Through the eyes of the Andean bear: Camera collar insights into the life of a threatened South American Ursid.

Due to Andean bears' propensity for inhabiting challenging environments and terrain, their wild ecology remains poorly understood, especially when compared to other members of the Ursidae family. In one of the steepest, wettest regions of the Andes, the Kosñipata Valley of southeastern Peru, we attached and retrieved camera-borne collars on three wild free-ranging Andean bears. From just one longer term camera collar deployed on a single individual over a period of 4 months, we observed a variety of rare or previously undocumented natural history observations.

First evidence for multimodal animal seed dispersal in orchids.

Identifying the mechanisms for seed dispersal and persistence of species is a central aim of ecology. Seed dispersal by animals is an essential form of dissemination in many plant communities, including seeds of over 66% of neotropical canopy tree species. Besides physical dispersal, animals influence seed germination probabilities through scarification, breaking dormancy, and preventing rotting, so plants often invest important resources in attracting them.

Human disturbance and shifts in vertebrate community composition in a biodiversity hotspot.

Understanding how human modification of the landscape shapes vertebrate community composition is vital to understanding the current status and future trajectory of wildlife. Using a participatory approach, we deployed the largest camera-trap network in Mesoamerica to date to investigate how anthropogenic disturbance shapes the occupancy and co-occurrence of terrestrial vertebrate species in a tropical biodiversity hotspot: the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica. We estimated species richness in different categories of land protection with rarefaction analysis and estimated the expected occupancy with a joint species distribution model that included covariates for anthropogenic disturbance, land protection, habitat quality, and habitat availability.

Spider Monkeys Rule the Roost: Ateline Sleeping Sites Influence Rainforest Heterogeneity.

The sleeping site behavior of Ateline primates has been of interest since the 1980s, yet limited focus has been given to their influence upon other rainforest species. Here, we use a combination of arboreal and terrestrial camera traps, and dung beetle pitfall traps, to characterize spider monkey sleeping site use and quantify the impact of their associated latrines on terrestrial vertebrate and dung beetle activity. We also characterize the physical characteristics of the sleeping sites and the floristic and soil composition of latrines beneath them.

Past Human Disturbance Effects upon Biodiversity are Greatest in the Canopy; A Case Study on Rainforest Butterflies.

A key part of tropical forest spatial complexity is the vertical stratification of biodiversity, with widely differing communities found in higher rainforest strata compared to terrestrial levels. Despite this, our understanding of how human disturbance may differentially affect biodiversity across vertical strata of tropical forests has been slow to develop. For the first time, how the patterns of current biodiversity vary between three vertical strata within a single forest, subject to three different types of historic anthropogenic disturbance, was directly assessed.