Coexistence from a lion's perspective: Movements and habitat selection by African lions (Panthera leo) across a multi-use landscape.

Diminishing wild space and population fragmentation are key drivers of large carnivore declines worldwide. The persistence of large carnivores in fragmented landscapes often depends on the ability of individuals to move between separated subpopulations for genetic exchange and recovery from stochastic events. Where separated by anthropogenic landscapes, subpopulations' connectivity hinges on the area's socio-ecological conditions for coexistence and dispersing individuals' behavioral choices.

Gasterophilus intestinalis infestation in lion (Panthera leo) and plains zebra (Equus quagga) in the Serengeti ecosystem: Morphological and molecular profiling.

This study was conducted to clarify the host specificity and the geographical distribution of Gasterophilus species (Diptera, Oestridae) in the Serengeti ecosystem. A total of 317 larvae were recovered from two common zebras (Equus quagga, formerly Equus burchellii) in Maswa Game Reserve, and 58 larvae were recovered from an African lion (Panthera leo) in the Serengeti National Park. The study emphasizes the rare occurrence of Gasterophilus sp.

Improving compliance around protected areas through fair administration of rules.

Protected area management often depends heavily on law enforcement to secure compliance with rules. However, this can contribute to conflict between protected area authorities and local people, negatively affecting both human well-being and conservation outcomes. Compliance is affected by many factors, including whether those who enforce rules are perceived to do so fairly, as well as the perceived rule-related behavior of others.

The contribution of community-based conservation models to conserving large herbivore populations.

In East Africa, community-based conservation models (CBCMs) have been established to support the conservation of wildlife in fragmented landscapes like the Tarangire Ecosystem, Tanzania. To assess how different management approaches maintained large herbivore populations, we conducted line distance surveys and estimated seasonal densities of elephant, giraffe, zebra, and wildebeest in six management units, including three CBCMs, two national parks (positive controls), and one area with little conservation interventions (negative control). Using a Monte-Carlo approach to propagate uncertainties from the density estimates and trend analysis, we analyzed the resulting time series (2011-2019).

New record of strawberry leopard () in Selous Game Reserve, Tanzania.

Strawberry or red leopards are a rare colour morph of leopard () characterised by spot markings that are red or brown instead of black, thought to be a result of a mutation in the tyrosinase-related protein (TYRP1) gene. We report the first record of this phenotype on the African continent outside of South Africa, from Selous Game Reserve in southern Tanzania. One female leopard with strawberry colouration was documented out of 373 individual leopards (0.

Continent-wide genomic analysis of the African buffalo (Syncerus caffer).

The African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) is a wild bovid with a historical distribution across much of sub-Saharan Africa. Genomic analysis can provide insights into the evolutionary history of the species, and the key selective pressures shaping populations, including assessment of population level differentiation, population fragmentation, and population genetic structure. In this study we generated the highest quality de novo genome assembly (2.

Crop use structures resource selection strategies for African elephants in a human-dominated landscape.

To conserve wide-ranging species in degraded landscapes, it is essential to understand how the behavior of animals changes in relation to the degree and composition of modification. Evidence suggests that large inter-individual variation exists in the propensity for use of degraded areas and may be driven by both behavioral and landscape factors. The use of cultivated lands by wildlife is of particular interest, given the importance of reducing human-wildlife conflicts and understanding how such areas can function as biodiversity buffers.

Productivity declines threaten East African soda lakes and the iconic Lesser Flamingo.

Soda lakes are some of the most productive aquatic ecosystems. Their alkaline-saline waters sustain unique phytoplankton communities and provide vital habitats for highly specialized biodiversity including invertebrates, endemic fish species, and Lesser Flamingos (Phoeniconaias minor). More than three-quarters of Lesser Flamingos inhabit the soda lakes of East Africa; however, populations are in decline.

Between hunter and climate: the effects of hunting and environmental change on fecal glucocorticoid metabolite levels in two sympatric ungulate species in the Ruaha-Rungwa ecosystem, Tanzania.

