Geese and swans are focal species in conservation and in management aimed at reducing crop damage. In the former disturbance should be minimized, and in the latter it is important to know how different species react to scaring activities. Previous research about trade-offs between predation risk and foraging in birds often use ‘Flight Initiation Distance’ (FID) as a proxy to compare fearfulness under different circumstances and among species. We studied variation in FID in geese and swans by species, flock size and composition, time of day, and body size (408 scaring trials on agricultural land in the winters 2018—2021). In single-species flocks mean FID decreased in the order: bean goose (171 m) > greylag goose (104 m) > whooper swan (102 m) > Canada goose (92 m) > barnacle goose (77 m). In line with predictions based on body mass, the lightest species (barnacle goose) was the least fearful, but contrary to prediction neither of the two heaviest species (whooper swan, Canada goose) was the most fearful. FID was negatively correlated with flock size in bean goose. Flock size and FID did not correlate in greylag, Canada, and barnacle geese. FID did not differ between morning and afternoon in the 4 species with a sample of >20 single-species trials. When in multi-species flocks, FID differed less among species, converging in the 108—138 m range. Accordingly, bean goose FID decreased significantly whereas it increased significantly in barnacle and greylag geese. Barnacle goose (protected from hunting by the EU bird directive) was less fearful than species with an open hunting season in the EU, implying that exposure to hunting affect species-specific FID. We show that the level of fearfulness varied among swan and goose species, making it necessary to adopt diverse strategies in conservation as well as crop protection.

Wildlife biology is an applied discipline, where research results are to varying degree incorporated to accepted knowledge However, several factors appear to increase the divide between research results, and knowledge and implementation. First, there is an exponential increase in number of published papers, in part driven by misguided reliance on publication record for assessing scientific competence. The shear number of publications risk diluting knowledge through salami-slicing or simply making it difficult to find relevant publications. This development could be problematic for the future of wildlife biology, and it has made complex statistical analysis of already available data more profitable than the ability to generate new data in robust field studies. Research results are conceptually different from knowledge and need to be evaluated in a post-publication process to become knowledge. Secondly, the formulation of research questions has become restricted by the way research is organised and funded. A shift from a focus on individual performance to research groups could encourage the development of more complex research questions that are better suited to advance the knowledge of wildlife biology. Funding agencies and research institutions need to think beyond current norm of a three year funding package. Thirdly, defining knowledge as the result of a post-publishing evaluating of research publications would facilitate knowledge transfer between researchers and practitioners. It is well established that a two-way transfer of knowledge and experience is beneficial to both researchers and practitioners but the low return on academic recognition for such efforts is currently simply too low, which positively discourages researchers from dividing limited resources into such activities. Only academic institutions and funding agencies together can make the significant changes needed as have begun in other disciplines. However, researchers also need to embrace existing and emerging initiatives such as Open Sceince, FAIRdata, CREDIT authorship to accelerate change.

Though agriculture has been linked to the decline in bird populations due to the associated changes in vegetation structure and composition, its potential to sustain birds has been explored over time. A sustainable agricultural landscape should be one that has the capacity to support bird species all year. To this end, we investigated the factors influencing pre- and post-harvest farm conditions on bird abundance, richness, and feeding guilds in three different crop fields in Jos-East and North, central Nigeria. We used line transects to survey birds and vegetation variables from 30 fields each of legumes, maize, and mixed (maize and soya bean) during the pre- and post-harvest periods in central Nigeria. We first compared the variation in bird species richness, abundance, and feeding guild abundance across the three field types over the two periods. We then modeled the effects of field conditions and vegetation parameters on feeding guild abundance, species abundance, and species richness as response variables. Our results revealed significant variations in bird species richness, abundance, and feeding guild abundance across field types. The omnivorous guild was significantly higher pre-harvest than post-harvest whereas insectivorous and granivorous were significantly higher in-field than at the edge. Bird species richness, abundance, and feeding guild abundance were significantly higher pre-harvest than post-harvest and in-field than at the edge. In addition, in-field tree density had a significant positive influence on bird abundance and species richness as well as feeding guild abundance. This study shows that pre- and post-harvest conditions of crop fields can moderate the number and richness of birds on farmlands while the retention of trees on farmlands contributes to higher bird assemblages.

