Search results for "Arboreal"

Effect of simulated faunal impoverishment and mixture on the ecological structure of modern mammal faunas: Implications for the reconstruction of Mio…

2011

15 pages; International audience; The strong link between environment and the ecological diversity of communities is often used for drawing palaeoenvironmental inferences from fossil assemblages. Here we focus on the reliability of fossil samples in comparison to original communities when inferring palaeoenvironments from the ecological diversity of fossil mammal faunas. Taphonomic processes and sampling techniques generally introduce two kinds of biases in fossil samples: 1) the directional impoverishment of communities, i.e. the absence of some specific categories of bones, individuals or species; and 2) the mixture of several communities, temporally (timeaveraging) and/or spatially (spac…

The use of artificial nest-boxes by Apodemus sylvaticus dichrurus in Sicily

2008

Reports of wood mouse arboreality are rather scarce outside Britain. I reviewed and analysed 267 visits and 16.456 checks of glirids artificial nest-boxes mounted on trees, in twelve sample areas of Meso- and Supra-Mediterranean woodlands (Sicily, 1995-2005). The wood mouse was recorded only 65 times (0.395%) using the artificial nest-boxes in nine sample areas, and based on this low frequency, the wood mouse can be considered as an occasional dweller of artificial nest-boxes. The resource selection index allowed checking the use respect to the availability of nest-boxes placed at different heights. These were likely reached by climbing the dense understorey and low tree branches up to 5 m,…

Transitions in Herd Management of Semi-Domesticated Reindeer in Northern Finland

2008

In northern Finland, reindeer-herd management has experienced two major transitions: extensification of intensive herding, and development of supplementary/corral feeding in winter. The transitions were studied in six herding associations in different parts of the Finnish reindeer management area. It was suggested that intensive herding turns into more extensive forms as the reasons for intensive herding (predation, reindeer disappearing to foreign areas, protection of agricultural fields) gradually ceased to exist. The results of the study, based on interviews of elderly reindeer herders, were variable. In the three southern areas intensive herding changed to the free ranging system at the…

Guenon Radiation is Enriched by a New Species that Demonstrates an Evolutionary Complexity with Which we are yet to Become Familiar

2012

th September described this discovery to the scientific community (1). As is becoming increasingly frequent these days, given the high number of scientific articles, the media news reached us faster than the scientific information. The area known as TL2, a few hundred km as the crow flies south- west from the city of Kisangani, famous for its manufacturing, and important port on the Zaire river, is still uncontaminated and houses several important endemisms. This new species, studied in the area since 2007, on the basis of first sightings by the inhabitants of the zone and local hunters, has been named Cercopithecus lomamiensis. C.lomamiensis (CLO) is a tree-dweller and has been described i…

Factors influencing the distribution, abundance and nest-site selection of an endangered Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus) population in Sicily

2003

Egyptian vulture (Neophrom percnopterus) breeds in Sicily and, in 22 years of monitoring, has shown a decline followed by a slight recovery. We used Generalised Linear Models to predict: (1) the distribution range, (2) the habitat selection within the range, (3) the quality (i.e., occupation rate, breeding success) of breeding sites. Some 60% of Sicily proved to be unsuitable, being either too densely forested and without cliffs for nesting, or too densely populated, along with intensive agriculture. The models converged, indicating that the pairs select a precise upland habitat where low cliffs, distant from urban areas, are surrounded by arboreal crops and Mediterranean vegetation. The va…

Pool choice in a vertical landscape: tadpole rearing site flexibility in phytotelm-breeding frogs

2021

AbstractMany species of Neotropical frogs have evolved to deposit their tadpoles in small water bodies inside plant structures called phytotelmata. These pools are small enough to exclude large predators but have limited nutrients and high desiccation risk. Here, we explore phytotelm use by three common Neotropical species: Osteocephalus oophagus, an arboreal frog that periodically feeds eggs to its tadpoles; Dendrobates tinctorius, a tadpole-transporting poison frog with cannibalistic tadpoles; and Allobates femoralis, a terrestrial tadpole-transporting poison frog with omnivorous tadpoles. We found that D. tinctorius occupies pools across the chemical and vertical gradient, whereas A. fem…

Habitat preferences of edible dormouse, Glis glis italicus: implications for the management of arboreal mammals in Mediterranean forests

2015

Research on arboreal mammals living in Mediterranean forests is poor. Molecular research assessed the existence of an evolutionary significant unit in the edible dormouse populations living in south Italy, Sicily and Sardinia, and we decided to investigate the environmental factors capable of explaining its occurrence and abundance in Sicily, for a better management of these populations. We assessed the species habitat preferences by setting 25 large and 25 small nestboxes in five sample areas along an altitudinal gradient of the Madonie Range, and recorded habitat variables, food availability, and demographic data for two years. To obtain synthetic descriptors of the dormice habitat requir…

Chromosomal Dynamics in Cercopithecini Studied by Williams-Beuren probe mapping

2010

Chromosomal evolution in the tribe Cercopithecini and in related taxa is highly debated. Uncertainty in reconstruction is mainly related to the great genetic variability and polymorphism of the taxa. Recent molecular and karyological efforts individuate a split between genetically conservative, arbitrarily defi ned, “terrestrial” guenons and vervets, and genetically variable and derived “arboreal” guenons. We performed the mapping of WS loci probe (7q11.23) in order to verify the chromosomal dynamics of the genomes of three tree-dwelling species of the tribe: C. neglectus, C. mitis mitis, C. albogularis labiatus. Data from literature for the “ground-dwelling” Chlorocebus aethiops sabaeus ha…

L’IMPIEGO DELLA MORFOMETRIA GEOMETRICA E IL CONTRIBUTO DELLA CITOGENETICA NELLO STUDIO DELLA TRIBÙ CERCOPITHECINI (ORDINE PRIMATES)

The tribe Cercopithecini is a large and colourful taxon of African primates. Together with the tribe Papionini, it belongs to the subfamily Cercopithecinae (Gray, 1821). Despite several studies carried on the present species of Cercopithecini (guenons and sister genera), up to date a strong and clear systematics is missing. The evolutionary relationships inside the tribe are controversial, as are the numbers of genera and species. This lack prevents our full comprehension of the evolution of the tribe. We decided to investigate the tribe Cercopithecini through the use of two methodologies: geometric morphometrics and cytogenetics. The geometric morphometric survey was conducted on 1126 cran…

Il Dioniso delle "Baccanti" e i "piegatori di pini". Polivalenza di un'immagine leggendaria

2021

This paper investigates the mythical and ritual background of Dionysus’ representation as “fir-bender” in Euripides’ "Bacchae" (ll. 1061 ff.), in an attempt to shed light not only on the dramaturgical aspects of the tragic plot, but also on the cultural categories that make this representation intelligible to the Athenian audience at the end of the fifth century BC. Following Louis Gernet’s historical-anthropological approach based on the notion of "polyvalence des images", this paper aims to define a mythical pattern – the connection between the bending of a tree and the dismemberment of a human victim – already attested in the Attic legend of Theseus and Sinis, in which both characters se…