Regulating Internet Trade in CITES Species
International trade in species that are or may be endangered by collection from the wild is regulated under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of wild fauna and flora (CITES) for 176 member States (Parties). Internet commerce is a relatively new route for such trade. In 2007, the CITES Secretariat asked Parties to collect information on internet wildlife trade and report problems and implemented regulations. The reports indicated it was difficult to even approximate the influence of e-commerce on CITES-listed species (CITES Secretariat 2009). We report a case study in which we quantified international transactions over an internet auction site of CITES-listed cacti …
Density and activity patterns of Pallas's cats, Otocolobus manul, in central Mongolia
Abstract Context. The ranges of many small, at-risk felid species occur almost entirely in unprotected areas, where research efforts are minimal; hence data on their density and activity patterns are scare. Aims. We estimated density and activity patterns of Pallas’s cats on unprotected lands in central Mongolia during two periods (May–August and September–November) in 2019. Methods. We used spatially explicit capture–recapture models to estimate population density at 15.2 ± 4.8 individuals per 100 km2. Key results. We obtained 484 Pallas’s cat images from 153 detections during 4266 camera-days. We identified Pallas’s cats using pelage markings and identified 16 individuals from 64 detectio…
Activity overlap between mesocarnivores and prey in the Central Mongolian steppe
Research on the ecology and behaviour of mesocarnivores and their prey is scant in Mongolia. We investigated activity patterns of a guild of mesocarnivores (red fox, Pallas's cat and beech marten) and their prey (Siberian marmot, Daurian pika, Brandt vole, Mongolian gerbil and Mongolian silver vole) using 21 camera traps (effort = 1155 camera days) in Central Mongolia from 25st of May to 20th August 2019. Activity patterns of mesocarnivores were cathemeral (i.e. no difference between diurnal, nocturnal and crepuscular detections, although activity peaked at sunrise). Among prey, the Siberian marmot and the Daurian pika were diurnal, whereas the Mongolian gerbil and the Mongolian silver vole…