Quaternary climatic oscillations strongly influenced diversification in Palearctic mammals, yet patterns of genetic structure and speciation in Anatolian rodents remain insufficiently resolved. We examined the genetic variation of social voles (Microtus socialis species complex) to clarify their phylogeography and population structure in Anatolia. The mitochondrial (Cytochrome b), nuclear (two exon regions), and microsatellite data were analysed from 264 individuals sampled across 157 localities and combined with available GenBank sequences. Mitochondrial phylogenies revealed two well-supported lineages corresponding to refugial areas in Central and Eastern Anatolia, with divergence dating to the Middle Pleistocene. In contrast, the nuclear markers showed widespread haplotype sharing among taxa, and microsatellite loci detected sympatric admixture between Microtus anatolicus and Microtus irani-schidlovskii species complex at the Taurus Mountains. These results indicate incomplete lineage sorting and mito-nuclear discordance among young evolutionary lineages. The Central Anatolian Plateau likely functioned as glacial refugium for M. anatolicus and Microtus dogramacii, whereas the Mediterranean and Iran-Anatolia biomes shaped the current distribution boundaries. Our findings highlight Anatolia’s dual role as a center of endemism and a contact zone for postglacial expansion, providing new insight into the speciation processes and regional biogeography in Palearctic voles.
Understanding the movement ecology of target species is important for developing effective wildlife management strategies. This is particularly important for highly adaptable species, such as wild boars (Sus scrofa). Movement patterns of wild boars may vary across regions in response to both internal and external factors. Therefore, identifying these factors is essential for mitigating human-wild boar conflicts. Insights into the movement ecology of juvenile wild boars could contribute to more effective population management and disease control. In this study, we used ear-tag global positioning system (GPS) telemetry to investigate seasonal home-range dynamics and resource selection patterns in juvenile wild boar. Home-range sizes were similar between male and female boars during spring–summer, whereas juvenile male boars showed larger home ranges during autumn–winter. Forest areas were consistently selected across seasons, whereas wetland water bodies were preferred in spring–summer and bamboo forests in autumn–winter. Our findings indicate that sex and season influence juvenile wild boar movement and resource selection. Considering the tendency of juvenile wild boars to be captured in traps, integrating seasonal resource-selection patterns into trapping strategies may enhance management effectiveness.
Understanding how large mammals adjust their behavior across heterogeneous and increasingly human-modified landscapes is essential for conservation planning. We investigated diel activity patterns of the lowland tapir (Tapirus terrestris) across six sites in the Colombian Orinoquia using a two-component von Mises mixture model. From 1,881 photographic events, we retained 317 independent detections after applying a 30-minute independence filter from 111 camera traps (2018–2023) and evaluated how landscape variables were associated with activity timing across two daily activity components. Tapir activity was bimodal across all sites, with a dominant evening component (κ = 0.87) and a secondary pre-dawn component (κ = 5.35). Dense forest cover and gallery and riparian forest cover were positively associated with later pre-dawn peaks, whereas other covariates showed no credible association. LOO model comparison supported the site + covariate model as the best description of tapir diel activity. The tight pre-dawn bout (κ = 5.35) contrasted markedly with the broader evening bout (κ = 0.87), suggesting distinct behavioral functions for each activity period. Lowland tapirs maintained a consistent bimodal schedule across diverse habitats, with forest cover supporting more stable pre-dawn behavioral routines. These findings highlight the importance of maintaining habitat quality and connectivity to support behavioral persistence of large herbivores in rapidly changing tropical landscapes.
In rapidly developing biodiversity-rich tropical countries, securing large ranges for highly mobile species like the Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) is a major conservation challenge. Asian elephant range suffered a major range collapse and the remnant areas are embedded in human-modified landscapes where conflicts between people and elephants are precipitously increasing. India harbors the largest Asian elephant population. Here, the east-central region suffers disproportionately high levels of negative human-elephant interactions. Within east-central region, we studied elephant home ranges and habitat selection in Chhattisgarh, where the species recolonized from 2000 onwards. We satellite-collared five elephants and assessed their home ranges using autocorrelated kernel density estimates (AKDE). We evaluated within-home-range habitat selection using multifactorial generalized linear mixed-effects model for binomial error distribution with a logit link. The average 95