Capercaillie in Scotland have declined in number and contracted in range since the 1970s, most remaining in Strathspey on the northwest flank of the Cairngorm mountains. Strathspey, however, is popular for recreation and suffers anthropogenic disturbance from visitors and their use of new forest tracks and remote, off-track areas. Disturbance reduces the area of forest available to Capercaillie. Refuge areas wherein the creation of new tracks is not allowed, and in which recreation is not encouraged, are a management option that might mitigate such effects. We simulate this possibility for the area covered by Forest and Land Scotland’s Strathspey Land Management Plan. Spatially explicit, stage-based matrix models assessed the potential of protecting this population with refuges under ‘optimistic’, ‘central’ and ‘pessimistic’ scenarios based on observed demographic data. Fifteen potential refuges comprised less-disturbed areas of forest still used by Capercaillie. We simulated population growth using combinations of 1, 3, 5, 7, 10, 12 and the full complement of 15 refuge areas. An increasing Capercaillie population could be sustained by a network of refuges, but refuges could not arrest a wider population decline due to causes other than disturbance. This suggests that refuges could play a role in mitigating the increasingly damaging effects of disturbance on Capercaillie in the Strathspey LMP but that the birds’ long-term prospects will depend upon improving their performance more widely.

Wolves and other wildlife species that share habitats with humans with minor options for spatial avoidance must either tolerate frequent human encounters, which may be lethal, or allocate their activity to those periods of the day when the risk of encountering humans is smallest and the consequences least severe. This may force wolves in densely human-populated and cultivated landscapes to either become highly nocturnally active or habituate to human stimuli. Based on 6,220 camera trap images of adult wolves from eight territories in Denmark, we analyzed the extent to which diel activity patterns in a wolf population in a highly cultivated landscape with fragmented forests and extensive public access could be explained from diel variation in darkness, human activity, and prey (deer) activity. We found that diel activity correlated with all three factors simultaneously with human activity (negative) having the strongest total as well as partial effect, followed by darkness (positive) and deer activity (positive). Relative to a model that smoothed activity as a function of time of the day, the three factors accounted for 94% of the explainable diel variation in wolf activity. As most of the apparent selection for darkness could be explained by temporal human avoidance, we suggest that nocturnality (proportion of observations registered at night vs. day at equinox) is a useful proxy for investment in temporal human avoidance. In this study, wolf packs were 7.0 (95% CI: 5.0-9.7) times more active at night than at daytime, which makes Danish wolves amongst the most nocturnally active wolves reported so far. This result confirms the initial prediction that wolves with few options for spatial avoidance, invest heavily in temporal human avoidance.

Decades of persecution resulted in the long-term absence of Grey wolves (Canis lupus) from most European countries. However, recent changes in both legislation and public attitudes toward wolves have eased the pressure and, over the last 20 years, wolves have begun rapidly re-establishing territories in their previous Central European habitats. Unfortunately, those habitats are now heavily altered by humans. Understanding the spatial ecology of wolves in such highly modified environments is crucial, given the high potential for conflict and the need to reconcile their return with multiple human concerns. We equipped twelve wolves (from eight packs) in five Central European areas with GPS collars and calculated their monthly home ranges using Autocorrelated Kernel Density Estimation. In addition, we used ESA WorldCover data to assess the mosaic of available habitats within each home range. Home range size for most wolves (84.6%) ranged from 56.4 to 259.7 km2. Our data confirmed the general seasonal pattern for breeding individuals, with smaller apparent home ranges during the reproduction phase and non-breeders showing no specific pattern. Somewhat predictably, our wolves showed a general preference for remote areas, and especially forests. Some animals within military training areas also showed a broader preference for grasslands, which could be influenced by the specific land use of this habitat type and the high availability of prey. Our results provide a comprehensive insight into the ecology of wolves during their re-colonisation of Central Europe. Though wolves are spreading relatively rapidly across Central European landscapes, their permanent reoccupation remains uncertain due to conflicting concerns with the human population. To secure the restoration of European wolf populations, further robust biological data, including data on spatial ecology, will be needed to clearly identify the management implications.

