José Domingo Rodríguez-Teijeiro

Background/Objectives: The common quail (Coturnix coturnix) is a game species facing conservation challenges, particularly hybridization with the Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica). To address this issue, one proposed measure is the urgent prohibition of releasing farmed quails into the wild. If authorized, mechanisms should be established to guarantee their genetic origin and prevent contamination of native populations. This work focuses on the development of a genetic tool based on Single-Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) markers that can differentiate between the two species and their hybrids. Our goal was to incorporate the selected markers into an OpenArray^® platform, to allow efficient, rapid, and cost-effective analysis. Methods: We tested two mitochondrial DNA SNPs (previously described in the literature) as diagnostic markers for species differentiation. We also assessed 24 nuclear DNA SNPs for compatibility with the OpenArray^® platform. Results: Of the 26 total SNPs, eight were excluded due to their limited utility. The remaining 18 SNPs achieved an overall genotyping success rate of 96.21%. Using the OpenArray^® platform with these 18 SNPs in a trial with samples from diverse Spanish field populations, we found 1.00% of C. japonica alleles (affecting 15.63% of individuals), suggesting introgression in the field. Population genetic analyses revealed strong differentiation between species and confirmed the presence of admixed individuals in field populations. Conclusions: This paper presents a new tool to differentiate between quail species and to identify foreign alleles in stocks and populations, by using an open platform system that optimizes the practical application of the diagnostic procedure based on the to-date most-reliable SNP markers for this goal.

Chromosomal inversions can contribute to genetic differentiation and ecological adaptation. In common quails ( Coturnix coturnix ), a large chromosomal inversion encompassing over 1200 genes is associated with key phenotypic traits, including increased body size, darker throat pigmentation, and reduced flight efficiency, which may influence migratory behavior. We hypothesized that the presence of resident common quails in the south of the Iberian Peninsula is the consequence of the high frequency of this chromosomal inversion, found in a high proportion of the breeding individuals in the region. We surveyed one wintering population in southern Spain and analyzed the genomic composition, morphology, and deuterium, nitrogen, and carbon stable isotope composition of primary feathers. Our results revealed the coexistence of birds with different karyotypes and morphologies that also differed in migratory behavior, as inferred from the comparison of the stable isotope signature in feathers. While quails with the inversion showed limited evidence of migratory movements, quails without the inversion seemed to have reached the area from other latitudes. Interestingly, our results also revealed that these migratory quails that reached this population in winter had differences in their diet. Thus, two separately evolving chromosomal lineages, characterized by the presence/absence of the inversion, coexist in the wintering area, leading to differences in morphology, behavior, and resource use. Due to the lack of recombination in the inversion, the divergence is expected to continue increasing.

Drone use has significantly grown in recent years, and there is a knowledge gap on how the noise produced by these systems may affect animals. We investigated how 18 species of megafauna reacted to drone sound pressure levels at different frequencies. The sound pressure level on the low frequency generated by the drone did not change the studied species’ behavior, except for the Asian elephant. All other studied species showed higher noise sensitivity at medium and high frequencies. The Asian elephant was the most sensitive species to drone noise, mainly at low frequencies. Felines supported the highest sound pressure level before showing behavioral reactions. Our results suggest that drone sound pressure levels in different frequencies cause behavioral changes that differ among species, which is relevant to assessing drone disturbances in ex situ environments. The findings presented here can help to reduce drone impact for target species and serve as an experimental study for future drone use guidelines.

This paper provides an overview of the last 40 years of use, and in many cases abuse, of the natural resources in Catalonia, a country that is representative of European countries in general, and especially those in the Mediterranean region. It analyses the use of natural resources made by mining, agriculture, livestock, logging, fishing, nature tourism, and energy production and consumption. This use results in an ecological footprint, i.e., the productive land and sea surface required to generate the consumed resources and absorb the resulting waste, which is about seven times the amount available, a very high number but very similar to other European countries. This overexploitation of natural resources has a huge impact on land and its different forms of cover, air, and water. For the last 25 years, forests and urban areas have each gained almost 3% more of the territory at the expense of agricultural land; those municipalities bordering the sea have increased their number of inhabitants and activity, and although they only occupy 6.7% of the total surface area, they account for 43.3% of the population; air quality has stabilized since the turn of the century, and there has been some improvement in the state of aquatic ecosystems, but still only 36% are in good condition, while the remainder have suffered morphological changes and different forms of nonpoint source pollution; meanwhile the biodiversity of flora and fauna remains still under threat. Environmental policies do not go far enough so there is a need for revision of the legislation related to environmental impact and the protection of natural areas, flora, and fauna. The promotion of environmental research must be accompanied by environmental education to foster a society which is more knowledgeable, has more control and influence over the decisions that deeply affect it. Indeed, nature conservation goes hand in hand with other social and economic challenges that require a more sustainable vision. Today’s problems with nature derive from the current economic model, which is environmentally unsustainable in that it does not take into account environmental impacts. Lastly, we propose a series of reasonable and feasible priority measures and actions related to each use made of the country’s natural resources, to the impacts they have had, and to their management, in the hope that these can contribute to improving the conservation and management of the environment and biodiversity and move towards sustainability.

African forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis Matschie, 1900) are ecological engineers that play a fundamental role in vegetation dynamics. The species is of immediate conservation concern, yet it is relatively understudied. To narrow this knowledge gap, we studied the drivers of daily movement patterns (linear displacements) of forest elephants—characterised by a set of geographical, meteorological and anthropogenic variables—in the Odzala‐Kokoua National Park, Republic of Congo. Explicitly, we used conditional random forest to model and disentangle the main environmental factors governing the displacements of six forest elephants, fitted with GPS collars and tracked over 16 months. Results indicated that females moved further distances than males, while the presence of roads or human settlements disrupted elephant behaviour resulting in faster displacements. Forest elephants moved faster along watercourses and through forest with understory dominated by Marantaceae forests and bais, but moved slower in savannahs. Finally, flood‐prone areas—described by elevation and accumulated precipitation—and higher temperatures prevented longer displacements. We expect these results to improve the knowledge on the species movements through different habitats, which would benefit its conservation management.

Social networks are the result of interactions between individuals at different temporal scales. Thus, sporadic intergroup encounters and individual forays play a central role in defining the dynamics of populations in social species. We assessed the rate of intergroup encounters for three western lowland gorilla ( Gorilla gorilla gorilla ) groups with daily observations over 5 years, and non-invasively genotyped a larger population over four months. Both approaches revealed a social system much more dynamic than anticipated, with non-aggressive intergroup encounters that involved social play by immature individuals, exchanges of members between groups likely modulated by kinship, and absence of infanticide evidenced by infants not fathered by the silverback of the group where they were found. This resulted in a community composed of groups that interacted frequently and not-aggressively, contrasting with the more fragmented and aggressive mountain gorilla ( G. beringei beringei ) societies. Such extended sociality can promote the sharing of behavioural and cultural traits, but might also increase the susceptibility of western lowland gorillas to infectious diseases that have decimated their populations in recent times.

Hunting affects many threatened mammal species in Brazil. We described subsistence hunting patterns for medium‐ (1.0–14.9 kg) and large‐sized (>15 kg) mammal species by a rural community in the eastern Amazon, Brazil. From April 2012 to November 2013, we observed hunts and conducted semistructured interviews with local hunters. We identified species of game mammals in the region, frequency of capture, capture techniques used for each species, yield of the hunt, and reasons that hunting is practiced in the region. We then performed a correlation analysis and multivariate analysis to determine similarities and differences of mammals hunted in each landscape. We recorded 18 species of harvested animals ( n = 132) including common paca ( Cuniculus paca ), capybara ( Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris ), southern naked‐tailed armadillo ( Cabassous unicinctus ), nine‐banded armadillo ( Dasypus novemcinctus ), and six‐banded armadillo ( Euphractus sexcinctus ). Endangered species that were hunted included giant armadillo ( Priodontes maximus ) and white‐lipped peccary ( Tayassu pecari ). The medium‐sized mammals comprised 75.7% of harvested mammals, whereas 24.2% were large‐sized mammals; however, the latter group represented 55.8% of the mass of harvested meat. Half of all biomass harvested was from rainforests that made up 2.2% of the region. Knowing what, how, why, and where certain species are hunted increases understanding of pressure local communities exert on wild animal populations. As the first study of its kind in the eastern Brazilian Amazon, our study is a basis for further work in relation to effect and sustainability of hunting wildlife, and conservation strategies for medium‐ and long‐term management programs for species conservation at the regional level. © 2018 The Wildlife Society.