains the most widespread taxon, though its previously known distribution is reduced, particularly in the south-west of its range. Nine species are narrow-range endemics, known from one, or only a few, locations, and these restricted distributions most probably reflect the fragmentation and reduction of former ranges caused by the effects of alien salmonids. Eleven of these are of conservation concern, most are considered critically endangered.

Nonhuman carnivores have historically been demonized, lethally controlled, and extirpated throughout many parts of the world—indeed, they bear the brunt of this in some places still today. To understand why this is still occurring, it is important to appreciate the historical events that have shaped and led to this situation. We use a qualitative case study in Namibia that draws on an archival review and eight months of ethnography to describe the widespread control of nonhuman carnivores in the country, from the 1800s to the present day. Calling upon Val Plumwood’s eco-feminist typology of domination of the “Other,” and integrating it with current advances in inter- sectional theory, we explain the apparent parallels in this process of domi- nation of Namibian nonhuman predators alongside its Indigenous peoples by European settlers. We discuss the process of colonization of predators and people, highlighting how perceived power differentials provided an ideal situation to dominate ...

Biocontrol provide quickly feasible so as to attain a well-balanced microbial association with a greatest of useful organisms prior to pathogens are present. It has long contemplated a prospective alternate to pesticidal plan of action for pest population reduction, but its impression and level of utilization worldwide remain self-deprecating and inconsistent. In this chapter discussed on the principles of biological control and recognize a series of limitation in the growth as well as comeback in conservation of natural enemies and considers the present time status. Future impact of this method embarrassment in pest management bioagents advanced toward at present time is frequently utilized for collection of external taxonomy characters for purpose of recognition and mass multiplication of various predator, parasitoids, and weed-killing agents for the purpose of reduction of pest population from agricultural crops. A succession of biocontrol techniques has been utilized on the basis "who feed on whom" query of food-web ecology; on that point of view, exotic natural enemies are introduced in India, and its conservation, colonization, and field release occurred for pest control; such successful case study with their future scope has been discussed. Bioagents improve unparalleled power to both explain and work on pest protective mechanisms inclusive of present within attraction toward attacked pests on plants. Rapid advances biocontrol will permit for evolution of still more new pest management alternative for which is comeback of to be expected restricted

Faecal and vomit samples were collected from 12 griffon vultures (Gyps fulvus) in May 2002 and examined for bacteria, fungi and parasites. Bacteria present included Escherichia coli, Aeromonas salmonicidia, Proteus sp., Escherichia fergusonii, Providencia alcalifaciens, Micrococcus sp. and Streptococcus sp. Mycological examination revealed the presence of Candida sp., yeasts and in one case, Rhodotorula rubra. Strongyle eggs were found in several samples. In most faecal samples, ascarid eggs of Toxocara type were found. Tapeworm eggs of Moniezia type were present in one faecal sample. Both microbiologic and parasitic findings are most likely the result of the feeding habits of griffon vultures.