Research on Wildlife Behavior and Biodiversity

A special issue of Life (ISSN 2075-1729). This special issue belongs to the section "Diversity and Ecology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2023) | Viewed by 3157

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Animal Ethology and Wildlife Management, Faculty of Animal Sciences and Bioeconomy, University of Life Sciences in Lublin, Akademicka 13, 20-950 Lublin, Poland
Interests: deer farming; wildlife management; human-animal conflict; wild animals as bioindicators; ethology
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Guest Editor
Department of Fur-bearing Animal Breeding and Game Management, Faculty of Animal Bioengineering, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Oczapowskiego 5, 10-719 Olsztyn, Poland
Interests: wildlife behavior; game management; deer farming; ethology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue of Life, “Wildlife Behavior and Biodiversity”, is linked with the Convention on Biological Diversity. Biodiversity is the variability of all organisms living on Earth in the various ecosystems and ecological complexes of which they are pieces. It also concerns the diversity within the species (genetic diversity) and the behavior associated with it, especially by wild animals in the context of the possibility of manifesting it, coexistence with other species and with humans. As a result of the ongoing climate change and shrinking ecosystems, we can observe changes before our eyes, especially reduced biodiversity due to devastation, leading to the loss of habitats, extinction of species and thus, reduced animal gene pools. Often the first manifestation of this type of phenomena is a change in the behavior of wild fauna. Based on knowledge of the natural behavior of its changes and the anomalies, it is possible to improve the welfare of animals and prevent human–wild animal conflicts. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. 

Dr. Katarzyna Tajchman
Prof. Dr. Pawel Janiszewski
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • behavioral abnormalities
  • the ability to exhibit natural behavior
  • reduced genetic diversity
  • habitat lost
  • extinction of species
  • species rehousing
  • coexistence

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 5309 KiB  
Article
Morphometric and Molecular Analysis of Five-Spine Epidinium Morphotypes Taken from the Rumen of European Bison, Bison bonasus
by Silvia Ivorová, Anna Kopčaková, Peter Pristaš and Svetlana Kišidayová
Life 2023, 13(12), 2350; https://doi.org/10.3390/life13122350 - 15 Dec 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1329
Abstract
An important feature of ruminal ciliates is their phenotypic plasticity, which makes their identification difficult. The common manifestation of the phenotypic plasticity in rumen ciliates is a change in their cell size and caudal spination. We analyzed various morphotypes of Epidinium with five [...] Read more.
An important feature of ruminal ciliates is their phenotypic plasticity, which makes their identification difficult. The common manifestation of the phenotypic plasticity in rumen ciliates is a change in their cell size and caudal spination. We analyzed various morphotypes of Epidinium with five caudal processes (spines) taken from the rumen of European bison (Bison bonasus). In the study, the cluster analysis and K-means analysis of morphometric data could not distinguish very similar morphotypes of Epidinium with five caudal processes. However, the morphotype of E. parvicaudatum prevailed (70%). The DNA of four individual E. parvicaudatum was isolated successfully from formaldehyde-preserved samples. The partial 18S rDNA gene sequences (about 350–400 bp) were identical to Epidinium sequences in GenBank (E. caudatum, a one-spine morphotype, and E. cattanei, a five-spine morphotype). It can be assumed that these short sequences cannot distinguish the differences between the Epidinium morphospecies. Complete gene sequences from various hosts and various molecular markers are necessary to reveal the validity of the Epidinium five-spine species. In conclusion, classical morphology should be supplemented with molecular data when more morphotypes of the rumen ciliate species are present in samples. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research on Wildlife Behavior and Biodiversity)
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11 pages, 2282 KiB  
Article
Baseline Corticosterone, Stress Responses, and Leukocyte Profiles in Chicks of Precocial Birds in Rural and Urban Environments
by Verónica Quirici, Carlos E. Valeris-Chacín, Pablo Parada, Elfego Cuevas and John C. Wingfield
Life 2023, 13(11), 2138; https://doi.org/10.3390/life13112138 - 30 Oct 2023
Viewed by 1340
Abstract
The urban environment produces complex relationship among urban stressors that could change the levels of the steroid hormone, glucocorticoid (GCs). Studies that have evaluated baseline corticosterone (Cort) levels (the main GC in birds) and stress responses during development in urban and rural environments [...] Read more.
The urban environment produces complex relationship among urban stressors that could change the levels of the steroid hormone, glucocorticoid (GCs). Studies that have evaluated baseline corticosterone (Cort) levels (the main GC in birds) and stress responses during development in urban and rural environments have obtained contrasting results. This ambiguity could partially be because the studies were carried out in altricial species, where parental care and sibling competition can affect Cort levels. Therefore, in this study, we compared levels of circulating baseline levels of CORT (blood sample obtained within 3 min of capture) and stress responses (blood sample obtained 30 min after capture) and the H/L ratio (an alternative method to measure stress) in chicks of a precocial bird, southern lapwings (Vanellus chilensis), from one rural (6 chicks), one urban low-polluted (13 chicks), and one urban high-polluted (10 chicks) site of Metropolitan Region of Santiago de Chile. We observed higher baseline Cort (2.41 ± 1.78 ng/mL) in the urban high-polluted site, a higher H/L ratio (0.51 ± 0.20) in the urban low-polluted site, and similar stress response across the three sites. We propose that the difference in stress physiology we observed within Santiago de Chile is because the two zones are at extremes in terms of stressors (noise, light, chemical, and human presence). It is unusual to find a precocious bird that lives in both urban and rural areas; therefore, the results of this study will advance our knowledge of the effect of the urban environment during the development of wildlife, which is relevant in terms of management and conservation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research on Wildlife Behavior and Biodiversity)
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