scholarly journals Notes on the Natural History, Distribution and Conservation Status of the Andean Night Monkey,Aotus miconaxThomas, 1927

2008 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fanny M. Cornejo ◽  
Rolando Aquino ◽  
Carlos Jimenez
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Conservation Status

The Wryneck

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerard Gorman
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Head And Neck ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Wide Audience ◽  
Insect Prey ◽  
Citizen Scientist ◽  
Cultural Symbolism

This book details the natural history and cultural symbolism of a most unusual woodpecker – a species that neither excavates nest holes in trees, nor bores into wood to find insect prey. The elusive Wryneck is best renowned for performing a twisting, writhing head and neck display when threatened, but this ground-breaking study reveals many more secrets of its behaviour and evolution. Detailed information is presented on the species' origins, taxonomy, anatomy, appearance, moult, calls, distribution, conservation status, habitats, movements, breeding, diet and relationships, along with a chapter on its closest relative, the Red-throated Wryneck. The text is richly illustrated throughout with high quality photographs as well as sound spectrograms. This all-encompassing and engaging account has been written for a wide audience, whether professional ornithologist, citizen scientist, amateur birder, woodpecker aficionado and simply someone who wishes to learn more about this curious and remarkable bird.

scholarly journals REDESCRIPTION OF Minervarya nicobariensis (STOLIZKA, 1870) (AMPHIBIA: DICROGLOSSIDAE) WITH A NEOTYPE DESIGNATION

2020 ◽  
pp. 205-209
Author(s):  
S.R. Chandramouli ◽  
K.V. Devi Prasad
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
Breeding Biology ◽  
Larval Morphology ◽  
Frog Species ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Material ◽  
Insular Endemic

The poorly-known, insular endemic frog species, Minervarya nicobariensis (Stoliczka, 1870) is re-described based on new material from the Nicobar Archipelago. A neotype is designated as its holotype had been lost. Novel data on biology, ecology, distribution and natural history of this poorly known species are provided. Breeding biology and larval morphology are described in detail. Potential threats to the species are discussed and an assessment of its conservation status is attempted.

scholarly journals Addressing Uncertainties in Machine Learning Predictions of Conservation Status

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barnaby Walker ◽  
Tarciso Leão ◽  
Steven Bachman ◽  
Eve Lucas ◽  
Eimear Nic Lughadha
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Extinction Risk ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
Red List ◽  
Learning Models ◽  
Species Occurrence ◽  
Voucher Specimens ◽  
Machine Learning Models ◽  
Occurrence Records

Extinction risk assessments are increasingly important to many stakeholders (Bennun et al. 2017) but there remain large gaps in our knowledge about the status of many species. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN 2019, hereafter Red List) is the most comprehensive assessment of extinction risk. However, it includes assessments of just 7% of all vascular plants, while 18% of all assessed animals lack sufficient data to assign a conservation status. The wide availability of species occurrence information through digitised natural history collections and aggregators such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), coupled with machine learning methods, provides an opportunity to fill these gaps in our knowledge. Machine learning approaches have already been proposed to guide conservation assessment efforts (Nic Lughadha et al. 2018), assign a conservation status to species with insufficient data for a full assessment (Bland et al. 2014), and predict the number of threatened species across the world (Pelletier et al. 2018). The wide range in sources of species occurrence records can lead to data quality issues, such as missing, imprecise, or mistaken information. These data quality issues may be compounded in databases that aggregate information from multiple sources: many such records derive from field observations (78% for plant species in GBIF; Meyer et al. 2016) largely unsupported by voucher specimens that would allow confirmation or correction of their identification. Even where voucher specimens do exist, different taxonomic or geographic information can be held for a single collection event represented by duplicate specimens deposited in different natural history collections. Tools are available to help clean species occurrence data, but these cannot deal with problems like specimen misidentification, which previous work (Nic Lughadha et al. 2019) has shown to have a large impact on preliminary assessments of conservation status. Machine learning models based on species occurrence records have been reported to predict with high accuracy the conservation status of species. However, given the black-box nature of some of the better machine learning models, it is unclear how well these accuracies apply beyond the data on which the models were trained. Practices for training machine learning models differ between studies, but more interrogation of these models is required if we are to know how much to trust their predictions. To address these problems, we compare predictions made by a machine learning model when trained on specimen occurrence records that have benefitted from minimal or more thorough cleaning, with those based on records from an expert-curated database. We then explore different techniques to interrogate machine learning models and quantify the uncertainty in their predictions.

