Yiannis G. Zevgolis

Live trapping is central to behavioural ecology, yet whether post-capture behaviour reflects consistent among-individual differences and how it is modified by repeated captures remain poorly understood. Here, we repeatedly captured wild individuals of the rodent Apodemus mystacinus and temporarily held them in a standardised wooden experimental box. We then allowed them to voluntarily exit the box near the capture location and continuously recorded their behaviour for 5 minutes. Using multilevel, multivariate and continuous-time multi-state models, we characterise the sequence of behavioural states from confinement to escape. We also test whether capture experience reorganises individual behavioural trajectories and whether individual characteristics, such as body mass and sex, mediate behavioural transitions across capture–recapture events. We show that there is among-individual variation in the measured post-capture behaviours and that repeated captures reorganise the structure and sequential organisation of behavioural responses after individuals exit a trap. Importantly, we also show that recapture experience and body mass are associated with an increased tendency towards rapid escape. In contrast, we find that sex has no detectable effects. Our findings highlight that behaviours expressed immediately after trap release do not represent individuals' undisturbed ecological baseline, but instead experience-dependent responses shaped by individuals' cumulative history of interactions with their environment.

Seed germination indices are commonly used to quantify either the frequency of germination within a tested seed sample or the temporal dynamics of germination events. Among these metrics, final germination percentage, or germinability, is conventionally calculated as the proportion of germinated seeds relative to the total number of seeds subjected to a trial. Although operationally simple, this formulation treats the entire tested seed pool as the biological reference population and may therefore become prone to interpretational error when non-viable seeds form a substantial component of the sample. Here, we examine the consequences of denominator choice in germinability estimation by contrasting the conventional unconditional formulation with a viability-conditioned probabilistic formulation. Using raw data from Cistus salviifolius, a characteristic Mediterranean obligate seeder, we first quantified variation in the proportion of non-viable seeds through a proportion-based meta-analysis. We then applied simulations based on triangular probability distributions, complemented by Beta-PERT sensitivity analyses, to compare the distributional behaviour of conventional and viability-conditioned germinability estimates and to identify the probability ranges in which both formulations converge or diverge. The results indicate that non-viable seed fractions vary substantially among datasets, spanning 12.8% to 55.0% across the six datasets examined. Simulated comparisons further suggest that the divergence between formulations is not uniformly distributed across the germinability spectrum but is most pronounced across intermediate germination ranges. These findings suggest that technical improvements in germination protocols alone may not fully resolve the conceptual limitations of conventional germinability estimates unless viability structure is explicitly incorporated into both experimental design and statistical interpretation.

Yellow adhesive chromotropic traps are widely deployed across Mediterranean olive cultivation to monitor B. oleae population dynamics, yet their adhesive surfaces can also retain non-target organisms. Here we report the first documented entrapment of the common pipistrelle Pipistrellus pipistrellus (Schreber, 1774) on an adhesive monitoring trap in Greece, recorded on 15 May 2026 in a traditionally managed olive grove on Lesvos Island (North Aegean). The adult specimen (wingspan of 23.1 cm, body mass of 5.9 g) was independently identified by two specialist chiropterologists and confirmed dead by direct examination. The trap surface bore small-bodied Diptera belonging to groups known to occur in the diet of P. pipistrellus, raising the possibility that prey-associated cues may have contributed to the encounter. We argue that this record exposes an agroecological contradiction relevant to conservation-oriented olive management: the monitoring device deployed to track B. oleae may incidentally eliminate an insectivorous bat belonging to the broader natural enemy community associated with olive agroecosystems. Given the extent of adhesive trap deployment across Mediterranean olive cultivation and the strict legal protection afforded to all European bats under the Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC), systematic bycatch recording, mechanistic investigation and evaluation of simple mitigation measures are warranted.

