Ant-following behavior is correlated with plumage traits in African understory birds.

Ant-following behavior is a common phenomenon in birds of Neotropical and Afrotropical rainforests but yet little is known from Central Africa. We here report on the phenomenon in lowland rainforest in Cameroon, quantifying the strength of the interaction of different ant-following bird species with driver ants and test the hypothesis that higher levels of specialization in ant-following behavior are associated with dominance or aggression-dependent plumage and other morphological traits. Flock size varied between 1 and 11 individuals with a mean size of 5.

Application of the integrated threat theory to conservation law enforcement.

Interactions between law enforcement agents in conservation (e.g., rangers) and illegal resource users (e.

A novel, post-Soviet fire disturbance regime drives bird diversity and abundance on the Eurasian steppe.

Many grassland ecosystems and their associated biodiversity depend on the interactions between fire and land-use, both of which are shaped by socioeconomic conditions. The Eurasian steppe biome, much of it situated in Kazakhstan, contains 10% of the world's remaining grasslands. The break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991, widespread land abandonment and massive declines in wild and domestic ungulates led to biomass accumulation over millions of hectares.

Hunting and persecution drive mammal declines in Iran.

The negative impacts of human activities on biodiversity are well documented. However, extinction risk studies incorporating direct human threats particularly direct killing remain limited. Here, we evaluate the potential role that direct killing through hunting and persecution, indirect human threats via land-use change, and environmental and species traits such as reproductive rate and trophic level among others, may play in driving mammal species to extinction.

Understanding spatial patterns of poaching pressure using ranger logbook data to optimize future patrolling strategies.

Poaching is driving many species toward extinction, and as a result, lowering poaching pressure is a conservation priority. This requires understanding where poaching pressure is high and which factors determine these spatial patterns. However, the cryptic and illegal nature of poaching makes this difficult.

Cattle selectivity by leopards suggests ways to mitigate human-leopard conflict.

Addressing widespread livestock losses to carnivores requires information on which livestock categories are preferentially selected. We analyzed an individual-based database of cattle grazing in forest ( = 932) and having been killed ( = 70) by leopards () in the Hyrcanian forest, Iran. We calculated Jacobs' selectivity index for cattle age, sex, and coloration across four scales: the study area as a whole, three sites, nine villages, and 60 cattle owners.

Effects of shepherds and dogs on livestock depredation by leopards () in north-eastern Iran.

Human-carnivore conflicts over livestock depredation are increasingly common, yet little is understood about the role of husbandry in conflict mitigation. As shepherds and guarding dogs are most commonly used to curb carnivore attacks on grazing livestock, evaluation and improvement of these practices becomes an important task. We addressed this issue by studying individual leopard () attacks on sheep and goats in 34 villages near Golestan National Park, Iran.

Assessing the Role of Livestock in Big Cat Prey Choice Using Spatiotemporal Availability Patterns.

Livestock is represented in big cat diets throughout the world. Husbandry approaches aim to reduce depredation, which may influence patterns of prey choice, but whether felids have a preference for livestock or not often remains unclear as most studies ignore livestock availability. We assessed prey choice of the endangered Persian leopard (Panthera pardus saxicolor) in Golestan National Park, Iran, where conflict over livestock depredation occurs.

Dissatisfaction with Veterinary Services Is Associated with Leopard (Panthera pardus) Predation on Domestic Animals.

Human-carnivore conflicts challenge biodiversity conservation and local livelihoods, but the role of diseases of domestic animals in their predation by carnivores is poorly understood. We conducted a human-leopard (Panthera pardus) conflict study throughout all 34 villages around Golestan National Park, Iran in order to find the most important conflict determinants and to use them in predicting the probabilities of conflict and killing of cattle, sheep and goats, and dogs. We found that the more villagers were dissatisfied with veterinary services, the more likely they were to lose livestock and dogs to leopard predation.