The value of transhumance for biodiversity conservation: Vulture foraging in relation to livestock movements

In recent decades, intensive techniques of livestock raising have flourished, which has largely replaced traditional farming practices such as transhumance. These changes may have affected scavengers’ behaviour and ecology, as extensive livestock is a key source of carrion. This study evaluates the spatial responses of avian scavengers to the seasonal movements of transhumant herds in south-eastern Spain. We surveyed the abundance of avian scavengers and ungulates, and analysed the factors affecting the space use by 30 GPS-tracked griffon vultures (Gyps fulvus). Griffons’ foraging activity increased in the pasturelands occupied by transhumant herds, which implied greater vulture abundance at the landscape level during the livestock season. In contrast, facultative scavengers were more abundant without transhumant livestock herds, and the abundance of wild ungulates did not change in relation to livestock presence. We conclude that fostering transhumance and other traditional farming systems, to the detriment of farming intensification, could favour vulture conservation.

Hoverflies use a time-compensated sun compass to orientate during autumn migration

The sun is the most reliable celestial cue for orientation available to daytime migrants. It is widely assumed that diurnal migratory insects use a ‘time-compensated sun compass’ to adjust for the changing position of the sun throughout the day, as demonstrated in some butterfly species. The mechanisms used by other groups of diurnal insect migrants remain to be elucidated. Migratory species of hoverflies (Diptera: Syrphidae) are one of the most abundant and beneficial groups of diurnal migrants, providing multiple ecosystem services and undergoing directed seasonal movements throughout much of the temperate zone. To identify the hoverfly navigational strategy, a flight simulator was used to measure orientation responses of the hoverflies Scaeva pyrastri and Scaeva selenitica to celestial cues during their autumn migration. Hoverflies oriented southwards when they could see the sun and shifted this orientation westward following a 6 h advance of their circadian clocks. Our results demonstrate the use of a time-compensated sun compass as the primary navigational mechanism, consistent with field observations that hoverfly migration occurs predominately under clear and sunny conditions.

Morphology of migration: Associations between wing shape, bill morphology, and migration in kingbirds (Tyrannus)

Morphology is closely linked to locomotion and diet in animals. In animals that undertake long-distance migrations, limb-morphology is under selection to maximize mobility and minimize energy expenditure. Migratory behaviors also interact with diet, such that migratory animals tend to be dietary generalists, while sedentary taxa tend to be dietary specialists. Despite a hypothesized link between migration status and morphology, phylogenetic comparative studies have yielded conflicting findings. In this study, we tested for evolutionary associations between migratory status and limb and bill morphology across kingbirds, a pan-American genus of birds with migratory, partially migratory, and sedentary taxa. We found that migratory kingbirds had longer and more pointed wings, in agreement with expectations if selection favors improved aerodynamics for long-distance migration. We also found an association between migratory status and bill shape, such that more migratory taxa had wider and deeper bills and sedentary taxa had longer bills. However, there was no difference in levels of intraspecific morphological variation among migrants, partial migrants, and residents, suggesting that dietary specialization has evolved independently of migration strategy. Evolutionary links between migration, diet, and morphology in kingbirds further strengthen ecomorphological associations that underlie long-distance seasonal movements in animals.

Power

By introducing the idea of economies of violence, this chapter explains the connection of seasonal movements from the dry zone of mercenaries, horse traders, and nomadic pastoralists and their herds to the production and exercise of hard power in monsoon south Asia. Zooming in, it then examines the rise of the Durrani Empire in the northwest borderlands of the Mughal Empire in the eighteenth century. It shows how this process of expansion—alongside the expansion of the Qing and Romanov empires deeper into Eurasia around the same time—brought into this space more of the liquid wealth derived from the increasingly globalised economy which was emerging along the continental seaboards. This wealth was used to bolster a different form of power: that deriving from the management of the state’s material resources (the land and its productivity, not least) and the expansion of the state’s fiscal base.