Predators can affect ecosystems through non-consumptive effects on their prey, which can lead to cascading effects on the vegetation. In mammalian communities, such cascading effects on whole ecosystems have mainly been demonstrated in protected areas, but the extent to which such effects may occur in more human-dominated landscapes remains disputable. With the recolonisation of wolves (Canis lupus) in Europe, understanding the potential for such cascading processes becomes crucial for understanding the ecological consequences of wolf recovery and making appropriate management recommendations. Here, we investigate the evidence for non-consumptive effects of wolves on their wild ungulate prey and cascading effects on the vegetation in European landscapes. We reviewed empirical studies reporting wild ungulate responses to wolves involving spatio-temporal behaviour at large and fine spatial scales, activity patterns, vigilance, grouping, physiological effects, and effects on the vegetation. We reveal that non-consumptive effects of wolves in Europe have been studied in few regions and with focus on regions with low human impact and are highly context-dependent and might often be overruled by human-related factors. Further, we highlight the need for a description of human influence in NCE studies. We discuss challenges in NCE research and the potential for advances in future research on NCE of wolves in a human dominated landscape. Further, we emphasise the need for wildlife management to restore ecosystem complexity and processes, to allow non-consumptive predator effects to occur.

The loss of wildlife species due to habitat deterioration and pollution represents the major threats to biodiversity conservation. This is compounded by the rapid development of infrastructure i.e., the expansion of roads, railways, harbours; construction of industries, human settlements and agricultural infrastructure. A few studies have explored the significant effects of emerging infrastructure development on wildlife species and habitats particularly in developing countries like Tanzania. We reviewed 58 research articles and reports, to highlight the significant impacts of emerging infrastructure on both aquatic and terrestrial species and habitats in Tanzania. We show that despite the role it plays to the development, the infrastructure contributes significantly to the loss of wildlife species. For instance, avoidance, habitat loss, edge effects incursion, population, isolation, road mortality, and increased human access are among the effects of highway across the Serengeti, Mikumi, and Katavi National parks in Tanzania. Effect of on health of aquatic species, pollution and loss of habitat have been pointed out as impacts due to construction of hotels and industries upstream and along the coasts, expansion of harbours and agricultural activities. Environment effects i.e., reduction of forest, ecosystem services, and riverine habitat, loss of species are anticipated due to the construction of Stiegler’s Gorge Hydroelectric Dam, across the Rufiji River in eastern Tanzania. Though infrastructure development undoubtedly offers opportunities to boost economic growth and reduce poverty in developing nations, it should be planned to have the least possible negative effects on biodiversity. Well–planned infrastructure development could lessen human pressure on wildlife species and habitats. This paper would be useful to policymakers and politicians in developing nations to avoid implementing infrastructure in biodiversity–rich or protected areas as their decision may jeopardize the integrity of wildlife species and future generations.

Wildlife populations can be unmarked, meaning individuals lack visually distinguishing features for identification; populations may also exhibit non-independent movements, meaning individuals move together. For either unmarked or non-independent individuals, models based on spatial capture-recapture (SCR) approaches estimate abundance, density, and other population parameters critical for monitoring, management, and conservation. However, when individuals are both unmarked and non-independent, few model options exist. One approach has been to apply unmarked models and not address the non-independence despite unquantified impacts of overdispersion on bias, precision, and the ability to make robust ecological inferences. We conducted a simulation study to quantify the impact of non-independence on the performance of spatial count (SC) and spatial partial identity models (SPIM), two SCR-based unmarked modeling approaches, and used the performance of fully marked and independent SCR as a reference. We varied the levels of non-independence (aggregation and cohesion), detection probability, and the number of partial identity covariates used to resolve identities in SPIM estimation. We expected estimates of abundance and sigma (the spatial scale of individual movement) to be increasingly biased and less precise as aggregation and cohesion increased. Results showed that models indeed became less robust to increasing non-independence, especially for abundance, but importantly suggested that only SPIM could be reliably applied under low levels of cohesion when sufficient partial identity covariates are available. SC yielded consistently biased estimates with inflated precision that could not be corrected to nominal levels of coverage. SCR was the most robust across all combinations of aggregation and cohesion, as expected. We therefore advise against the use of SC models for estimating population parameters when individuals are known to be non-independent, caution that SPIM may be used under narrow ecological conditions, and encourage continued investigations into sampling design and methods development for populations of unmarked and non-independent individuals.

