Flesh flies (Diptera: Sarcophagidae) of Kalamaili Mountain Ungulate Nature Reserve (China: Xinjiang): checklist and description of four new species

A checklist of the flesh flies occurring in Kalamaili Mountain Ungulate Nature Reserve, Xinjiang, NW China, is presented, based on material collected from 2009 to 2017. The checklist includes 18 genera and 46 species, 12 of which are new records for China. Four new species are described: Asiosarcophila kashanensis sp. nov., Miltogramma szpilai sp. nov., Sphecapatodes superciliosa sp. nov., and Sphecapatodes xinjiangensis sp. nov. Extensive documentation of the male and female habitus, details of the head, and the specialised setae of the male fore tarsus is given for all species where relevant, except for those already well illustrated in other publications. The male terminalia of almost all species of Paramacronychiinae and Sarcophaginae recorded from Kalamaili are illustrated with focus-stacked photographs.

Near Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy Analysis to Predict Diet Composition of a Mountain Ungulate Species

The diet composition of ungulates is important to understand not only their impact on vegetation, but also to understand the consequences of natural and human-driven environmental changes on the foraging behavior of these mammals. In this work, we evaluated the use of near infrared reflectance spectroscopy analysis (NIRS), a quick, economic and non-destructive method, to assess the diet composition of the Pyrenean chamois Rupicapra pyrenaica pyrenaica. Fecal samples (n = 192) were collected from two chamois populations in the French and Spanish Pyrenees. Diet composition was initially assessed by fecal cuticle microhistological analysis (CMA) and categorized into four functional groups, namely: woody, herbaceous, graminoid and Fabaceae plants. Regressions of modified partial least squares and several combinations of scattering correction and derivative treatments were tested. The results showed that models based on the second derivative processing obtained the higher determination coefficient for woody, herbaceous and graminoid plants (R2CAL, coefficient of determination in calibration, ranged from 0.86 to 0.91). The Fabaceae group, however, was predicted with lower accuracy (R2CAL = 0.71). Even though an agreement between NIRS and CMA methods was confirmed by a Bland–Altman analysis, confidence limits of agreement differed by up to 25%. Our results support the viability of fecal NIRS analysis to study spatial and temporal variations of the Pyrenean chamois’ diets in summer and winter when differences in the consumption of woody and annual plants are the greatest. This new use for the NIRS technique would be useful to assess the consequences of global change on the feeding behavior of this mountain ungulate and also in other ungulate counterparts.

Understanding population baselines: status of mountain ungulate populations in the Central Tien Shan Mountains, Kyrgyzstan

We assessed the density of argali (Ovis ammon) and ibex (Capra sibirica) in Sarychat-Ertash Nature Reserve and its neighbouring Koiluu valley. Sarychat is a protected area, while Koiluu is a human-use landscape which is a partly licenced hunting concession for mountain ungulates and has several livestock herders and their permanent residential structures. Population monitoring of mountain ungulates can help in setting measurable conservation targets such as appropriate trophy hunting quotas and to assess habitat suitability for predators like snow leopards (Panthera uncia). We employed the double-observer method to survey 573 km2 of mountain ungulate habitat inside Sarychat and 407 km2 inside Koiluu. The estimated densities of ibex and argali in Sarychat were 2.26 (95% CI 1.47–3.52) individuals km−2 and 1.54 (95% CI 1.01–2.20) individuals km−2, respectively. Total ungulate density in Sarychat was 3.80 (95% CI 2.47–5.72) individuals km−2. We did not record argali in Koiluu, whereas the density of ibex was 0.75 (95% CI 0.50–1.27) individuals km−2. While strictly protected areas can achieve high densities of mountain ungulates, multi-use areas can harbour meaningful though suppressed populations. Conservation of mountain ungulates and their predators can be enhanced by maintaining Sarychat-like “pristine” areas interspersed within a matrix of multi-use areas like Koiluu.