Wildlife conservation and habitat management have entered a phase of irreducible complexity, in which the ecosystems where species must persist, populations must recover, and management must intervene are increasingly structured by interacting constellations of anthropogenic, biotic, and abiotic change

Dorsolateral flattening is a defensive behavior observed in several snake taxa, typically involving lateral expansion of the body to increase apparent size and deter predators. Although this behavior has been documented in other snake families, its occurrence in boid snakes remains poorly understood. Here, we present the first confirmed field observations of full-body dorsolateral flattening in Eryx jaculus , a boid species native to southeastern Europe. The behavior was recorded under natural conditions during close approach, attempted capture, or brief handling and involved coordinated lateral expansion along the entire body trunk. In several cases, flattening was accompanied by mock strikes, mainly expressed during attempted capture. These observations indicate a multi-modal defensive strategy that combines visual and behavioral deterrents. This expands the known behavioral repertoire of Boidae and supports the hypothesis that full-body flattening may represent a convergent trait evolved independently across phylogenetically distant lineages. We discuss the anatomical basis, ecological context, and potential adaptive significance of these behaviors, contributing new insights into snake defensive strategies within European species assemblages. More broadly, this study provides new insight into the defensive ecology of a poorly documented European boid and highlights the importance of opportunistic field observations for detecting rare or context-dependent antipredator behaviors.

Mediterranean phryganic ecosystems have been shaped for centuries by recurrent herbivory, yet the long-term ecological consequences of grazing cessation remain insufficiently resolved, particularly in protected island landscapes where conservation management often assumes that exclusion promotes recovery. In these drylands, the removal of grazing redirect assembly processes through shifts in dominance, heterogeneity, and functional strategy expression. Here, we use more than three decades-long grazing discontinuity within the Petrified Forest of Lesvos, an insular Mediterranean geopark, to examine how long-term herbivore exclusion reorganizes plant communities across taxonomic and functional dimensions. By integrating floristic inventories, multivariate community analysis, mixed-effects modeling, indicator species analysis, and community-weighted trait approaches, we reconstruct the ecological signature of grazing release in phryganic ecosystems. Long-term exclusion was associated with a broader species pool and a greater representation of protected taxa, while ungrazed communities exhibited lower Shannon and Simpson diversity, greater compositional dispersion, and a marked shift in dominance structure linked to the expansion of Sarcopoterium spinosum. Community differentiation was accompanied by directional reorganization of functional trait structure, with ungrazed plots characterized by taller vegetation and increased leaf and inflorescence length, indicating release from recurrent biomass removal and a transition toward more structurally expansive strategies. These results show that grazing exclusion does not simply enhance biodiversity, but reorganizes Mediterranean plant communities into an alternative ecological state shaped by altered competitive hierarchies, shrub-mediated filtering, and relaxed herbivory. In disturbance-structured island ecosystems, therefore, the ecological outcomes of protection depend not only on whether grazing is removed, but on how strongly community organization has historically depended on its continued presence.

Lethocerus patruelis (Stål, 1854), the sole European belostomatid, is an apex invertebrate predator in Mediterranean freshwater systems and a species known for its strong flight capacity and growing range expansion record. While its continental distribution in Greece is increasingly well documented, its presence across the Aegean islands has remained poorly characterized, with historical records scattered and often unpublished or fragmentary. Here, we present new, photographically verified records that substantially refine the species’ insular distribution and provide the first coordinated synthesis of its emerging archipelagic footprint. These include the first confirmed live individual from Samothraki and a newly documented specimen from Naxos, recovered beside a nearly desiccated summer stream indicating a very recent arrival. When integrated with additional verified observations from Sifnos, Ikaria, Chios, Euboea, Tilos, and Crete, as well as earlier published records, a coherent spatial pattern emerges. Rather than isolated vagrants, the records align along three longitudinal dispersal axes spanning the northern, central, and southern Aegean. These axes reflect plausible biological and anthropogenic pathways influenced by regional winds, maritime transport, and the distribution of natural and artificial freshwater habitats. Collectively, the evidence indicates that L. patruelis is undergoing a sustained, multi-vector archipelagic expansion, underscoring the importance of integrating citizen-science observations with targeted field documentation to monitor freshwater biodiversity across Mediterranean islands.

Shrikes (Lanius spp.) are predatory passerines with a diverse diet that often includes lizards, yet their feeding ecology in Greece remains poorly documented. Here, we report the first case of the great grey shrike Lanius excubitor Linnaeus, 1758 preying on the Balkan wall lizard Podarcis tauricus (Georgi, 1801) in Greece. The observation was made in January 2023 in Central Macedonia under unusually mild winter conditions (~20 °C). The shrike captured and impaled an adult female lizard on a thorn. This record extends the known prey spectrum of the species and underscores the influence of climatic anomalies on predator–prey interactions.