Density Dependence in Large Herbivores Inhabiting an Insular Nature Reserve.

While studies often focus on density-dependent responses of ungulate populations to resource limitations at large spatial scales, the dynamics at smaller scales remain relatively unexplored. To address this gap, we investigated the temporal dynamics of ungulate abundance in a small dystrophic grassland ecosystem over 20 years, with minimal management interventions. We used annual counts and herd composition data to explore density-dependent responses at the population level and attempt to link such responses to demographic mechanisms.

Trait-based sensitivity of large mammals to a catastrophic tropical cyclone.

Extreme weather events perturb ecosystems and increasingly threaten biodiversity. Ecologists emphasize the need to forecast and mitigate the impacts of these events, which requires knowledge of how risk is distributed among species and environments. However, the scale and unpredictability of extreme events complicate risk assessment-especially for large animals (megafauna), which are ecologically important and disproportionately threatened but are wide-ranging and difficult to monitor.

Anthropogenically driven spatial niche partitioning in a large herbivore assemblage.

Understanding how human activity can influence species distributions and spatial niche partitioning between sympatric species is a key area of contemporary ecology. Extirpations of large mammalian populations, the result of a 15-year civil war, within the Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique, have been followed by an extended period of restoration. The species-specific recovery of these populations has provided an ideal system to identify how niche partitioning between coexisting species is altered as a consequence of extreme disturbance events.

Gene flow and population structure of a solitary top carnivore in a human-dominated landscape.

While African leopard populations are considered to be continuous as demonstrated by their high genetic variation, the southernmost leopard population exists in the Eastern and Western Cape, South Africa, where anthropogenic activities may be affecting this population's structure. Little is known about the elusive, last free-roaming top predator in the region and this study is the first to report on leopard population structuring using nuclear DNA. By analyzing 14 microsatellite markers from 40 leopard tissue samples, we aimed to understand the populations' structure, genetic distance, and gene flow (Nm).