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.