The diet of Rana temporaria Linnaeus, 1758 in relation to prey availability near its altitudinal limit

The diet of Rana temporaria (Linnaeus, 1758) was studied in the Gran Paradiso National Park, at and above the local timberline, up to the upper limit of its altitudinal distribution. A total of 128 adult frogs (length range: 3.7-9.0 cm) were captured from 2010 to 2012. Stomach content from 46 individuals was obtained by stomach flushing, of which 66% of the stomachs were empty. The diet composition was compared with the composition of the ground-dwelling invertebrate community, sampled by pitfall trapping. The number of prey items in the stomachs was lower at higher altitude and during the breeding season, when most of the stomachs were empty. R. temporaria feeds on a large number of taxa (in order of abundance: Coleoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera, Opiliones, Araneae, Lepidoptera, Plecoptera, Trichoptera, Orthoptera, Acarina and Chilopoda), including a single observation of cannibalism on a freshly metamorphosed frog. There is a strong similarity between prey composition and availability. Therefore, near its altitudinal limit, Rana temporaria shows a generalist and slightly selective predatory behavior

How to continue measuring horn growth after capture in Alpine ibex

Accurate measurement of secondary sexual characters are fundamental for understanding life history strategies and mating systems. Ibex horns grow continuously through life and thus provide insights on individual life history. Horn growth can also refl ect changes in environment and resources availability. Horn length is usually measured by hand on skulls of dead animals during live captures or with the use of two parallel lasers with a known distance pointed on the horns of the animal. Here we propose a simple method to measure horn growth of marked Alpine ibex ( Capra ibex ) in the years following capture. We took pictures of marked animals when the side of the horn was perpendicular to the lens of the camera and we analysed pictures using the 4th annulus measured during captures as a reference unit to estimate the length of the other annuli. We compared the annuli length estimated with this method with the length of the same annuli measured by hand. Our results show that the error of the estimate is very small and that there is a high repeat of annulus length estimate using pictures

The Racovitzan impediment and the hidden biodiversity of unexplored environments

SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Il monitoraggio dell’avifauna presente in un parco urbano per mezzo del soundscape - The soundscape methodology for bird monitoring in urban parks

I parchi urbani sono caratterizzati da un numero elevato di sorgenti acustiche, che spaziano da quelle tipicamente antropiche alla fauna locale, rappresentata in particolare dagli uccelli. Dall’analisi del soundscape è possibile ottenere informazioni preziose riguardo l’attività canora delle comunità aviarie e l’impronta acustica di un paesaggio. In questo lavoro si è condotta una campagna di rilievi acustici con registratori audio digitali low-cost (LCR) in un parco urbano finalizzata a testare l’uso di LCR in un ambiente boscoso urbano e a valutare gli andamenti spazio-temporali del soundscape a distanze crescenti dalla fonte di rumore per mezzo di un indice di complessità acustica (ACI). ------ Urban parks are characterized by a large amount of acoustic sources. Besides the typical anthropogenic noises there are those generated by the local wildlife, in particular birds. Soundscape analysis allows us to gain precious information about the sing activity of a bird community and about the acoustic footprint of a landscape. In this study we carried out a campaign of acoustic monitoring (from April to July) with low-cost digital audio recorders (LCR) in an urban park. The aims are to test the use of LCR in an urban park and to evaluate spatio-temporal patterns of soundscape at different distances from a noise source with the implementation of an index of acoustic complexity (ACI)

Introducing children in the primary school to the concept of ecosystem services

The respect for Earth and life in all its diversity and the protection of the integrity of the environment are two of the fundamental principles declared in the Earth Charter 2000, which aims to build a right, peaceful, and sustainable global society. Due to the increasing effects of the environmental crisis, there is a need for a greater environmental sensibility and consciousness, and one path to reach this goal passes through environmental education projects with children. Here we carried out a project about the involvement of children in environmental-related issues, using as a teaching tool the ecosystem services. The project aims to develop in children a sensitivity towards the environment, good social and civic competence, and make the new generations more aware of environmental issues through the discovery of their territory. The topic of ecosystem services was introduced through a storytelling approach and some questions, as a reference point for activities. The 17 children taking part in the project were 9 years old and the considerations obtained were supported and tested by questionnaires appropriate to their age and level of comprehension. Successively, videos of urbanized and degraded environments in our territory were shown, thus had to describe and map them in their town. Thus, children were asked to make a proposal for the recovery of a degraded area in their town. After one year, a meeting with the children took place and they were asked to fill out a questionnaire regarding the project, and the consequences it brought to their lives. The results highlighted that the majority of children remember this project with a positive feeling and had an improved competence and critical sense regarding the environment and ecosystem services

How Do People Experience the Alps? Attitudes and Perceptions in Two Protected Areas in Italy

