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.

An innovative system to detect active nests!

Dr. A. Santangeli recently went to Cáceres, as part of the European Commission LIFE project on Agroestepas Ibéricas. The project, spearheaded by SEO Birdlife Extremadura, primary goal is to create and deploy an innovative system designed to detect nests of steppe birds, which are frequently destroyed by mechanical crop spring harvesting. The system utilizes a drone equipped with a thermal camera, working in conjunction with a machine learning algorithm. This setup will allow for the detection and precise location of bird nests using thermal imagery in almost real time, aiming to significantly reduce the risk of nest destruction during agricultural activities.

GEDAi on Streaming: La Resistencia Cientifica!

 A. Sanz-Aguilar explains the ecology and behaviour of the Storm Petrel and other vertebrates. LA RESISTENCIA CIENTIFICA 2.0 .  Here min. 25

SEAGHOSTS on the air!

Dr A Sanz Aguilar illustrates the SEAGHOSTS projects. Its aims and partners. Meanwhile she tells us about the ecology and behaviour of this extraordinary petrel. In Spanish: here

SEAGHOSTS project on Storm Petrels!

Photo: V. Paris

The EU-project SEAGHOSTS is on the starting blocks. The project, led by the University of Barcelona, joins 16 groups of research from 10 different countries to study the movement and the ecology of the Storm Petrels. A. Sanz Aguilar, from the GEDAi, will be responsible for the demographic part. More information here (catalan) and here (spanish).