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opencc-by-4.0Dec 2022View details →

Figure 3 in An updated checklist of Mammals of Uttarakhand, India

Figure 3. Number of threatened species in different categories of IUCN.

opencc-by-4.0Dec 2022View details →

Figure 2 in An updated checklist of Mammals of Uttarakhand, India

Figure 2. Distribution of Mammalian species in Uttarakhand based on altitudinal zones.

opencc-by-4.0Dec 2022View details →

Figure 1 in An updated checklist of Mammals of Uttarakhand, India

Figure 1. Map of the Uttarakhand is showing the surveyed localities and altitudinal ranges.

opencc-zeroFeb 2024View details →

Vocal range and ultraviolet-induced photoluminescence in gliding mammals and their relatives

Gliding is only present in six extant groups of mammals – interestingly, despite divergent evolutionary histories, all mammalian gliders are strictly nocturnal. Gliding mammals also seem to have relatively high rates of ultrasound use and ultraviolet-induced photoluminescence (UVP) in contrast with their close relatives. Therefore, we hypothesized that, despite diverging lineages, gliding mammals use similar modes of cryptic communication compared to their non-gliding counterparts. We developed two datasets containing the vocal range (minimum-maximum of the dominant harmonic; kHz) and UVP of 73 and 82 species, respectively; we report five novel vocal repertoires and 57 novel observations of the presence or absence of UVP. We complemented these datasets with information about body size, diel activity patterns, habitat openness, and sociality to explore possible covariates related to vocal production and UVP. We found that the maximum of the dominant harmonic was significant higher in gliding mammals when vocalizing than their non-gliding relatives. Additionally, we found that nocturnality was the only significant predictor of UVP, consistent with the previous hypothesis that luminophores primarily drive UVP in mammal fur. In contrast, however, we did not find UVP ubiquitous in nocturnal mammals, suggesting that some unknown process may contribute to variation in this trait.

opencc-zeroApr 2024View details →

Neotropical mammal responses to forest fires in Serra do Amolar, Brazil

The increasing frequency and severity of human-caused fires likely have deleterious effects on species distribution and persistence. In 2020, megafires in the Brazilian Pantanal burned 43% of the biome's unburned area and resulted in mass mortality of wildlife. We investigated changes in habitat use or occupancy for an assemblage of eight mammal species in Serra do Amolar, Brazil, following the 2020 fires using a pre- and post-fire camera trap dataset. Additionally, we estimated density for two naturally marked species, jaguars Panthera onca and ocelots Leopardus pardalis. Of the eight species, six (ocelots, collared peccaries Dicotyles tajacu, giant armadillos Priodontes maximus, Azara's agouti Dasyprocta azarae, red brocket deer Mazama americana, and tapirs Tapirus terrestris) had declining occupancy following fires, and one had stable habitat use (pumas Puma concolor). Giant armadillo experienced the most precipitous decline in occupancy from 0.431 ± 0.171 to 0.077 ± 0.044 after the fires. Jaguars were the only species with increasing habitat use, from 0.393 ± 0.127 to 0.753 ± 0.085. Jaguar density remained stable across years (2.8 ± 1.3, 3.7 ± 1.3, 2.6 ± 0.85 / 100km2), while ocelot density increased from 13.9 ± 3.2 to 16.1 ± 5.2 / 100km2. However, the low number of both jaguars and ocelots recaptured after the fire period suggests that immigration may have sustained the population. Our results indicate that the megafires will have significant consequences for species occupancy and fitness in fire affected areas. The scale of megafires may inhibit successful recolonization, thus wider studies are needed to investigate population trends.

opencc-zeroSep 2021View details →

Rapid morphological change in a small mammal species after habitat fragmentation over the past half-century

