Coastal lagoons are important habitats in West Africa, being also irreplaceable for many species of fish. The community structure and the diversity patterns of their fish assemblages have however been poorly studied so far. In order to evaluate the community structure and diversity metrics of fish assemblages of one of these lagoons (Lake Togo, Togo), we surveyed four stations that were different in terms of morphological and ecological characteristics, from July to September 2017. The fishing gears were recorded and catches of small-scale fisheries were analyzed. A total of 40 species in 37 genera, 24 families and 10 orders were recorded, with Cichlidae (six species), followed by Eleotridae (five species) and Gobiidae (three species) being the most diverse families. The most abundant species in the catches were: Sarotherodon melanotheron, Coptodon guineensis, Chrysischthys nigrodigitatus and Ethmalosa fimbriata. Strict estuarine species (Es) were the most represented forms in the catches. Calculated indices of diversity showed that Lake Togo has moderate diversity and a poor organization of individuals within species.

Fish bones are often found in Palaeolithic cave deposits, but the origin of their accumulation is generally poorly known. Knowledge of the accumulator is essential to understand the role of fish in human subsistence activities, and the Eurasian eagle owl (Bubo bubo) is frequently recognized as an accumulator of skeletal remains on archaeological sites.

We analyzed 27 Eurasian eagle owl pellet samples from Tautavel (Pyrénées Orientales) in southern France. From this sample, we identified 1812 fish remains distributed across seven species: allis shad (Alosa alosa), European eel (Anguilla Anguilla), gudgeon (Gobio gobio), roach (Rutilus rutilus), Mediterranean barbel (Barbus meridionalis), chub (Squalius cephalus) and tench (Tinca tinca). These remains were characterised by relatively complete skeletal representation, minimal bone fragmentation and low digestive surface damage. On the basis of surface modification, we produced a set of criteria to be applied to the fossil record in order to highlight the role of this owl in cave fish deposits.

Covering of eggs is important antipredator behaviour which is known for several bird species. Generally this behaviour is considered consistent throughout the whole nesting cycle but there can be exceptions in some species. We found two switches in egg covering during nesting in grey partridge: the first between two early laying phases, the second between later laying and incubation. The clutch containing only the first egg remained uncovered, larger clutches were covered with dry vegetation in the laying period, but the eggs remained uncovered during incubation breaks. There was a strong consistency of this behaviour among females. From four tested factors, only nesting period significantly affected egg covering. We assume that the first uncovered egg may serve as a bait for predators to test nest-site safety whereas the motion in the course of egg covering during short incubation breaks may increase predator attraction.

Craniometric characteristics of two sibling species of the genus Mus, the indoor house mouse (Mus musculus) and the outdoor mound-building mouse (M. spicilegus), from Slovakia were compared and evaluated in order to discriminate them. Twenty-one skull and dental variables were evaluated on 107 skulls of adult house mice, M. musculus and 80 skulls of mound-building mice, M. spicilegus. The parametric unpaired t-test and discriminant function analysis showed variations in the cranial variables between the two species. We identified four dental variables (LaM1, LaM1, LM1 and LOID) suitable for the differentiation.

The diet of wild boar (Sus scrofa), a native and problematic species of European ecosystems, highly reflects the management of the species as well as the level of its damaging effect. This study focuses on the importance of natural dietary components in the diet of wild boar over the autumn to winter season (i.e. the main hunting season) in four predominantly oak forests in the Czech Republic. We also studied the effect of supplementary feed, especially maize, on feeding preferences. The oak acorn was always preferred, regardless of other natural or supplementary feeds available. Both acorns and maize are highly nutritional, energy rich foods and boars always consumed at least one of these energy-rich foods. If acorns were not available, supplementary feed, and especially maize, was actively searched for, whereupon they often substituted for acorns nutritionally. The wild boar is the dominant competitor for acorns and can potentially exploit the whole forest crop, depending on the size of the acorn crop, the wild boar population density and the density of other ungulates in the forest. When the acorn biomass was exhausted, supplementary feed (predominantly maize) was always preferred.

The objective of this study was to clarify ecological factors influencing winter field sign abundance of Korean water deer Hydropotes inermis argyropus in a temperate forest on Mt. Maehwa, Hongcheon, South Korea. There were significant differences in four variables of cover and three variables of forage between the different topographic features, part from the midstory vegetation coverage. Most of the winter field signs of Korean water deer were observed on the ridge. The abundance of feces and total field signs of Korean water deer varied considerably between the topographical features. The understory vegetation, midstory vegetation, forb and shrub coverage, topography, understory vegetation × topography, midstory vegetation × topography, and shrub × topography were higher value of relative variable importance among habitat variables. Understory and midstory vegetation coverage, forage and topography were important ecological factors for affecting winter field sign abundance of Korean water deer.

Survival, especially the youth, is critical for the reproduction of a species. Giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) cubs are not well developed and are vulnerable at birth, and they have developed many survival strategy to assist with survival until adulthood, including rapid growth of their young. By analysing the changes in the daily milk intake and weight gain during the early stages of cub growth for 11 years (2004–2014) over 42 healthy giant panda cubs, we found that milk intake by the cubs increased rapidly during the first 10 days. After 10 days, the daily milk intake decreased gradually and stabilized beginning at 35 days. In addition, the cubs with lower birth weight exhibited higher daily milk intake, while those with higher birth weight consumed less milk per unit of body weight. This study explored the characteristics of daily milk intake during the early growth stage of giant panda cubs, offering insight into adaptations strategy of newborns in this species and providing valuable information for artificial rearing to improve the survival rate of captive panda cubs.