Taxonomy, natural history, and conservation of the Great-billed Seed-Finch Sporophila maximiliani (Cabanis, 1851) (Thraupidae, Sporophilinae)

Zootaxa ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 4442 (4) ◽  
pp. 551 ◽  
Author(s):  
FLÁVIO KULAIF UBAID ◽  
LUÍS FABIO SILVEIRA ◽  
CESAR A. B. MEDOLAGO ◽  
THIAGO V. V. COSTA ◽  
MERCIVAL ROBERTO FRANCISCO ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
South America ◽  
Captive Breeding ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Taxonomic Status ◽  
Morphological Characters ◽  
Morphometric Characters ◽  
History Of

Seed-finches are small-sized Neotropical granivorous birds characterized by extremely strong and thick beaks. Among these birds, the Great-billed Seed-Finch Sporophila maximiliani has been selectively and intensively trapped to the extent that has become one of the most endangered bird species in South America, yet its taxonomy remains complex and controversial. Two subspecies have been recognized: S. m. maximiliani (Cabanis, 1851), mainly from the Cerrado of central South America, and S. m. parkesi Olson (= Oryzoborus m. magnirostris), from northeastern South America. Originally, S. m. parkesi was diagnosed as being larger than the Large-billed Seed-Finch, S. c. crassirostris (Gmelin, 1789), but proper comparisons with S. m. maximiliani, which is larger than S. c. crassirostris, were never performed. Here we provide a review of the taxonomic and nomenclatural history of S. maximiliani, reevaluate the validity and taxonomic status of the subspecies based on morphological characters, and significantly revise its geographic distribution. Analyses based on plumage patterns and a Principal Component Analysis of morphometric characters indicated that S. m. parkesi is most appropriately treated as a synonym of the nominate taxon, which results in a monotypic S. maximiliani comprising two disjunct populations. Further, we conducted systematic searches for S. maximiliani in Brazil, in an attempt to obtain natural history information. After more than 6,000 hours of fieldwork in 45 areas of potential and historical occurrence, S. maximiliani was located only in two sites, in marshy environments called veredas, confirming the critical conservation status of this species, at least in Brazil. We discuss the conservation potential for, and the problems involved with, captive breeding of S. maximiliani for reintroduction into the wild. 

Redescription of the monotypic genus Cubacanthozomus (Schizomida: Hubbardiidae) and conservation status of its type-species

Zootaxa ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 4323 (4) ◽  
pp. 534 ◽  
Author(s):  
LUIS F. DE ARMAS ◽  
RENÉ BARBA DÍAZ ◽  
AYLÍN ALEGRE BARROSO
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Type Species ◽  
New Genus ◽  
Additional Data ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
Original Description ◽  
Morphological Evidence ◽  
Monotypic Genus ◽  
True Type ◽  
Made In

Some of the taxonomic characters originally argued for the Cuban monotypic genus Cubacanthozomus Teruel, 2007, are unsubstantial. Others were misinterpretations of drawings given in the original description of Schizomus rowlandi Dumitresco, 1973, the only source of taxonomic information on which Teruel (2007) based the new genus. Recently a new collection of this species was made in a small cave about 350 m from one of the caves mentioned in the original description: Cueva de Majana, Baracoa municipality, Guantánamo province. On the basis of new morphological evidence found during examination of two females and a male, both the genus Cubacanthozomus and its type-species are herein redescribed. Cueva de Majana is recognized as the true type locality of C. rowlandi, which male holotype was erroneously listed as being collected in a cave from central Cuba, 600 km away. Additional data are provided on the morphology, natural history and conservation status of C. rowlandi, which is now being proposed as an endangered species. 

scholarly journals Reptile diversity and community composition in the Puyango dry forest

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Acosta Vásconez Ana ◽  
Cisneros-Heredia Diego ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Deciduous Forest ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
Dry Forest ◽  
Tropical Dry Forests ◽  
Pitfall Traps ◽  
Phylogenetic Groups ◽  
Dry Forests ◽  
History Of ◽  
Dry Deciduous Forest

