From the Andes to the Apennines: Rise and Fall of a Free-Ranging Population of Feral Llamas.

Since 2016, a feral population of llama Lama glama has been present in Central Italy after escaping from a zoological garden and starting to reproduce. We updated demographic status and distribution of this population and investigated societal perception towards the llama presence and management in the area through a standard questionnaire. Field data were collected through direct (transects traveled by car and on foot) and indirect (newspapers, social networks and online platforms) research. The feral population appears to be declining. In July 2020, the population was represented by three individuals (one male and two females), identified also through photoidentification, most likely located within a 40-hectare area. The majority of citizens are aware of the presence of feral llamas and show a positive attitude toward them and a negative one toward management actions. The case of feral llamas in Italy is an evident example of unsafe management of a species which should have kept in a zoo and which, once set free, was able to catalyze the attention of the general public. The decline of this population limits the need of drastic management actions that, given the appreciation expressed by people and press toward these animals, would have been at risk of conflict with the public opinion. Removal action should be rapidly taken, i.e., before any demographic rebound and before the population becomes a stable feature of the local landscape.

Effects of soil preservation for biodiversity monitoring using environmental DNA.

Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding is becoming a key tool for biodiversity monitoring over large geographical or taxonomic scales and for elusive taxa such as soil organisms. Increasing sample sizes and interest in remote or extreme areas often require the preservation of soil samples and thus deviations from optimal standardized protocols. However, we still ignore the impact of different methods of soil sample preservation on the results of metabarcoding studies and there is no guideline for best practices so far. Here, we assessed the impact of four methods of soil sample preservation that can be conveniently used also in metabarcoding studies targeting remote or difficult to access areas. Tested methods include: preservation at room temperature for 6 hr, preservation at 4°C for 3 days, desiccation immediately after sampling and preservation for 21 days, and desiccation after 6 hr at room temperature and preservation for 21 days. For each preservation method, we benchmarked resulting estimates of taxon diversity and community composition of three different taxonomic groups (bacteria, fungi and eukaryotes) in three different habitats (forest, river bank and grassland) against results obtained under ideal conditions (i.e., extraction of eDNA immediately after sampling). Overall, the different preservation methods only marginally impaired results and only under certain conditions. When rare taxa were considered, we detected small but significant changes in molecular operational taxonomic units (MOTU) richness of bacteria, fungi and eukaryotes across treatments, but MOTU richness was similar across preservation methods if rare taxa were not considered. All the approaches were able to identify differences in community structure among habitats, and the communities retrieved using the different preservation conditions were extremely similar. We propose guidelines on the selection of the optimal soil sample preservation conditions for metabarcoding studies, depending on the practical constraints, costs and ultimate research goals.

Deforestation and the structure of frog communities in the Humedale Terraba-Sierpe, Costa Rica.

Loss of tropical forests is a major cause of biodiversity loss worldwide. Although drastic modification of the habitat has been shown to negatively affect amphibians, we are far from a complete understanding of the response of amphibian communities to deforestation. We studied frog assemblages in a gradient of forest modification in a humid area of Costa Rica, where the primary forest has been partially converted into pasture. The study area is a mosaic of primary palm forest, abandoned pasture covered by secondary forest, and pasture. Species richness was assessed by randomized walk surveys and audio strip transects. We also measured ecological features to evaluate the relationship between landscape alteration and amphibian distribution. The study area hosted a large number of amphibian species. We focused our monitoring on six anurans: Leptodactylus labialis, Eleutherodactylus fitzingeri, E. diastema, Hyla rosenbergi, H. microcephale, and Cochranella granulosa. Three species (L. labialis, H. rosenbergi, and H. microcephala) were most abundant in pasture areas with livestock presence, while E. fitzingeri, E. diastema, and C. granulosa were associated with primary forest. Most of the variation in community structure was explained by the joint effect of forest alteration and presence of livestock. Whereas forest specialists suffer direct negative effect from deforestation, generalist species can take advantage of forest alteration and the presence of farm animals. Species that are able to take advantage of the new environmental characteristics associated with human modifications of landscapes will come to prevail in the new communities.