We developed a protocol which determines age in spotted deer, Axis axis (Erxleben, 1777) through cementum layers in the tooth which is economical and requires lesser time (±19 hours). The permanent first incisor teeth from mandibles of known estimated ages (2, 4, 5, 8 and 9 years) were ground longitudinally on median plane on a set of sandpapers with hand to a thickness of around 57 μm, decalcified, stained with hematoxylin, differentiated in acid alcohol and mounted on a glass slide and count cementum layers under microscope at 100 or 200× magnification. Presence of 1, 3, 4, 7 and 8 cementum layers was observed for the tooth of ages of 2, 4, 5, 8 and 9 years, respectively. The final age in the year was calculated by adding one to the counted number of cementum layer. Our results were in compliance with the pre-estimated age of the mandibles. This suggested protocol saves time and money and is easy to perform with minimum requirements. The technique was validated using “blind” duplicate test (n = 2) and the first molar tooth of known estimated age (n = 1). Our suggested protocol has significant relevance for estimating the age of other animals and wildlife forensics.

The coexistence mechanisms of sympatric species have attracted wide attention from ecologists. The giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca), takin (Budorcas taxicolor) and goral (Naemorhedus griseus) are species which are being seriously endangered along to the Himalayan-Hengduan Mountains. To improve the understanding of mechanism of microhabitat separation and coexistence between the giant panda and the other two sympatric species, we investigated microhabitat characteristics at Tangjiahe Nature Reserve, Qingchuan County of Sichuan Province, China during 2013 by sampling 86 fecal-site plots for giant pandas, takins and gorals as well as 80 control plots. Our results suggested that each species has their own specific microhabitat selection pattern. Furthermore, the giant pandas more often selected microhabitats with gentler slope, more bamboo, lower tree canopy and a small herb shrub while the takins and gorals preferred the microhabitats with less bamboo, but more trees and shrubs. Thus, based on our findings, food resources, dietary requirements and energy expenditure are considered as the main ecological factors which caused the microhabitat separation among these three species. Because of the narrow dietary, the giant panda's specificity to its microhabitat is higher than that of the other two animals, which results in their segmentation. This study provides a scientific evidence that conservation efforts should be under way to protect the sympatric habitat, not only the suitable habitat for giant pandas but also that of takins and gorals, which can make a great improvement to the local biodiversity.

This study explores two large carnivores, Javan leopard (Panthera pardus melas) and dhole (Cuon alpinus) that are known to have an overlapping diet and are sympatric in the south-western part of West Java. We characterised their spatiotemporal habitat together with four medium-sized prey species. We used photographs collected along 39.420 night-traps from 108 camera-traps installed on the peninsula of Ujung Kulon National Park (UKNP). We are using maximum entropy modelling (MaxEnt) to investigate seasonal environmental factors. Concerning the dominant prey species, our results showed that distances to secondary forest edge were highly significant for both Javan leopard and dhole in wet and dry seasons. Javan leopard is mostly active at dawn and dusk, whereas spatially correlated with Javan mousedeer and red muntjac. Dhole exhibited diurnal activity and were avoiding Javan leopard to a certain extent. Its spatial use is overlapping with red muntjac, wild boar, and banteng. Using Spatially Explicit Capture-Recapture (SECR) methods, the density estimation for Javan leopard were 10.91 and 11.54 individuals/100 km² in wet and dry seasons, respectively. We confirmed UKNP as one of Indonesia's biodiversity hotspots and a critical area to preserve Javan leopard and dholes.

In the Carpathian population of the European badger, existing studies show a considerable discrepancy in the level of sexual dimorphism. The main goal of the study was to assess the sexual size dimorphism of the Carpathian Meles meles population in the light of the main hypotheses explaining this phenomenon. We measured 22 craniometric characteristics on sexed skulls of adult specimens from the Western Carpathians and assessed the morphological differences between males and females. A multi-model approach combined with predictive modelling was used to identify craniological parameters that discriminate badger sexes. The sexual size dimorphism was manifested mainly in differences of the feeding apparatus. The inner (IMW) and outer width of mandible (OMW) showed the highest power to discriminate between males and females (classification accuracy > 80 %). The IMW and OMW of 30 and 69 mm, respectively, may be used as rough threshold values for determination of the badger sex in the Western Carpathians. Our results seem to be in accordance with the hypothesis of sexual selection. We suppose that more even distribution of small families or individuals in the mainland Europe implicates higher level of mating competition which leads to favouring bigger and stronger males. We suppose also some role of a predatory selection by large carnivores and competition with other burrowing species leading to a potentially higher survival chance of bigger individuals in the Carpathians.

We studied the occupation of crevice-type roosting boxes developed especially for barbastelle bats Barbastella barbastellus (Schreber, 1774). Some 290 of the boxes were installed (in groups of five) in six study areas located in Poland in forests of different tree species composition. Colonization of boxes took place in the first summer season after installation. Two years after installation, a high rate of occupancy was recorded (up to 100 % groups of boxes, depending on the area). The total number of bats involved was 478, 72 % of which was the target species. Occupancy rates were highest in oak stands and lowest in those dominated by Scots pine. In all but one of the study areas, barbastelles founded colonies (and in part at least breeding colonies) in the boxes of this type. The overall ratio of the number of barbastelle colonies to the observation of individuals/small groups is 32.4 % to 67.6 %, respectively. The use of such boxes thus provides the active protection of the bat in question, and the effective study of its populations.