Seasonal movements of brown bears in the Middle Sikhote-Alin

Бурый медведь (Ursus arctos) на территории Дальнего Востока играет важную роль в экосистемах и имеет большое практическое значение для человека, являясь ценным объектом охоты. Важной экологической характеристикой популяции является использование пространства, включая сезонные перемещения особей. Оценивали сезонные перемещения 12 взрослых самцов, семи взрослых самок, одного молодого самца и одной молодой самки бурых медведей на Среднем Сихотэ-Алине в 1993–2011 гг. с помощью радио- и GPS-телеметрии. Для описания сезонных перемещений использовали линейную дистанцию между двумя локациями или сумму линейных смещений между последовательными локациями особей. Животных с целью мечения отлавливали лапозахватывающими ловушками Олдрича на лесных тропах и с использованием приманки; обездвиживали при помощи дистанционного инъектора с использованием анестезирующих препаратов. Значительные линейные смещения медведей наблюдали во все сезоны внеберложного периода, наибольшие из них достигали 111.5 км. Сезонные перемещения самцов были более выраженными по сравнению с таковыми самок. В постберложный период медведи совершали переходы от берлог к весенним кормовым стациям. В летний период переходы были связаны с пищевым и репродуктивным поведением. Осенью в период нажировки медведи активно перемещались в поисках нажировочных кормов – орехов сосны корейской (Pinus koraiensis) и желудей дуба монгольского (Quercus mongolica). В предберложный период медведи совершали переходы в места залегания в берлоги. Исследования, выполненные с помощью телеметрии, расширили знания экологии бурого медведя на Сихотэ-Алине, которые важны для научно обоснованного управления его популяцией. On the territory of the Far East, the brown bear (Ursus arctos) plays an important role in the ecosystems and, being valuable hunting species, has a great practical value for humans. The space use including the seasonal movements of specimens is an important ecological characteristic of population. The seasonal movements of 12 adult males, seven adult females, one young male and one young female of brown bears were evaluated in the Middle Sikhote-Alin in 1993–2011 with the use of radio- and GPS-telemetry. For description of seasonal movements, the linear distance between two locations or sum of linear displacements between the successive locations of specimens were used. With the purpose of marking, the animals were caught by the Aldrich foot snares on the forest trails and with the use of baits, immobilized using the remote injector and anesthetics. Significant linear movements of bears were observed in all seasons of the non-denning period and the largest of them reached 111.5 km. Seasonal movements of males were more pronounced than those of females. In the post-denning period, bears made passages from dens to spring feeding stations. In the summer season, the movements were related to feeding and reproductive behavior. In autumn, during the hyperphagia, the bears moved actively in search of fattening feed: Korean pine nuts (Pinus koraiensis) and Mongolian oak acorns (Quercus mongolica). In the pre-denning period, bears made passages to den places. The telemetry studies have broadened the knowledge of the brown bear ecology in the Sikhote-Alin, which is important to scientifically grounded management of its population.

Seasonal pattern of domestic cattle slaughtering in the Late Bronze Age Tanalyk settlement (Southern Ural)

The settlement of Tanalyk (Bashkortostan) is the most fully studied household object of the Late Bronze Age in the territory of Southern Ural. The pottery assemblage allows attributing it to the Srubnaya — Alakul type. The majority of bone remains in this site belong to domestic animals, and the number of wild species remains is ex-tremely small. There is no evidence of farming in the Late Bronze Age. Thus, the subsistence of the Tanalyk population was based on livestock production. As such, the time of livestock slaughtering can be indicative of people’s presence in the site. The purpose of the present research was to determine the type of the Late Bronze Age Tanalyk settlement as permanent or seasonal. The slaughtering season and the age of cattle (46 individu-als), sheep/goats (33 individuals) and horses (24 individuals) have been determined. Both determinations were based on the analysis of growth layers in animal teeth (cement and dentine). In archaeozoology, there is a tradi-tional method of estimation of animal age-at-death based on the state of their dental system. Data obtained by these two methods have been inter-compared. It has been established that domestic animals were slaughtered entire year round, with no seasonal preference for various species. Only for sheep/goats, slaughtering season was related to their age. In warm seasons, young animals were slaughtered three times more often than in cold time of the year. Cattle, sheep/goat and horses were slaughtered mainly in cold seasons, in smaller numbers in summer, and only in minimal quantities in spring. The practice of year-round slaughtering of animals shows, that at least part of the community lived in the settlement permanently and did not make seasonal movements. Com-parison of the age structures obtained from the study of tooth growth layers and the condition of the dental system showed their strong structures similarity, which is very important methodologically. This allows a reliable use of the age structure based on the condition of dental system to interpret the patterns of economic exploitation of domestic ungulates.

RETRACTED: Potential effects of elevated temperature on seasonal movements in slipper lobsters, Scyllarides latus (Latreille, 1803), in the eastern Mediterranean

Retraction of: Mediterranean Marine Science http://dx.doi.org/10.12681/mms.22074, published online 13 July 2020Editor note: The authors are retracting this article.In the article, Potential effects of elevated temperature on seasonal movements in slipper lobsters, Scyllarides latus (Latreille, 1803), in the eastern Mediterranean (Vol. 21, 2020, https://doi.org/10.12681/mms.22074), authors J. Goldstein and E. Spanier have made an honest error in the inaccurate interpretation of their special scientific permit that afforded them the opportunity to collect wild-caught animals in the field and release them in their study area, in the marine reserve where this work was conducted. More specifically, the study component that refers to the ‘field tagging study’, was carried out without the full scope of permitting guidance unbeknownst to the authors. Dr. R. Yahel and E. Miller, Marine Ecologists of the Israeli National Park Authority (INPA), have pointed this out and have since requested that the article be removed given that the application of the special use permit was misinterpreted and not exercised in an appropriate manner. The authors were also not able to forward the INPA with the field’s raw data that have been lost since this field study was carried out over eight years ago. The authors were not aware of this discrepancy at the time the field study was carried out, but they have agreed to remove the article out of respect and admiration of the INPA and the continued protection and conservation of the Mediterranean slipper lobster in coastal Israeli waters. However, this action of retraction does not change the overall outcome of the paper’s finding including the study design, analyses, scientific integrity, or overall conclusions. The authors will plan on publishing the laboratory-based portion of this study as a stand-alone manuscript at a future date.