Study Aim: To compare the rapid shifts in body size of mainland and island populations of a native rodent and examine the mechanisms underlying these changes. Location: Thousand Island Lake, China, which was created in 1959 when the Xin'anjiang Dam was constructed for generating hydroelectricity. Taxon: The Chinese white-bellied rat, Niviventer confucianus. Methods: Field surveys were conducted from 2015 to 2018 to collect data on body size of the rodents from a set of islands and nearby mainland sites. We constructed multiple linear models to examine the relationships between body size (length and mass) of rodents and biological variables (predators, interspecific and intraspecific competitors, and food availability). We also conducted structural equation modeling (SEM) by constructing models via confirmatory path analysis. Results: All island populations of N. confucianus had significantly larger body size (both body mass and body length) than their mainland counterparts. Moreover, populations on small and more isolated islands had larger body size than their relatives on big islands. The relative absence of predators (large-bodied mammals, snakes, and raptors) on islands was most strongly associated with shifts in the body size of rodents. The documented changes occurred after only a half-century of fragmentation. Main conclusions: The observed rapid body enlargement of rodents after habitat fragmentation is consistent with a release from predation pressure. SEM indicated that island area, rather than island isolation, had positive effects on the richness of predators, interspecific competitors and food resources, which then had an indirect impact on body size of the rodents. In this study, we report a remarkably rapid case of mammal morphological shifts in a small mammal in response to habitat fragmentation. Given the omnipresence of dams and other anthropogenic disturbances, our findings suggest that a wave of rapid phenotypic shifts in terrestrial vertebrates is taking place in the Anthropocene.

opencc-zeroOct 2021View details →

Data from: The birth hour of mammals: insights from intra-specific variation in wild blue monkeys

While most mammals show birth hour peaks at times of the 24-hour cycle when they are less active, there are exceptions to this general pattern. Such exceptions have been little explored, but may clarify evolutionary reasons for the diel timing of births. We investigated intraspecific variation in birth hour in wild blue monkeys (Cercopithecus mitis stuhlmanni), a diurnal primate, to identify factors that differentiated daytime vs. nighttime births. Behavioral and life history data from 14 groups over 14 years revealed that 4% of 484 births occurred during the day. Probability of daytime birth varied with mother's age, peaking at 15.7 years. Births whose annual timing deviated most from the population's peak birth months were five times more likely to occur during daytime than those that deviated less. There was no evidence that mother's rank or infant sex influenced birth hour, and mixed evidence that daytime births were more probable in larger groups. Survivorship did not differ significantly for infants born during the day vs. night. Prime-aged mothers may be able to handle the consequences of an unusual birth hour more successfully than mothers with less experience or those weakened by age. Daytime birth may be more advantageous in the off-season because nights are colder at that time of year. These findings are consistent with hypotheses relating birth hour to the risk of losing social protection in group-living animals, but are not consistent with those emphasizing risk of conspecific harassment. Patterns of within-species variation can help in evaluating evolutionary hypotheses for non-random birth hour.

opencc-zeroNov 2021View details →

Data from: From microbes to mammals: pond biodiversity homogenization across different land-use types in an agricultural landscape

Local biodiversity patterns are expected to strongly reflect variation in topography, land use, dispersal boundaries, nutrient supplies, contaminant spread, management practices and other anthropogenic influences. In contrast, studies focusing on specific taxa revealed a biodiversity homogenization effect in areas subjected to long-term intensive industrial agriculture. We investigated whether land use affects biodiversity levels and community composition (α & β diversity) in 67 kettle holes (KH) representing small aquatic islands embedded in the patchwork matrix of a largely agricultural landscape comprising grassland, forest, and arable fields. These KH, similar to millions of standing water bodies of glacial origin, spread across northern Europe, Asia, and North America, are physico-chemically diverse, differ in the degree of coupling with their surroundings. We assessed biodiversity patterns of eukaryotes, Bacteria and Archaea in relation to environmental features of the KH, using deep-amplicon-sequencing of environmental DNA (eDNA). First, we asked whether deep sequencing of eDNA provides a representative picture of KH biodiversity across the Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukaryotes. Second, we investigated if and to what extent KH biodiversity is influenced by the surrounding land-use. Our data shows that deep eDNA amplicon sequencing is useful for in-depth assessments of cross-domain biodiversity comprising both micro- and macro-organisms, but, has limitations with respect to single-taxa conservation studies. Using this broad method, we show that sediment eDNA, integrating several years to decades, depicts the history of agricultural land-use intensification. The latter, coupled with landscape wide nutrient enrichment (including by atmospheric deposition), groundwater connectivity between KH and organismal (active and passive) dispersal in the tight network of ponds, resulted in a biodiversity homogenization in the KH water, levelling off today's detectable differences in KH biodiversity between land-use types.

