Subscriptions to CMR workshop open!

Subscription to the upcoming workshop now open.

 

INTRODUCTORY COURSE: 25 - 29 Nov. 2024, Mallorca, Spain  

 (places: 20, price 390Є)

 

This introductory course aims to introduce students, researchers and environmental managers to the theory and practical aspects of the analysis of capture-mark-recapture and –recovery data to estimate survival, recruitment and dispersal probabilities. The course is based on theoretical classes as well as practical sessions with real and simulated data. The format of the course will be a combination of lectures and computer lab exercises with programs MARK, U-CARE and R (optional). No previous knowledge of these programs is needed.   

To register : http://fueib.org/curs/capture   (click on: "MATRICULA-t'hi")
Ask more information at: g.tavecchia-at-uib.es

Award for the best talk on seabird tracking!

Sofia Bolumar Roda has been awarded with a price for the best talk on seabird tracking at the "Seabird Group Conference" held in Coimbra, Portugal. Sofia's research coupled oceanic variables with the foraging movements of the European Storm Petrel. 

 

Well done, Sofia!  Congratulations!

 

New publication on vulture and mortality hotspots

Curk, T., [...] Santangeli, A., 2024 Integrating threat mapping and animal movement data to identify high-risk areas for endangered mobile species. https://doi.org/10.1111/acv.12980

In a shell: The work maps poisoning risks for the Lappet-faced Vultures in Southern Africa. It helps to identify hotspots that require conservation efforts. High food availability in these areas increases vulture risks of mortality.

Abstract:  Given the current biodiversity crisis, understanding how animals move across a landscape dotted with different anthropogenic threats and the consequences of those threats for animals is paramount to devising evidence-based conservation interventions. Vultures roam across large areas and are highly exposed to poisoning, which represents a particularly damaging form of wildlife crime. In this study, we introduce a framework for quantifying the exposure to threats and illustrate an example of poisoning risk as a threat in an endangered African vulture species, the Lappet-faced Vulture (Torgos tracheliotos). 

photo from ebird

We combined GPS tracking data of 19 individuals collected between 2012 and 2022 with food availability and spatial threat maps of both intentional (poachers directly targeting vultures) and unintentional (farmers aiming to kill carnivores, with vultures being secondarily affected) poisoning across most of Southern Africa. We identified poisoning hotspots in northern Botswana and south-eastern Namibia. These areas were also associated with a high number of vulture mortalities, providing additional support for poisoning risk. Northern Botswana and areas at the border between Botswana and South Africa were characterized by high food availability, potentially amplifying the mortality rate by attracting vultures from surrounding areas. Our results offer valuable insights for regional vulture conservation, together with a methodological framework for quantifying and mapping the spatial exposure to threats for mobile species of conservation concern, enabling improved targeting of conservation actions.

 

GEDAi and the Balearic Sheawater on the news!

From https://www.ultimahora.es

 The monitoring of the Blaearic Shearwater by the GEDAi in collaboration with a team from the Oxford University at the Natural Park of Sa Dragonera found an increase of the breeding population.

A good news for this endangered species that hit the news this week here and here.

GEDAi and Vultures!

Dr A. Santangeli from the GEDA comments on a new study about the consequences of the decline of vultures in India and its cost in terms of human lifes and monetary damages. Here   

Bernard Castelein/NPL/Minden Pictures

"To calculate monetary damages, the team relied on previous research that calculated the economic value of what Indian society is willing to spend to save one life at roughly $665,000 a person. That put the total economic damages from the loss of vulture populations at $69.4 billion a year from 2000 to 2005.

The numbers themselves aren’t surprising, says Andrea Santangeli, a conservation scientist at the Institute for Mediterranean Studies who wasn’t involved with the research. He and others have sounded the alarm on biodiversity loss for decades. But the new, dramatic stats could help convince lawmakers to act, he says. “If you give them flashy figures, it’s probably easier to push forward policy and conservation measures." by Vivian La (Science News 15/07/2024)

 

GEDAi at the European Congress of Conservation Biology!

The GEDAi partcipated to the European Congress of Conservation Biology in Bologna (Italy). Dr. Santangeli presented the first results of the SURVIVALIST project. 

SURVIVALIST is a EU-funded proyect that aims is to identify hot-spot of mortality of scavenger birds, through the analysis of capture-track-recapture data collected by several research groups throughout Europe.

New Publication on animal traits and pathogens!

Xu, Y., Laine, [ ..] Santangeli, A., [...], Lehikoinen, A. 2024 Slow-lived birds and bats carry higher pathogen loads. One Earth, 7, 1–12.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2024.04.021.

In a shell: The study investigates how species traits and local climate factors identify pathogen reservoir hosts among birds and bats in Europe. Species with slower life paces, sedentary habits, and forest habitats show high pathogen prevalence, with temperature being a crucial predictor.

Summary: Wildlife and zoonotic diseases are increasingly impacting human society, the food chain, and wildlife; therefore, proactive mitigation tools for predicting large-scale risk of the relevant pathogens are urgently needed. Birds and bats are large-scale disease reservoirs and transmitters. However, holistic understanding for which bird and bat species act as reservoirs for pathogens remains understudied. Here, we test the extent to which the features related to the mobile species and local climate identify reservoir hosts for the 18 most-sampled pathogens across Europe. Species with slower pace of life (i.e., larger bodied and longer lived), sedentary species, and forest species had high pathogen prevalence. Temperature was the most important predictor for pathogen prevalence, but its effects varied in different directions. Overall, host species traits and climatic gradients robustly predicted pathogen prevalence, especially for non-vector-transmitted pathogens. We offer a data-driven basis for developing targeted interventions to mitigate impacts of zoonotic diseases, particularly in the face of climate change.

Copernicus for conservation!

Dr. A. Santangeli explains the advantage in using Copernicus' products of land cover to investigate the effect of protectected areas on animal niches. here.