Reptiles are key animals in vertebrate communities in most ecosystems. However, there is little information on their diversity and abundance in dry forests of Ecuador. Between 2013 and 2014 we studied the reptile diversity and natural history of the Puyango Protected Forest, on the border between the province of Loja and El Oro, Ecuador. This area protects relicts of dry deciduous forest in hills and patches of semi-deciduous forest around ravines. We used belt transects in three different streams and irregular band transects in trails, together with pitfall traps, funnel traps, and litter quadrants. The richness of the Puyango Protected Forest represents a small percentage of the Ecuadorian reptile diversity, but covers much of the representative phylogenetic groups of tropical dry forests of the world. Sampling was effective to determine saurian diversity, but more sampling is needed to estimate snake diversity. Evidence of the presence of 21 species, divided into 10 families, was obtained; of which 14 are snakes (including a potential new species of the genus Epictia) and seven are lizards. Natural history is described for each species, including time and space use, and their conservation status is analyzed. The reptile community is characterized by a relative homogeneity over the vegetation remnants and the highest abundances correspond to saurian species.

scholarly journals Notes on some Glass Frogs (Anura: Centrolenidae) from Western Ecuador: Taxonomy, natural history and conservation status, with the description of a new species

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego F Cisneros-Heredia ◽  
Roy W. McDiarmid
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
Morphological Characters ◽  
Habitat Destruction ◽  
Undescribed Species ◽  
Science Center ◽  
Amphibian Species ◽  
Forest Remnants ◽  
History Of

Ecuador has the biggest number of amphibian species per unit of area in the world (425 species in 283,560 km2). In the last decade, conservative estimates indicate that at least 26 species of Ecuadorian amphibians have declined or gone extinct. The reasons for this crisis are not clear but have been related to habitat destruction, climate change, and/or diseases, such as chytridiomycosis. The Río Palenque Science Center (RPSC) was among the last remnants of tropical rainforest in the western lowlands of Ecuador. Twenty years ago, investigations done by R. McDiarmid, Ken Miyata and others lead to the discovery of an amazing herpetofauna, including several undescribed species. However, the expansion of the agricultural frontier and transformation of the forest remnants into oil palm and banana plantations destroyed this site. Among the species identified from RPSC were five species of glass frogs (family Centrolenidae): Centrolene prosoblepon, Cochranella spinosa, Hyalinobatrachium fleischmanni, Hyalinobatrachium sp. (cf. valerioi), and an undescribed species of the genus Centrolene. This research analyzed the morphological characters and natural history of the five glass frogs of RPSC in order to describe the new species of Centrolene from RPSC, which seems to be critically endangered, if not extinct. The new species is characterized by a combination of the following characters: 1) distinctive coloration in life with dark flecks and yellow dorsolateral stripes on a green dorsum; 2) parietal peritoneum white, covering about ½ of the venter, pericardium white, liver and stomach without guanophores, large intestine with guanophores; 3) presence of exposed prepollical spines; 4) humeral spines in males; 5) unique glandular nuptial pad between fingers I and II; and 5) reddish iris.

Extended diagnosis of the type species of Pseudogonatodes Ruthven 1915 (Gekkota: Sphaerodactylidae)

Zootaxa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4915 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-59
Author(s):  
ANDRÉS CAMILO MONTES-CORREA ◽  
LILIANA P. SABOYÁ-ACOSTA ◽  
JUAN DAVID JIMÉNEZ-BOLAÑO ◽  
TEDDY ANGARITA-SIERRA ◽  
VLADIMIR BRICEÑO-PÉREZ ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Type Species ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
Morphological Characters ◽  
External Morphology ◽  
Caribbean Region ◽  
New Information ◽  
New Localities ◽  
Taxonomic Studies

Pseudogonatodes furvus is an endemic gecko from the region of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, an isolated massif located in the continental Caribbean region of Colombia. Pseudogonatodes furvus is the type species of the genus, and its morphology and natural history remain poorly known. This lizard was described based on two specimens. After its description, the species has only been mentioned in a handful of taxonomic studies of Pseudogonatodes, in which a few morphological characters of P. furvus have been mentioned. One other paper reported two new localities, without providing new information on the external morphology, especially the lepidosis of the newly obtained specimens. Here we review the external morphology of P. furvus, based on examination of the holotype and six additional specimens. We provide an extended diagnosis and definition, description of holotype, variation, comparisons with other Pseudogonatodes, geographic distribution (adding a fourth locality to the known distribution for the species), and conservation status. Additionally, we describe osteological features for the diagnosis of the genus. 

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