Current issue

The current issue of TCS contains eight papers: seven research articles and one short communication.

The seven research articles cover a varied range of topics, including the conservation of carnivores in Thailand's Khao Yai National Park; the attitudes of tourists toward Serengeti National Park in Tanzania; an inventory of ants in a tropical dry forest in Costa Rica; modeling the distribution of the nocturnal Travancore flying squirrel in peninsular India and Sri Lanka; a study of household bushmeat consumption in Brazzaville, Congo; the dynamics of the commercialization of bushmeat in Brazaville, Congo; and conservation of woodlands in Gonarezhou National Park, Zimbabwe.

The short communication tackles the assessment of fecal pellet group counts as a viable method to estimate population density of white-tailed deer in a Mexican dry forest.

These studies examine the need to train local park guards in the use of camera traps to monitor carnivores in natural protected areas; the importance of tourists' perceptions of a major conservation hotspot in East Africa and how such perceptions may influence local management of Serengeti National Park; providing baseline documentation of ant species richness in tropical dry forests in Costa Rican islands with minimum human impact; the relevance of models to project the distribution of mammals for which there is bsence of data, as is the case for the rare and little known nocturnal flying squirrel in the Western Ghats of India and the lowlands of Sri Lanka; tackling the dynamics of bushmeat consumption in Central Africa by profiling social features of suppliers and consumers in a major urban center; the significance of monitoring the structure and composition of vegetation in Zimbabwe woodlands to assess its sustainability as provider of forage and shade for wildlife; and the need to develop methodologies which can provide indirect estimates of population densities for tropical ungulates.

Summing up, the current issue provides a plethora of information on various conservation issues which stress the complexity of conservation problems and the great importance of their social dimension. The papers also illustrate the ingenuity and great efforts of tropical conservation scientists in tackling conservation issues and in revealing new knowledge and gains in understanding.

Changes in the editorial board of TCS

Copy-editing manuscripts accepted for publication in TCS is a critical part of the editorial process that raises the quality of the manuscripts published in the journal. Mr. William Bridges (Director, Ret., Pulliam School of Journalism, Franklin College, USA) has served as the copy-editor of TCS since its establishment.

After the first issue of 2011, Bridges announced he would step down from his post. As he departs, we wish to express our gratitude to Bridges for his involvement and excellence as copy-editor of TCS and for his important contribution to tropical conservation – he has left an indelible mark in our journal. In his time with TCS, Bridges reviewed and copy-edited a total of 100 manuscripts and 13 editorials, amounting to 1520 pages.

Taking his place is Ms. Carol Van Strum, an editor, author, and book reviewer. We welcome Van Strum to the TCS team and thank her for her assistance in copy-editing the current issue.

Dr. Navjot Sodhi passing away

With great sorrow we learned of the recent passing away of Dr. Navjot Sodhi, professor at the National University of Singapore and a member of our editorial board. The field of tropical conservation has lost a great scientist, and our sentiments are with his family, friends, close colleagues and students.

Dr. Sodhi was an avid supporter of TCS and contributed in many ways to its inception and development by becoming a member of our editorial board, by acting as associate editor for South East Asia, by helping the executive editor of TCS find reviewers, and assessing the suitability of several manuscripts for our journal.

Drs. Lian Pin Kho and Tiem Ming Lee, two of his former students, have kindly written an obituary to honor Dr. Navjot Sodhi. The in memoriam is presented as a separate note after this editorial.