The human population is growing rapidly, increasing pressure on natural habitats. Suitable habitats for resident and migratory waterbirds are, therefore, more threatened. This study analyses how the presence of anthropogenic land cover (urban area and cropland) on multiple spatial scales affects the community composition of waterbirds along the Nile in Egypt. We analysed data collected during the international waterbird census, 2017-2018, combined with data from satellite images on land cover at a multi-spatial scale. The census covered 970 km, compromising 194 shoreline transects of 5 km along the River Nile, Egypt. The area includes a broad gradient of human disturbance, making this dataset ideal for assessing effects of anthropogenic land cover on waterbird community composition. We tested whether the waterbird community indices and guild composition were associated with urban area and cropland, and other land covers (e.g., grassland, wetland) at spatial scales of 100, 500, 1,000 and 5,000 m. We recorded over 96,000 waterbirds and show that landscape characteristics at larger spatial scales (5,000 m) explained more of the species and guilds’ presence than smaller scales. Species richness increased with increasing water surface area of the river within the transect and decreased with increasing urban area and cropland. Waders were negatively associated with urban area. Overall, the guilds’ composition was poorly predicted by anthropogenic land cover and other landscape compositions, probably because species within a guild do not react similarly to increasing human disturbance. The probability of observing red-listed species decreased with increasing urban area. With this study, we expand on the existing evidence by showing that species richness negatively correlates with anthropogenic pressure, and we highlight the importance of studying the responses of species rather than guilds. Our study shows the relevance of considering the landscape at larger scales while planning for conservation measures, especially in such human-dominated landscapes.

Reptiles and amphibians have been recognised as being some of the world’s most at-risk species from the impacts of human development. In particular, roads have been identified as having a significant impact on herpetofauna due to roadkill and fragmentation. Despite road mortality affecting herpetofauna greater than other species, the topic of wildlife vehicle collision (WVC) studies, which influence mitigation, is biased towards larger species due to higher human costs from WVCs. In addition to mitigation research, government funding for species protection and recovery has also been found to be highly disproportionate among species groups. This bias has resulted in a lack of research on effectiveness and clear and consistent guidance on mitigation for smaller animals such as reptiles and amphibians. Wildlife fencing is one method of mitigation that has proven to help reduce WVCs and can help maintain connectivity when combined with wildlife crossings. There have been more studies in recent years that have focused on herpetofauna mitigation and these have helped inform best practice guidance. In this article we review current freely available best practice guidance for fencing designed to manage conflict of herpetofauna around transport networks from across the world. We have summarised findings that compare and highlight key factors that include the following: Material type, Fence height, and Fence features. Combining factors from existing guidance, recent research and our practical observations on mitigation projects, we provide a summary of recommendations along with diagrams and descriptions that reflect the analysed guidance. We also identify and highlight any areas that may need further research and investigation to help build upon the status quo and enable us to better utilise fencing as a conflict management tool for herpetofauna.

Wild vertebrates usually avoid ground disturbed by humans but consequences for their distribution and density are uncertain. The local distribution of capercaillie shifted after an increase in disturbance along woodland tracks adjacent to an expanding Scottish village. We surveyed the birds’ droppings before and after the building of 30 new houses, and model the probability of finding droppings (Pf) in relation to period plus two disturbance gradients – distance to a much disturbed ‘entry zone’ by the village (dE) and ‘distance to nearest track’ (dT). Estimates of Pf are benchmarked to average Pf (Pfav) – a notional scenario in which the birds’ distribution is unaffected by tracks. Change between periods occurred mainly on a strip of ground centred on tracks and averaging 80 m wide, where Pf fell from about 0.5 Pfav before the development to 0.2 Pfav after it. By contrast, Pf on ground 120–260 m from tracks, under a third of the 273 ha main study area, remained at about 3 Pfav throughout the study – indicating a net influx of capercaillie displaced from ground beside tracks in both periods. No capercaillie droppings were found in the entry zone. Beyond this zone, throughout the study, Pf increased as tracks sparsened until dE approached 400 m – whereupon track density and Pf steadied together. Beyond 400 m, Pf remained depressed on ground near tracks (dT ⪅ 100 m). New desire paths after the development caused the proportion of ground where dT < 100 m to increase slightly, from 56% to 60%. Birds on roughly half of a 50 ha refuge should be undisturbed by direct effects of track-based activities – but, if increases in density caused by displaced birds are also deemed disturbance, a refuge would need to be over 3 km2 to keep half of it undisturbed.

A document by Claudia Schmied. Click on the document to view its contents.