opencc-by-4.0Dec 2021View details →

Dung beetle and mammal dung data across a land-use gradient in Sabah, Malaysia

Dung beetle and mammal dung baited pitfall trap data across a land-use gradient from primary tropical forest to plantations in Sabah, Malaysia from February to April 2018.  The dataset accompanies the following journal article: Li Yuen Chiew, Talya D. Hackett, Jedediah F. Brodie, Shu Woan Teoh, David F. R. P. Burslem, Glen Reynolds, Nicolas J. Deere, Charles S. Vairappan, Eleanor M. Slade. Tropical forest dung beetle-mammal dung interaction networks remain similar across an environmental disturbance gradient. Journal of Animal Ecology. This Project was funded under United Nations Development Programme (UNDP): Biodiversity Conservation in Multiple Use Forest Landscapes and the Global Environmental Facility, and co-financed by Sabah Forestry Department, Yayasan Sabah, and WWF.

opencc-zeroDec 2021View details →

Data from: Resource partitioning and interspecific interactions among sympatric rain forest arboreal mammals of the Western Ghats, India

Resource partitioning in a community of diurnal arboreal mammals consisting of the lion-tailed macaque Macaca silenus, bonnet macaque (BM) Macaca radiata, Nilgiri langur Semnopithecus johnii, and the Indian giant squirrel Ratufa indica of the Western Ghats, southern India, was studied. Differences in their diet, vertical stratification, food resource niche breadth, niche overlap, and behavioral interactions were examined. Resource partitioning was through differential habitat use, resource use, and vertical stratification. Of the four species, the BM was not a resident species and made frequent forays into evergreen forest from the adjacent deciduous forest during the flowering season of Cullenia exarillata and fruiting season of Ficus microcarpa. The macaques had narrower niches, and the langur and the squirrel had wider niches. Niche overlap was highest between the two macaques. Overlap among the study species was particularly pronounced during the flowering of C. exarillata. There was significant correlation between niche overlap and intolerance among the study species. Certain species pairs showed little or no mutual intolerance despite high overlap. Cooperative interactions such as alarm calls occurred more frequently among the resident species. Interaction matrices revealed an underlying pattern of interspecific dominance hierarchy, with the BM dominating over the other three species. Our study suggests that the BM do not coexist with the other three because of high overlap with its congener and low occurrence of cooperative interactions.

opencc-zeroDec 2021View details →

An ecoregion-based approach to restoring the world's intact large mammal assemblages

Assemblages of large mammal species play a disproportionate role in the structure and composition of natural habitats. Loss of these assemblages destabilizes natural systems, while their recovery can restore ecological integrity. Here we take an ecoregion-based approach to identify landscapes that retain their historically present large mammal assemblages, and map ecoregions where reintroduction of 1–3 species could restore intact assemblages. Intact mammal assemblages occur across more than one-third of the 730 terrestrial ecoregions where large mammals were historically present, and 22% of these ecoregions retain complete assemblages across >20% of the ecoregion area. Twenty species, if reintroduced or allowed to recolonize through improved connectivity, can trigger restoration of complete assemblages over 54% of the terrestrial realm (11,116,000 km2). Each of these species have at least two large, intact habitat areas (>10,000 km2) in a given ecoregion. Timely integration of recovery efforts for large mammals strengthens area-based targets being considered under the Convention on Biological Diversity.

opencc-zeroFeb 2022View details →

Artificial selection for predatory behavior results in dietary niche differentiation in an omnivorous mammal

The diet of an individual is a result of the availability of dietary items and the individual's foraging skills and preferences. Behavioral differences may thus influence diet variation, but the evolvability of diet choice through behavioral evolution has not been studied. We used experimental evolution combined with a field enclosure experiment to test whether behavioral selection leads to dietary divergence. We analysed the individual dietary niche via stable isotope ratios of nitrogen (δ15N) and carbon (δ13C) in the hair of an omnivorous mammal, bank vole, from 4 lines selected for predatory behavior and 4 unselected control lines. Predatory voles had higher hair δ15N values than control voles, supporting our hypothesis that predatory voles would consume a higher trophic level diet (more animal vs. plant foods). This difference was significant in the early but not the late summer season. The δ13C values also indicated a seasonal change in the consumed plant matter and a difference in food sources among selection lines in the early summer. These results imply that environmental factors interact with evolved behavioral tendencies to determine dietary niche heterogeneity. Behavioral selection thus has potential to contribute to the evolution of diet choice and ultimately the species' ecological niche breadth.

