Community Engagement and the Effectiveness of Free-Roaming Cat Control Techniques: A Systematic Review.

Although free-roaming and feral cat control techniques are often applied in human communities, community engagement is not always considered. A systematic literature review following an update of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA 2020) methodology was conducted to evaluate whether community engagement influences the effectiveness of control techniques, excluding culling, in managing cat populations. The degree of community engagement was estimated based on the number of roles reported during the application of the control technique, which included adoption, trapping, care, and/or education. Education followed by adoption was the determining factor in the decreasing cat populations over time. The limited evaluations of control technique effectiveness, narrow geographical scope, and our simple measure of engagement emphasize the need for more detailed studies. These studies should evaluate the effectiveness of control techniques, while considering community engagement more comprehensively.

Are birds more afraid in urban parks or cemeteries? A Latin American study contrasts with results from Europe.

The escape behaviour, measured as flight initiation distance (FID; the distance at which individuals take flight when approached by a potential predator, usually a human in the study systems), is a measure widely used to study fearfulness and risk-taking in animals. Previous studies have shown significant differences in the escape behaviour of birds inhabiting cemeteries and urban parks in European cities, where birds seem to be shyer in the latter. We collected a regional dataset of the FID of birds inhabiting cemeteries and parks across Latin America in peri-urban, suburban and urban parks and cemeteries. FIDs were recorded for eighty-one bird species. Mean species-specific FIDs ranged from 1.9 to 19.7 m for species with at least two observations (fifty-seven species). Using Bayesian regression modelling and controlling for the phylogenetic relatedness of the FID among bird species and city and country, we found that, in contrast to a recent publication from Europe, birds escape earlier in cemeteries than parks in the studied Latin American cities. FIDs were also significantly shorter in urban areas than in peri-urban areas and in areas with higher human density. Our results indicate that some idiosyncratic patterns in animal fearfulness towards humans may emerge among different geographic regions, highlighting difficulties with scaling up and application of regional findings to other ecosystems and world regions. Such differences could be associated with intrinsic differences between the pool of bird species from temperate European and mostly tropical Latin American cities, characterized by different evolutionary histories, but also with differences in the historical process of urbanization.

Patagonian sheepdog: Genomic analyses trace the footprints of extinct UK herding dogs to South America.

Most modern dog breeds were developed within the last two hundred years, following strong and recent human selection based predominantly on aesthetics, with few modern breeds constructed solely to maximize their work potential. In many cases, these working breeds represent the last remnants of now lost populations. The Patagonian sheepdog (PGOD), a rare herding breed, is a remarkable example of such a population. Maintained as an isolated population for over 130 years, the PGOD offers a unique opportunity to understand the genetic relationship amongst modern herding breeds, determine key genomic structure of the founder PGOD populations, and investigate how canine genomic data can mirror human migration patterns. We thus analyzed the population structure of 159 PGOD, comparing them with 1514 dogs representing 175 established breeds. Using 150,069 SNPs from a high-density SNP genotyping array, we establish the genomic composition, ancestry, and genetic diversity of the population, complementing genomic data with the PGOD's migratory history to South America. Our phylogenetic analysis reveals that PGODs are most closely related to modern herding breeds hailing from the United Kingdom. Admixture models illustrate a greater degree of diversity and genetic heterogeneity within the very small PGOD population than in Western European herding breeds, suggesting the PGOD predates the 200-year-old construction of most pure breeds known today. We thus propose that PGODs originated from the foundational herding dogs of the UK, prior to the Victorian explosion of breeds, and that they are the closest link to a now-extinct population of herding dogs from which modern herding breeds descended.

A test of Darwin's naturalization conundrum in birds reveals enhanced invasion success in the presence of close relatives.

Biological invasions pose one of the most severe environmental challenges of the twenty-first century. A longstanding idea is that invasion risk is predictable based on the phylogenetic distance - and hence ecological resemblance - between non-native and native species. However, current evidence is contradictory. To explain these mixed results, it has been proposed that the effect is scale-dependent, with invasion inhibited by phylogenetic similarity at small spatial scales but enhanced at larger scales. Analyzing invasion outcomes in a global sample of bird communities, we find no evidence to support this hypothesis. Instead, our results suggest that invaders are locally more successful in the presence of closely related and ecologically similar species, at least in human-altered environments where the majority of invasions have occurred. Functional trait analyses further confirm that the ecological niches of invaders are phylogenetically conserved, supporting the notion that successful invasion in the presence of close relatives is driven by shared adaptations to the types of niches available in novel environments.

A Molecular Survey on Neglected Gurltia paralysans and Aelurostrongylus abstrusus Infections in Domestic Cats (Felis catus) from Southern Chile.

Gurltia paralysans and Aelurostrongylus abstrusus are neglected metastrongyloid nematode species which infect domestic and wild cats in South American countries and in Chile, but no epidemiological studies on concomitant infections have been conducted in Chile so far. The aim of this study was not only to evaluate the occurrence of concomitant infections, but also to identify epidemiological risk factors associated with of G. paralysans and A. abstrusus infections in urban domestic cats (Felis catus) from Southern Chile. Blood samples from clinically healthy domestic cats from three cities of Southern Chile-Temuco, Valdivia, and Puerto Montt-were analyzed by an experimental semi-nested PCR protocol. A total of 171 apparently healthy domestic cats in Temuco (n = 68), Valdivia (n = 50), and Puerto Montt (n = 53) were sampled and analyzed. A total of 93 domestic cats (54.4%) were positive for G. paralysans, and 34 (19.9%) were positive for A. abstrusus infections. From those animals, 34 (19.9%) were co-infected. Cats positive with G. paralysans were found in all three cities; 47.2% in Puerto Montt, 48% in Valdivia, and 64.7% in Temuco. Levels of infection for A. abstrusus in the population under study were 4% (Valdivia), 10% (Puerto Montt), and 32.4% (Temuco). The present large-scale epidemiological study confirmed the presence of these neglected nematodes in domestic cat populations in Southern Chile, and described the possible risk factors associated with feline gurltiosis and aelurostrongylosis.