Understanding the drivers of animal population decline is a key focus of conservation biologists. Anthropogenic activities such as hunting have long been established as potentially detrimental to a population's persistence. However, environmental perturbations such as increased temperature variability, exacerbated by climate change, can also have important effects on animal populations.

Complex Evolutionary History With Extensive Ancestral Gene Flow in an African Primate Radiation.

Understanding the drivers of speciation is fundamental in evolutionary biology, and recent studies highlight hybridization as an important evolutionary force. Using whole-genome sequencing data from 22 species of guenons (tribe Cercopithecini), one of the world's largest primate radiations, we show that rampant gene flow characterizes their evolutionary history and identify ancient hybridization across deeply divergent lineages that differ in ecology, morphology, and karyotypes. Some hybridization events resulted in mitochondrial introgression between distant lineages, likely facilitated by cointrogression of coadapted nuclear variants.

A mixed methods approach for measuring topic sensitivity in conservation.

Conservationists increasingly aim to understand human behaviour to inform intervention design. However, obtaining information from people about their behaviour can be challenging, particularly if the research topic is considered sensitive. Topic sensitivity may raise methodological, ethical, political and legal concerns which, if poorly addressed, can have significant impacts on research participants, the research process, data quality and the success of conservation outcomes that are informed by research findings.

Topic sensitivity still affects honest responding, even when specialized questioning techniques are used.

To develop more effective interventions, conservationists require robust information about the proportion of people who break conservation rules (such as those relating to protected species, or protected area legislation). Developed to obtain more accurate estimates of sensitive behaviors, including rule-breaking, specialized questioning techniques such as Randomized Response Techniques (RRTs) are increasingly applied in conservation, but with mixed evidence of their effectiveness. We use a forced-response RRT to estimate the prevalence of five rule-breaking behaviors in communities living around the Ruaha-Rungwa ecosystem in Tanzania.

Barriers to chimpanzee gene flow at the south-east edge of their distribution.

Populations on the edge of a species' distribution may represent an important source of adaptive diversity, yet these populations tend to be more fragmented and are more likely to be geographically isolated. Lack of genetic exchanges between such populations, due to barriers to animal movement, can not only compromise adaptive potential but also lead to the fixation of deleterious alleles. The south-eastern edge of chimpanzee distribution is particularly fragmented, and conflicting hypotheses have been proposed about population connectivity and viability.

A global catalog of whole-genome diversity from 233 primate species.

The rich diversity of morphology and behavior displayed across primate species provides an informative context in which to study the impact of genomic diversity on fundamental biological processes. Analysis of that diversity provides insight into long-standing questions in evolutionary and conservation biology and is urgent given severe threats these species are facing. Here, we present high-coverage whole-genome data from 233 primate species representing 86% of genera and all 16 families.

The landscape of tolerated genetic variation in humans and primates.

Personalized genome sequencing has revealed millions of genetic differences between individuals, but our understanding of their clinical relevance remains largely incomplete. To systematically decipher the effects of human genetic variants, we obtained whole-genome sequencing data for 809 individuals from 233 primate species and identified 4.3 million common protein-altering variants with orthologs in humans.

The landscape of tolerated genetic variation in humans and primates.

Unlabelled: Personalized genome sequencing has revealed millions of genetic differences between individuals, but our understanding of their clinical relevance remains largely incomplete. To systematically decipher the effects of human genetic variants, we obtained whole genome sequencing data for 809 individuals from 233 primate species, and identified 4.3 million common protein-altering variants with orthologs in human.

Factors influencing lion movements and habitat use in the western Serengeti ecosystem, Tanzania.

Protected areas that restrict human activities can enhance wildlife habitat quality. Efficacy of protected areas can be improved with increased protection from illegal activities and presence of buffer protected areas that surround a core protected area. Habitat value of protected areas also can be affected by seasonal variation in anthropogenic pressures.

Mathematical modelling Treponema infection in free-ranging Olive baboons (Papio anubis) in Tanzania.

Yaws is a chronic infection caused by the bacterium Treponema pallidum susp. pertenue (TPE) that was thought to be an exclusive human pathogen but was recently found and confirmed in nonhuman primates. In this paper, we develop the first compartmental ODE model for TPE infection with treatment of wild olive baboons.