opencc-zeroMar 2022View details →

Analysis of biodiversity data suggests that mammal species are hidden in predictable places

Research in the biological sciences is hampered by the Linnean shortfall, which describes the number of hidden species that are suspected of existing without formal species description. Using machine learning and species delimitation methods, we built a predictive model that incorporates some 5.0 × 105 data points for 117 species traits, 3.3 × 106 occurrence records, and 9.1 × 105 gene sequences from 4,310 recognized species of mammals. Delimitation results suggest that there are hundreds of undescribed species in class Mammalia. Predictive modeling indicates that most of these hid- den species will be found in small-bodied taxa with large ranges characterized by high variability in temperature and precipitation. As demonstrated by a quantitative analysis of the literature, such taxa have long been the focus of taxonomic research. This analysis supports taxonomic hypotheses regarding where undescribed diversity is likely to be found and highlights the need for investment in taxonomic research to overcome the Linnean shortfall.

Short-term social dynamics following anthropogenic and natural disturbances in a free-living mammal

Anthropogenic disturbances are widely recognized for their far-reaching consequences on the survival and reproduction of wildlife, but we understand comparatively little about their effects on the social lives of group-living animals. Here we examined these short-term changes in affiliative behavior as part of a long-term study on a human-tolerant and socially flexible population of California ground squirrels (Otospermophilus beecheyi). We used social network analysis to examine short-term changes in affiliative behavior and individual consistency in response to disturbances by humans, domestic dogs, or a natural predator (the coyote). Overall, juveniles were more involved than adults in affiliative interactions, but the short-term directional effects of these acute disturbances on social cohesion varied by disturbance type. Human and dog presence reduced aboveground connectivity, particularly for juveniles, whereas disturbances by coyotes generally promoted it. Beyond these effects, we also detected non-random responses to disturbances, though individuals were not very consistent in their directional response to different disturbance types. Our results demonstrate the flexible changes in social behavior triggered by short-term disturbances imposed by humans and other threats. More generally, our findings elucidate the underappreciated sensitivity of animal social interactions to short-term ecological disturbances, raising key questions about their consequences on the social lives of animals.

opencc-by-4.0Dec 2021View details →

Fig. 2 in Seasonal Variation In A Small-Mammal Assemblage In A Priority Site For Conservation In South-Central Chile

Fig. 2. Rodent capture rate (plus standard deviations) in the study

opencc-by-4.0Mar 2015View details →

Fig. 2 in A Pasture Of Big Ungulate Animals As Key Ecological Factor Influencing On The Fluctuation Of Natural Habitat Of Steppe Herbivorous Mammals

Fig. 2. The steppe marmot quantity dynamics in the 20–21th century (cattle vs the steppe marmot).

Data and code from: Multiple sex chromosome drivers in a mammal with three sex chromosomes

Eukaryotes with separate males and females display a great diversity in the way they determine sex, but it is still unclear what evolutionary forces cause transitions between sex-determining systems. Rather that the lack of hypotheses, the problem is the scarcity of adequate biological systems to test them. Here, we take advantage of the recent evolution of a feminizing X chromosome (called X*) in the African pygmy mouse Mus minutoides, to investigate one of the evolutionary forces hypothesized to cause such transitions, namely sex chromosome drive (i.e., biased transmission of sex chromosomes to the next generation). Through extensive molecular sexing of pups at weaning, we reveal the existence of a remarkable male sex chromosome drive system in this species, whereby direction and strength of drive is conditional upon the genotype of males' partners: males transmit their Y at a rate close to 80% when mating with XX or XX* females, and only 36% when mating with X*Y females. Using mathematical modelling, we explore the joint evolution of these unusual sex-determining and drive systems, revealing that different sequences of events could have led to the evolution of this bizarre system, and that the "conditional" nature of sex chromosome drive plays a crucial role in the short- and long-term maintenance of the three sex chromosomes.

