News selection and framing: the media as a stakeholder in human-carnivore coexistence

The media widely covers large carnivores and their impacts on human livelihood and plays an important role in their conservation. Yet, we know little about how species identity affects news selection, framing, accuracy and information flow. We investigated the online coverage of two cases of attacks or alleged attacks on humans alternatingly attributed to wolves and dogs in Greece and Germany. The period during which wolves were considered the primary suspects for the attacks was covered by up to two times more articles than when dogs were suspected. Wolves were presented as more likely suspects for the attacks than dogs, and wolf articles contained more inaccuracies measured as title-text mismatches. Press agencies played a significant role in the selection and dissemination of wolf news. We suggest that conservation scientists, journalists and policy makers work together to ensure an accurate representation in the media of human-carnivore coexistence and its challenges

Genetic integrity of European wildcats: Variation across biomes mandates geographically tailored conservation strategies

Hybridisation between domestic and wild taxa can pose severe threats to wildlife conservation, and human-induced hybridisation, often linked to species' introductions and habitat degradation, may promote reproductive opportunities between species for which natural interbreeding would be highly unlikely. Using a biome-specific approach, we examine the effects of a suite of ecological drivers on the European wildcat's genetic integrity, while assessing the role played by protected areas in this process. We used genotype data from 1217 putative European wildcat samples from 13 European countries to assess the effects of landcover, disturbance and legal landscape protection on the European wildcat's genetic integrity across European biomes, through generalised linear models within a Bayesian framework. Overall, we found European wildcats to have genetic integrity levels above the wildcat-hybrid threshold (ca. 83%; threshold = 80%). However, Mediterranean and Temperate Insular biomes (i.e., Scotland) revealed lower levels, with 74% and 46% expected genetic integrity, respectively. We found that different drivers shape the level of genetic introgression across biomes, although forest integrity seems to be a common factor promoting European wildcat genetic integrity. Wildcat genetic integrity remains high, regardless of landscape legal protection, in biomes where populations appear to be healthy and show recent local range expansions. However, in biomes more susceptible to hybridisation, even protected areas show limited effectiveness in mitigating this threat. In the face of the detected patterns, we recommend that species conservation and management plans should be biome- and landscape-context-specific to ensure effective wildcat conservation, especially in the Mediterranean and Temperate Insular biomes.Thanks are due to FCT/MCTES for the financial support to cE3c (UIDB/00329/2020), through national funds, and the co-funding by the FEDER, within the PT2020 Partnership Agreement and Compete 2020. PM was supported by UID/BIA/50027/2021 with funding from FCT/MCTES through national funds. FDR was supported by a postdoctoral contract from the University of Málaga (I Plan Propio de Investigación y Transferencia, call 2020). This study was partly funded by research projects CGL2009-10741, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and EU-FEDER, and OAPN 352/2011, funded by the Organismo Autónomo Parques Nacionales (Spain). Luxembourg sample collection has been co-funded by the Ministry of Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development of Luxembourg. We would like to thank the Bavarian Forest National Park Administration for the approval and support in collecting samples.Peer reviewe

Dogs, not wolves, most likely to have caused the death of a British tourist in northern Greece

Wolf (Canis lupus) populations have recovered and expanded across many parts of the world thanks to conservation efforts, including improved legal status and restoration of their prey. Concurrently, public concerns regarding the risk of wolf attacks on humans and livestock are increasing as wolves occupy human-dominated landscapes. We examined a unique case in Europe allegedly involving wolves in the death of a female British tourist, aged 64, in northern Greece in September 2017. This incident received extensive international media attention and yet many fundamental details of the case area are lacking, including whether local livestock guarding dogs played a role. To assist in resolving the case, we conducted an extensive literature review which documented 13 criteria linked to the risk of either a wolf and/or a dog attacking a human. We also conducted a camera trap survey (October to December 2017) soon after the fatal attack to calculate the activity overlap among humans, dogs and wolves. Sufficient data were available for assessing 11 of the 13 criteria. For the remaining two, the required data were either not analysed (i.e. canid DNA collected from the attack site), not appropriately collected (i.e. DNA from the mouths of suspected dogs) or were collected, but misinterpreted (i.e. the post-consumption patterns of the victim’s corpse). Via this combination of evidence, we conclude that this case involved a fatal dog attack. This assertion is supported by evidence such as the: a) high dog-human activity overlap at the attack site which peaked during the attack time as opposed to near zero wolf-human activity overlap at the same time, b) presence of a large pack of unsupervised dogs, c) high ratio of male dogs in the dog pack, d) close vicinity of the attack site to dog owner’s property and e) previous documented aggression of these dogs towards humans. The consumption patterns, time scale and location of the victim’s remains indicate a posthumous consumption of the corpse possibly by the same dogs and/or by wild scavengers including wolves. A multidisciplinary approach, such as this one, in the assessment of putative wildlife attacks on humans can reduce misidentifications of the responsible species by forensic authorities and, therefore, prevent unfounded decrease in public tolerance for large carnivores

