Biogeographical variation on craniomandibular morphology in pallas’s squirrel \(\textit{Callosciurus erythraeus}\) (Pallas, 1779) (Rodentia: Sciuridae) in Vietnam

Different forest vegetations provide herbivorous small mammals with different resources, forcing adaptation since food habits depend on available resources. We expect differences in vegetation to be reflected in the size and shape of the skull and mandible as a result of potentially different feeding resources. Therefore, we analyzed the craniomandibular characteristics of Pallas’s squirrel (Callosciurus erythraeus) in Vietnam. This species commonly occurs in different vegetations in Vietnam, making it a good model for examining morphological adaptation to vegetation type. We analyzed morphologically the skulls and mandibles of 156 specimens collected from 31 localities in Vietnam from 1960 to the present. Principal component analysis showed that females occurring in the tropical lowland evergreen rain forest were clearly separated from those in other vegetations.

Street-level green spaces support a key urban population of the threatened Hispaniolan parakeet Psittacara chloropterus

While urbanisation remains a major threat to biodiversity, urban areas can sometimes play an important role in protecting threatened species, especially exploited taxa such as parrots. The Hispaniolan Parakeet Psittacara chloropterus has been extirpated across much of Hispaniola, including from most protected areas, yet Santo Domingo (capital city of the Dominican Republic) has recently been found to support the island’s densest remaining population. In 2019, we used repeated transects and point-counts across 60 1 km2 squares of Santo Domingo to examine the distribution of parakeets, identify factors that might drive local presence and abundance, and investigate breeding ecology. Occupancy models indicate that parakeet presence was positively related to tree species richness across the city. N-Mixture models show parakeet encounter rates were correlated positively with species richness of trees and number of discrete ‘green’ patches (> 100 m2) within the survey squares. Hispaniolan Woodpecker Melanerpes striatus, the main tree-cavity-producing species on Hispaniola, occurs throughout the city, but few parakeet nests are known to involve the secondary use of its or other cavities in trees/palms. Most parakeet breeding (perhaps 50–100 pairs) appears to occur at two colonies in old buildings, and possibly only a small proportion of the city’s 1500+ parakeets that occupy a single roost in street trees breed in any year. Our models emphasise the importance of parks and gardens in providing feeding resources for this IUCN Vulnerable species. Hispaniola’s urban centres may be strongholds for populations of parakeets and may even represent sources for birds to recolonise formerly occupied areas on the island.

The efficiency increasing problems of water biological resources using at the regional level

The fishing structure and amount of vertebrate and invertebrate biological resources are estimated for small limnoecosystems in the forest-steppe zone of the Western Siberia south-west part. The predominance of fish farming based on the maximum use of the natural abiotic and biotic (feeding) resources of the ecosystems, mainly with annual growth of fishes, is noted. Negative abiotic, anthropogenic and socio-economic factors hindering the efficient use of aquatic biological resources are considered. On the Kurgan region territory dominate the small lakes without flow out which has small area (1.0–1.5 km2 ) and depth (up to 3–4 m) with sloping shores, which overgrowing of Phragmites australis. Most lakes are mesotrophic with average biomass of phytoplankton, zooplankton and zoobenthos, as well as the concentration of biogenic matter, or eutrophic. On the Kurgan region territory are in total 7102 lakes of different genesis and size, which area is more than 0.001 km² according to the decoding results of satellite images performed at the Institute of Lake Science of the Russian Academy of Sciences 2010–2013 years (“Lakes of Russia” Information System). For 2019, in the Kurgan region, 3,857.5 tons of aquatic biological resources were obtained as a result of fishing. 99.3% of the total amount of products is accounted for by lake nature use. Fishing increased by 1.3 times compared to 2018. In 2019, 2087 tons of fish of both indigenous and introduced fish species were caught, which amounted to only 45% of the recommended quotes at the region’s lakes. The main part is accounted for by such aboriginal species as crucian (Carassius gibelio, 895.5 tons per year), and peled (Coregonus peled, 1999.4 tons per year). In addition to fish resources, the region lakes are sources of non-fish aquatic biological resources — invertebrate limnobionts. The main species are Gammarus lacustris (Amphipoda) and Artemia salina parthenogenetica (Branchiopoda).

Vultures and Livestock: The Where, When, and Why of Visits to Farms

Recent changes in European legislation have legalized the abandonment of carcasses around livestock farms, but our understanding of how vultures exploit these semi-predictable food sources is still very limited. For filling this gap, we determine the individual and ecological drivers influencing vulture visits to farms. We assessed the effects of individual characteristics of both birds and farms on the frequency of vultures’ visits to livestock facilities using data collected from 45 GPS-tagged Egyptian Vultures (Neophron percnopterus) and 318 farms (>94% of livestock) on Fuerteventura Island, Spain. Farms were more visited during the vultures’ breeding season. Farms located closer to highly predictable feeding places (i.e., vulture restaurants and garbage dumps) or with more available feeding resources were visited by more vultures, whereas those located close to roads and vultures’ breeding territories received fewer visits. Younger territorial birds visited a farm more frequently than older territorial ones, whereas older non-territorial individuals concentrated those visits on farms closer to their activity core areas compared with younger ones. Our findings indicate that visits to farms were determined by their spatial distribution in relation to the age-specific birds’ activity centers, the availability of carcasses, seasonality, and individual characteristics of vultures. These interacting factors should be considered in vulture conservation, avoiding very general solutions that ignore population structure.

Investigating Quaternary Glacial Relics in Binalod Heights and Their Effects on Site Selection and Development of Mashhad City

Accordingly, the present study is aimed at investigating quaternary climate changes in Binalod Heights. To identify glacial effects, Morphic indices, field evidence and effects, climatic evidence, and (laboratory) experimental analysis were employed. Determining the permanent snow line in the region was conducted using the Right Method and 65 cirques which are considered as much enriched feeding resources for the formation an ice cover in the region. The expansion of settlements in the region are lower than the permanent snow life is more accumulated than above the border of the permanent snow line. This issue indicates that refrigeration cells do not have the ability to create civil nuclear. Regarding quaternary climate changes and the gradual warming of the climate, the initial core of the City of Mashhad ranges from the center of the Kashf rood River to northeastern heights of Binalod. In addition, the existence of glacial cirques in heights as an important factor in feeding refrigerating conditions has been effective on the expansion of urbanization of Mashhad in the past time. Our new geomorphological mapping and landsystem reconstructions provide an important insight into the response of temperate Binalod glaciers to rapidly-warming climate