The worldwide impact of urbanisation on avian functional diversity.

Urbanisation is driving rapid declines in species richness and abundance worldwide, but the general implications for ecosystem function and services remain poorly understood. Here, we integrate global data on bird communities with comprehensive information on traits associated with ecological processes to show that assemblages in highly urbanised environments have substantially different functional composition and 20% less functional diversity on average than surrounding natural habitats. These changes occur without significant decreases in functional dissimilarity between species; instead, they are caused by a decrease in species richness and abundance evenness, leading to declines in functional redundancy. The reconfiguration and decline of native functional diversity in cities are not compensated by the presence of exotic species but are less severe under moderate levels of urbanisation. Thus, urbanisation has substantial negative impacts on functional diversity, potentially resulting in impaired provision of ecosystem services, but these impacts can be reduced by less intensive urbanisation practices.

Behaviour and welfare of fattening lambs supplemented with varying sizes and types of straw.

The aim was to evaluate the effect of size (long or chopped wheat straw), type (barley or wheat) and presence/absence (1 week) of straw supplementation on behaviour and welfare of fattening lambs. Sixteen lambs (65 days) were individually housed to be used in two simultaneous experiments (8 lambs each) for 5 weeks of fattening. After a habituation period, they were offered straw that differed either in size (Experiment 1) or type (Experiment 2), which was followed by a week without straw and then reallocation of straw. Maintenance behaviours, play and stereotypies were analysed using video recording. Physiological stress responses were measured using blood samples taken at the end of the week without straw and after the reallocation of the straw. A preference test was performed during the last week. Concentrate and roughage consumption, average daily gain and conversion index were estimated. Lambs provided with long straw spent more time eating forage, playing and performed fewer stereotypies (Experiment 1). Lambs given wheat straw increased their play behaviour compared with those given barley straw, without affecting stereotypies (Experiment 2). When the straw was removed, lambs performed more behaviours associated with stress; however, this was not reflected in blood stress indicators. Lambs clearly preferred long straw over chopped straw, but no clear preference was observed between wheat and barley straw. The amount of forage intake was consistent with the time spent eating forage, but the amount of concentrate intake did not vary with eating concentrate behaviour, since the amount of concentrate intake was higher when the straw was removed, especially in Experiment 2. Our results show that size more than type of straw supplement impact the behaviour of lambs. Long straw reduces the stereotypies and increases play. This may improve the welfare and performance of fattening lambs, adding ethical value to a highly appreciated product.

Aerobic power and flight capacity in birds: a phylogenetic test of the heart-size hypothesis.

Flight capacity is one of the most important innovations in animal evolution; it only evolved in insects, birds, mammals and the extinct pterodactyls. Given that powered flight represents a demanding aerobic activity, an efficient cardiovascular system is essential for the continuous delivery of oxygen to the pectoral muscles during flight. It is well known that the limiting step in the circulation is stroke volume (the volume of blood pumped from the ventricle to the body during each beat), which is determined by the size of the ventricle. Thus, the fresh mass of the heart represents a simple and repeatable anatomical measure of the aerobic power of an animal. Although several authors have compared heart masses across bird species, a phylogenetic comparative analysis is still lacking. By compiling heart sizes for 915 species and applying several statistical procedures controlling for body size and/or testing for adaptive trends in the dataset (e.g. model selection approaches, phylogenetic generalized linear models), we found that (residuals of) heart size is consistently associated with four categories of flight capacity. In general, our results indicate that species exhibiting continuous hovering flight (i.e. hummingbirds) have substantially larger hearts than other groups, species that use flapping flight and gliding show intermediate values, and that species categorized as poor flyers show the smallest values. Our study reveals that on a broad scale, routine flight modes seem to have shaped the energetic requirements of birds sufficiently to be anatomically detected at the comparative level.

Urbanisation and the loss of phylogenetic diversity in birds.

Despite the recognised conservation value of phylogenetic diversity, little is known about how it is affected by the urbanisation process. Combining a complete avian phylogeny with surveys along urbanisation gradients from five continents, we show that highly urbanised environments supported on average 450 million fewer years of evolutionary history than the surrounding natural environments. This loss was primarily caused by species loss and could have been higher had not been partially compensated by the addition of urban exploiters and some exotic species. Highly urbanised environments also supported fewer evolutionary distinctive species, implying a disproportionate loss of evolutionary history. Compared with highly urbanised environments, changes in phylogenetic richness and evolutionary distinctiveness were less substantial in moderately urbanised environments. Protecting pristine environments is therefore essential for maintaining phylogenetic diversity, but moderate levels of urbanisation still preserve much of the original diversity.

Urbanisation tolerance and the loss of avian diversity.

Urbanisation is considered an important driver of current biodiversity loss, but the underlying causes are not fully understood. It is generally assumed that this loss reflects the fact that most organisms do not tolerate well the environmental alterations associated with urbanisation. Nevertheless, current evidence is inconclusive and the alternative that the biodiversity loss is the result of random mechanisms has never been evaluated. Analysing changes in abundance between urbanised environments and their non-urbanised surroundings of > 800 avian species from five continents, we show here that although random processes account for part of the species loss associated with urbanisation, much of the loss is associated with a lack of appropriate adaptations of most species for exploiting resources and avoiding risks of the urban environments. These findings have important conservation implications because the extinction of species with particular features should have higher impact on biodiversity and ecosystem function than a random loss.