Mark William Chynoweth

Biology and impacts of Pacific island invasive species. 9. Capra hircus, the feral goat (Mammalia: Bovidae).

Abstract: Domestic goats, Capra hircus, were intentionally introduced to numerous oceanic islands beginning in the sixteenth century. The remarkable ability of C. hircus to survive in a variety of conditions has enabled this animal to become feral and impact native ecosystems on islands throughout the world. Direct ecological impacts include consumption and trampling of native plants, leading to plant community modification and transformation of ecosystem structure. Although the negative impacts of feral goats are well known and effective management strategies have been developed to control this invasive species, large populations persist on many islands. This review summarizes impacts of feral goats on Pacific island ecosystems and management strategies available to control this invasive species.

Home Range Use and Movement Patterns of Non-Native Feral Goats in a Tropical Island Montane Dry Landscape

Advances in wildlife telemetry and remote sensing technology facilitate studies of broad-scale movements of ungulates in relation to phenological shifts in vegetation. In tropical island dry landscapes, home range use and movements of non-native feral goats (Capra hircus) are largely unknown, yet this information is important to help guide the conservation and restoration of some of the world’s most critically endangered ecosystems. We hypothesized that feral goats would respond to resource pulses in vegetation by traveling to areas of recent green-up. To address this hypothesis, we fitted six male and seven female feral goats with Global Positioning System (GPS) collars equipped with an Argos satellite upload link to examine goat movements in relation to the plant phenology using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Movement patterns of 50% of males and 40% of females suggested conditional movement between non-overlapping home ranges throughout the year. A shift in NDVI values corresponded with movement between primary and secondary ranges of goats that exhibited long-distance movement, suggesting that vegetation phenology as captured by NDVI is a good indicator of the habitat and movement patterns of feral goats in tropical island dry landscapes. In the context of conservation and restoration of tropical island landscapes, the results of our study identify how non-native feral goats use resources across a broad landscape to sustain their populations and facilitate invasion of native plant communities.

Wolf diet in an agricultural landscape of north-eastern Turkey

Abstract In this study, we investigated wolf feeding ecology in Kars province, north-eastern Turkey, by analysing 72 scat samples collected in spring 2013. Ongoing camera trap surveys suggest that large wild ungulates are exceptionally rare in the region. On the contrary, livestock is abundant. Accordingly, scats analysis revealed that livestock constituted most of the biomass intake for wolves, although small mammals were the most frequent prey items. Wild ungulates were occasional prey, and although wolves make use of the main village garbage dump as a food source, garbage remains were scarce in scat samples. Wolf dependence on anthropogenic resources, primarily livestock, generates human-wildlife conflicts in the study area. Uncontrolled carcass disposal seems to boost this wolf behaviour. Synanthropy enhances the probability of wolf-human encounters and thus increases the risk of direct persecution, vehicle collisions, and hybridisation with dogs. When livestock is not available, small mammals are an important alternative prey for wolves. This may increase interspecific competition, particularly with lynx, which is also lacking natural prey in the area. Our preliminary results contribute to wolf ecology and conservation in the Anatolian-Caucasian range, where further studies are urgently needed to generate baseline data.

Geolocator tracking of Great Reed-Warblers (Acrocephalus arundinaceus) identifies key regions for migratory wetland specialists in the Middle East and sub-Saharan East Africa

ABSTRACT Wetland-dependent migratory songbirds represent one of the most vulnerable groups of birds on the planet, with >67% of wetland-obligate species threatened with extinction. One of the major hurdles for conservation efforts is determining the migration routes, stopover sites, and wintering sites of these species. We describe an annual migration cycle revealed by geolocator tracking of Great Reed-Warblers (Acrocephalus arundinaceus) breeding in the Aras River wetlands of eastern Turkey. Because of its relatively large size and breeding ground fidelity, the Great Reed-Warbler is an excellent candidate for geolocator studies and can serve as an indicator species for other wetland songbirds, many of which are particularly threatened in the Middle East. All birds made use of at least 2 wintering grounds in South Sudan, on the Indian Ocean coast and on the western shores of Lake Malawi, as well as several important stopover sites. We also identified a counterclockwise migration path into and out of Africa. Throughout the year, these birds encountered 277 Important Bird Areas, >40% of which had little or no protection. Many species of wetland songbird, particularly threatened species, may be too rare or too small to be the focus of similar studies. Our results not only allow for comparisons with other Great Reed-Warbler populations, but also reveal previously unknown stopover and wintering locations to target conservation efforts that will help wetland-dependent bird species in the Middle East and East Africa.