Trends in functional composition of small mammal communities across millennial time scales

Rich fossil deposits of the late Quaternary help us understand responses of biodiversity to global change and thus predict the future of ecosystems. Studies from the late Quaternary, however, are often limited taxonomically, geographically (often one site), and by their use of largely taxon-based metrics that do not inform about ecosystem-level consequences of biodiversity change. Here, we compare change in functional composition of small mammal communities at El Mirón Cave (Spain) and Samwell Cave (California, USA) across the last 22,000 years, and examine their relationships with climate and vegetation. We find opposing temporal trends between the two locations. European small mammal communities occupied increasingly greater trait space, driven by increases in arboreal granivory and frugivory as ground-dwelling herbivory declined toward the late Holocene. North American communities occupied smaller trait space as ground-level foraging and insectivory increased and arboreal herbivory and mean body mass declined. Our results point to the importance of the interaction between climate change and vegetation shifts for explaining changes in small mammal functional diversity, through their synergistic impacts on individual traits. Specifically, increasing temperature across both continents likely led to increases in nocturnal activity and declines in assemblage mean body mass, while transition to mixed forest (El Mirón) or open woodland (Samwell) resulted in increasing structural complexity of vegetation that potentially supported more diverse community-level dietary characteristics. These results demonstrate the ability of a trait-based approach to identify how environmental variables correlate with changes in community functional composition through time and gain insight into the potential consequences of environmental change for ecosystem functioning.

opencc-zeroDec 2021View details →

Biogeography of bird and mammal trophic structures

Does climate determine the trophic organization of communities around the world? A recent study showed that a limited number of community trophic structures emerge when co-occurrence of trophic guilds among large mammals is examined globally. We ask whether the pattern is general across a all terrestrial mammals (n=5272) and birds (n=9993). We found that the six community-trophic structures previously identified with large mammals are largely maintained when all mammals and birds are examined, both together and separately, and that bioclimatic variables, including net primary productivity (NPP), are strongly related to variation in the geographical boundaries of community trophic structures. We argue that results are consistent with the view that trophic communities are self-organized structures optimizing energy flows, and that climate likely acts as the main control parameter by modulating the amount of solar energy available for conversion by plants and percolated through food webs across trophic communities. Gradual changes in climate parameters would thus be expected to trigger abrupt changes in energy flows resulting from phase transitions (tipping points) between different dynamical stable states. We expect future research to examine if our results are general across organisms, ecosystems, scales, and methodologies, and whether inferences rooted in complex systems theory are supported. The emergence of general patterns in the functional properties of animal communities at broad scales supports the emergence of food-web biogeography as a sub-discipline of biogeography focused on the analysis of the geographical distributions of trophic relationships among organisms.

Maternal survival costs in an asocial mammal: Data and analysis

Abstract. Maternal characteristics, social dynamics, and environmental factors can all influence reproduction and survival as well as shape trade-offs that might arise between these components of fitness. Short-lived mammals like the golden-mantled ground squirrel (GMGS; Callospermophilus lateralis) tend to maximize effort towards current reproduction at the expense of survival but may be complicated by other aspects of the species' life history and environment.. Here, we use 25 years of data (1995-2020) collected from a population of GMGS at the Rocky Mountain Biological Research Laboratory in Gothic, Colorado, to test the effect of several maternal characteristics (e.g., age, experience, timing of litter emergence), social context (e.g., litter sex ratio, kin density), and environmental context (e.g., date of bare ground, length of vegetative growing season) on survival of reproductive female GMGS using Cox proportional hazard models. Our results indicated that social dynamics (i.e., density) and environmental conditions (i.e., standardized first day of permanent snow cover and length of growing season) explained significant variation in annual maternal survival, while maternal characteristics did not. A higher density of related breeding females and the total number of females (both related and unrelated to the focal mother) were associated with an increase in the mortality hazard. A later standardized date of the first day of permanent snow cover and a shorter growing season both reduced the maternal mortality hazard. Together, our results suggest that factors extrinsic to the squirrels affect maternal survival, and thus may also influence local population growth and dynamics in GMGS and other short-lived, territorial mammal species.