Converging Robotic Technologies in Targeted Neural Rehabilitation: A Review of Emerging Solutions and Challenges

Recent advances in the field of neural rehabilitation, facilitated through technological innovation and improved neurophysiological knowledge of impaired motor control, have opened up new research directions. Such advances increase the relevance of existing interventions, as well as allow novel methodologies and technological synergies. New approaches attempt to partially overcome long-term disability caused by spinal cord injury, using either invasive bridging technologies or noninvasive human–machine interfaces. Muscular dystrophies benefit from electromyography and novel sensors that shed light on underlying neuromotor mechanisms in people with Duchenne. Novel wearable robotics devices are being tailored to specific patient populations, such as traumatic brain injury, stroke, and amputated individuals. In addition, developments in robot-assisted rehabilitation may enhance motor learning and generate movement repetitions by decoding the brain activity of patients during therapy. This is further facilitated by artificial intelligence algorithms coupled with faster electronics. The practical impact of integrating such technologies with neural rehabilitation treatment can be substantial. They can potentially empower nontechnically trained individuals—namely, family members and professional carers—to alter the programming of neural rehabilitation robotic setups, to actively get involved and intervene promptly at the point of care. This narrative review considers existing and emerging neural rehabilitation technologies through the perspective of replacing or restoring functions, enhancing, or improving natural neural output, as well as promoting or recruiting dormant neuroplasticity. Upon conclusion, we discuss the future directions for neural rehabilitation research, diagnosis, and treatment based on the discussed technologies and their major roadblocks. This future may eventually become possible through technological evolution and convergence of mutually beneficial technologies to create hybrid solution

Contrasting effects of human settlement on the interaction among sympatric apex carnivores

In the face of a growing human footprint, understanding interactions among threatened large carnivores is fundamental to effectively mitigating anthropogenic threats and managing species. Using data from a large-scale camera trap survey, we investigated the effects of environmental and anthropogenic variables on the interspecific interaction of a carnivore guild comprising of tiger, leopard, and dhole in Bhutan. We demonstrate the complex effects of human settlement density on large carnivore interactions. Specifically, we demonstrate that leopard-dhole co-occupancy probability was higher in areas with higher human settlement density. The opposite was true for tiger-leopard co-occupancy probability, but it was positively affected by large prey (gaur) abundance. These findings suggest that multi carnivore communities across land-use gradients are spatially structured and mediated also by human presence and/or the availability of natural prey. Our findings show that space-use patterns are driven by a combination of the behavioural mechanism of each species and its interactions with competing species. The duality of the effect of settlement density on species interactions suggests that the benefits of exploiting anthropogenic environments are a trade42 off between ecological opportunity (food subsidies or easy prey) and the risk of escalating conflict with humans

Boots on the ground: the role of passive acoustic monitoring in evaluating anti-poaching patrols

Passive acoustic monitoring is rapidly gaining recognition as a practical, affordable and robust tool for measuring gun hunting levels within protected areas, and consequently for its potential to evaluate anti-poaching patrols’ effectiveness based on outcome (i.e., change in hunting pressure) rather than effort (e.g., kilometres patrolled) or output (e.g., arrests). However, there has been no report to date of a protected area successfully using an acoustic grid to explore baseline levels of gun hunting activity, adapting its patrols in response to the evidence extracted from the acoustic data and then evaluating the effectiveness of the new patrol strategy. We report here such a case in Cameroon’s Korup National Park, where anti-poaching patrol effort was markedly increased in the 2015–2016 Christmas/New Year holiday season to curb the annual peak in gunshots recorded by a 12-sensor acoustic grid in the same period during the previous 2 years. Despite a three- to five-fold increase in patrol days, distance and area covered, the desired outcome – lower gun hunting activity – was not achieved under the new patrol scheme. The findings emphasize the need for adaptive wildlife law enforcement and how passive acoustic monitoring can help attain this goal, and they warn about the risks of using effort-based metrics of anti-poaching strategies as a surrogate for desired outcomes. We propose ways of increasing protected areas’ capacity to adopt acoustic grids as a law enforcement monitoring tool