Protected areas play an important role due to their twofold capacity for biodiversity conservation and the provision of many benefits to human well-being. Tourism can be a tool for protecting nature, enhancing people’s sensitivity, and a threat to biodiversity management. This study investigates users’ attitudes and perceptions and managers’ concerns related to the frequentation of two protected areas in the Italian Alps: the Gran Paradiso National Park and the Adamello Regional Park. We carried out 32 semi-structured interviews with park managers and municipalities to identify their perception of tourism and possible threats related to the use of the parks. Thus, we administered questionnaires to 3399 users of the PAs to investigate their attitudes and perceptions. We made considerations on whether there were similarities in the attitudes identified by the park managers and results of the questionnaires. Questionnaires confirmed the managers’ perception of mass tourism regarding one-day stays and the purpose of the visits, but we could not exhaustively confirm the increase of new visitors. We performed a binary logistic regression to understand the relationship between short-term stays and attitudes of visitors (origin, frequency of visits, stakeholders’ category, and biographical data). Eventually, interviews stated an exacerbation of the growth of visitors due to the COVID-19 pandemic; thus, we investigated if the pandemic changed the assiduity of visits, and half of the users claimed a change in their assiduity of visits, but mostly declared a decreased frequentation of the area

Temporal Variation of Ecological Factors Affecting Bird Species Richness in Urban and Peri-Urban Forests in a Changing Environment: A Case Study from Milan (Northern Italy)

Urban and peri-urban forests determine different habitat services for biodiversity according to their characteristics. In this study, we relate ecological characteristics of urban and peri-urban forests to forest bird species richness and we assess whether their effect changed over time due to the urban sprawl within the urban region of Milan, Italy. We analyse two periods (1998–2002 and 2010–2014) using weighted generalized linear models that considered urban and peri-urban forests collectively and urban and peri-urban forests separately. Patch area, proximity to source areas and number of surrounding urban and peri-urban forests were the main factors predicting species richness within urban and peri-urban forests in both periods. While there were no differences in factors affecting bird richness in peri-urban forests between the two periods, the negative effect of urban matrix density was statistically significant for birds inhabiting urban forests in the second period. Moreover, protected areas within urban and peri-urban forests and urban forests in the second period were important determinants in providing suitable habitat for birds at the regional scale. This study offered important insights regarding urban and peri-urban forests characteristics that should be maintained to ensure biodiversity conservation across changing urban landscapes

Public Participatory Mapping of Cultural Ecosystem Services: Citizen Perception and Park Management in the Parco Nord of Milan (Italy)

Ecosystem services may be underestimated, and consequently threatened, when land-use planning and management decisions are based on inadequate information. Unfortunately, most of the studies aimed to evaluate and map cultural ecosystem services (CES) are not used for actual decision support therefore there is a gap in the literature about its use in practice. This study aimed to reduce this gap by: (i) mapping CES perceived by city park users through participatory mapping (PPGIS); (ii) mapping CES arising from park management (management perception); (iii) comparing citizens and park management perception to identify matches or mismatches; and (iv) discussing the utility of the data acquired and the methodology proposed to inform urban planning. The methodology presented in this study resulted in data directly informative for urban planning. It provided spatially explicit data about perceived cultural services of the park as well as information about the matching or mismatching patterns about cultural services provision comparing the users’ view with the management dimension. This research demonstrated a way to use the potential of ES mapping to inform urban planning and explored the local management demand for CES mapping, showing this to be a valuable tool for effective integration into actual decision making

Long term analysis of social structure: evidence of age-based consistent associations in male Alpine ibex

Despite its recognized importance for understanding the evolution of animal sociality as well as for conservation, long term analysis of social networks of animal populations is still relatively uncommon. We investigated social network dynamics in males of a gregarious mountain ungulate (Alpine ibex, Capra ibex) over ten years focusing on groups, sub-groups and individuals, exploring the dynamics of sociality over different scales. Despite the social structure changing between seasons, the Alpine ibex population was highly cohesive: fission–fusion dynamics lead almost every male in the population to associate with each other male at least once. Nevertheless, we found that male Alpine ibex showed preferential associations that were maintained across seasons and years. Age seemed to be the most important factor driving preferential associations while other characteristics, such as social status, appeared less crucial. We also found that centrality measures were influenced by age and were also related to individual physical condition. The multi-scale and long-term frame of our study helped us show that ecological constrains, such as resource availability, may play a role in shaping associations in a gregarious species, but they cannot solely explain sociality and preferential association that are likely also to be driven by life-history linked physiological and social needs. Our results highlight the importance of long-term studies based on individually recognizable subjects to help us build on our understanding of the evolution of animal sociality

Long term analysis of social structure: evidence of age-based consistent associations in male Alpine ibex

International audienceABSTRACT Despite its recognized importance for understanding the evolution of animal sociality as well as for conservation, long term analysis of social networks of animal populations is still relatively uncommon. We investigated social network dynamics in males of a gregarious mountain ungulate (Alpine ibex, Capra ibex ) over ten years focusing on groups, sub-groups and individuals, exploring the dynamics of sociality over different scales. Despite the social structure changing between seasons, the Alpine ibex population was highly cohesive: fission-fusion dynamics lead almost every male in the population to associate with each other male at least once. Nevertheless, we found that male Alpine ibex showed preferential associations that were maintained across seasons and years. Age seemed to be the most important factor driving preferential associations while other characteristics, such as social status, appeared less crucial. We also found that centrality measures were influenced by age and were also related to individual physical condition. The multi-scale and long-term frame of our study helped us show that ecological constrains, such as resource availability, may play a role in shaping associations in a gregarious species, but they cannot solely explain sociality and preferential association that are likely also to be driven by life-history linked physiological and social needs. Our results highlight the importance of long-term studies based on individually recognizable subjects to help us build on our understanding of the evolution of animal sociality