Distribution and habitat use by sympatric dormice species in two Natura 2000 sites in central Macedonia, Greece

There has been little research on the distribution and ecology of the four dormouse species occurring in Greece; the Edible Dormouse (Glis glis), Forest Dormouse (Dryomys nitedula), Hazel dormouse (Muscardinus avellanarius) and Mouse-tailed Dormouse (Myomimus roachi). As a result, the latter three species are listed as data deficient (DD) in the National Red Data Book. Recently, the government has tried to address this knowledge gap, funding dormouse surveys within the Natura 2000 network. In this context, we used a combination of nest-tubes (n=442) and track-tunnels (n=238) to study dormouse distribution and habitat use across 37 sites representing different habitat types (with varying levels of grazing) of two mountainous N2K sites (GR1270001, GR1270005) in central Macedonia. We detected G. glis at 28 sites, D. nitedula at 32 sites, and M. avellanarius at seven sites. Positive identification of the different species was twice as likely in track-tunnels (unbaited; metal sheets covered in soot) than nest-tubes. We estimated relative abundance across sites using Royle-Nichols occupancy models, except for M. avellanarius due to data limitations. For all species, we examined habitat use using MaxEnt ecological-niche models. Our findings show that D. nitedula has the widest distribution, occurring even in sparse forests and maqui with moderate or high livestock grazing intensity. G. glis is common, but restricted to medium-high elevation forests. M. avellanarius appears to have a discontinuous distribution. If this study is representative of its status across the country, that species requires conservation efforts

Pronounced Seasonal Diet Diversity Expansion of Golden Eagles (<i>Aquila chrysaetos</i>) in Northern Greece during the Non-Breeding Season: The Role of Tortoises

Golden Eagles are resident in Greece and known to feed mainly on tortoises when breeding. However, information on alternative prey is scarce, especially during the tortoise brumation, that roughly coincides with the eagles’ non-breeding season. We analyzed 827 prey items collected from 12 territories over five territory years and 84 records of eagles hunting or feeding behavior. Tortoises dominated the breeding season diet (71% of prey categories on average) and over half of all hunting/feeding observations. While no spatial structure was evident, habitat variables such as forest canopy cover were important associates in golden eagle diet seasonally. A significant seasonal pattern emerged in diet diversity, using a subset of six territories with at least 10 samples per season. Eagles shifted from a narrow, reptile- based breeding season diet dominated by tortoises to a broader non-breeding season diet, that included more carrion, mammals and birds. Breeding season specialization on ectothermic prey is a trait usually associated with migratory raptors in the Western Palearctic. The observed dietary diversity expansion accompanied by residency in the absence of ectothermic prey, highlights the adaptability of the golden eagle, a generalist predator. Tortoise populations in Greece are of conservation concern and land use changes as well as climate change, such as development and land abandonment may increase the prevalence of catastrophic megafires, exacerbating the threats to the golden eagle’s main prey when breeding. We discuss this and other diet related conservation implications for the species in northern Greece

Population Trend of Colonially Nesting Heron Species in Greece

Heron colonies are dynamic components of wetlands. Therefore, their systematic monitoring is important for the management of both birds and wetlands. During the period 1988–2018, we counted breeding pairs of seven colonial breeding heron species at 65 colonies across 37 wetlands in Greece. We considered as annual variables of a population: (a) years since 1988, (b) Natura 2000 network inclusion, (c) protected area management authority overseeing, (d) wetland type (new or restored), and (e) new colonies (established after 2003). The Cattle Egret Bubulcus ibis and the Squacco Heron Ardeola ralloides had a positive breeding population trend. The Black-crowned Night Heron Nycticorax nycticorax, Little Egret Egretta garzetta, and Grey Heron Ardea cinerea had a negative trend, while the Purple Heron Ardea purpurea population was stable. The Great White Egret Ardea alba bred sporadically at only a few sites which precluded the evaluation of its population trend. The informative population variables differed among species, even of those at the same colony, which suggests trends are also affected by conditions at wintering grounds. The study highlights the need for the systematic monitoring of heron colonies and the protection of foraging/breeding areas in order to reverse the observed negative population trends