Unusually high predation on chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) by female leopards (Panthera pardus) in the Waterberg Mountains, South Africa

Leopards do not preferentially favour baboons as prey, but they are considered the primary predators of baboons across Africa. Even in areas where baboons are abundant, their contribution to leopard diet seldom exceeds 5% of biomass. It is suggested that the extreme aggressiveness of baboons, group vigilance and their high mobility when escaping may limit leopard predation. Male baboons are particularly aggressive, and retaliation often leads to the death of the leopard. However, evidence suggests that leopards may learn to catch and kill certain dangerous prey. This study reports predation on chacma baboons by 3 female leopards on a private game reserve in the Waterberg Mountains of South Africa. Potential leopard feeding sites were identified using global positioning system (GPS) location clusters obtained from GPS collars. Over a 5-month period, we investigated 200 potential leopard feeding sites and located 96 leopard feeding/kill sites. Baboons constituted 18.7% of the leopards’ biomass intake. The majority of baboons preyed upon were adults and 70% of the kills were diurnal. In terms of the measured variables, there were no significant differences in the way the leopards preyed upon baboons, compared to the rest of the prey species.The Wilson Foundation and the Centre for Wildlife Management at the University of Pretoriahttp://www.paru.cas.cz/folia/am201

Foraging and habitat specialization by female leopards (Panthera pardus) in the Waterberg Mountains of South Africa

Carnivores that persist outside of protected areas are often deemed to have highly adaptable and generalist foraging strategies. Using data from three GPS-collared female leopards (Panthera pardus) and over an eight-month period, we attempted to establish whether leopards in a mountainous landscape display preferential behaviour (i.e. specialist) or not (i.e. generalist).We investigated whether female leopards used habitats in accordance with availability for both hunting and regular activities, and whether female leopards demonstrated preference for a particular prey species. Finally, we assessed tree caching behaviour and discuss leopard spatial dynamics in the context of superior competitors, such as lions (Panthera leo). Female leopards demonstrated selection for certain prey species. Mixed closed woodland (greatest vegetation density; lowest prey density) and tall open woodland (greatest vegetation biomass; high prey density) were preferred over other habitats. Female leopards on Welgevonden cached significantly larger prey species in trees. Our results suggest that female leopards in this landscape are selecting habitats – enabling the exploitation of certain ecological features – that balance energy expenditure against the likelihood of capturing prey in an attempt to maximize efficiency, whilst reducing inter-specific competition.We suggest that female leopards are limited in their foraging ability as a result of interference competition by superior species like lions, which in turn, affects their choice of prey. These findings highlight the potential importance of numerous ecological, spatio-temporal, and anthropogenic factors that influence leopard behaviour, and therefore have significant implications for leopard persistence and conservation.The Wilson Foundation and the Centre for Wildlife Management. L.H.S. was supported by a NRF grant (No. 74819).http://www.sawma.co.za/am201

The importance of refugia, ecological traps and scale for large carnivore management

Management zones feature prominently in conservation planning, particularly at large spatial scales, but prioritization of areas of concern is required to focus efforts and limited resources. Human-mediated mortality constitutes a major threat to species persistence, particularly for widespread carnivores that undergo harvest and population control, such as the leopard (Panthera pardus). In this study, we evaluated the extent and spatial distribution of legal anthropogenic offtake of leopards to identify de facto refugia and ecological traps across Limpopo Province, South Africa. We defined refugia as management units with offtake levels below an established sustainable harvest rate, and ecological traps as management units with offtake exceeding the sustainable harvest rate. We assessed offtake at three geographical scales using trophy hunting permit records alone, and then in combination with problem leopard permit records to investigate the compounding effect of additional forms of offtake and the potential for management scale mismatching. Across Limpopo Province, high leopard offtake created fewer areas of refuge than ecological traps. Refugia were smaller in size and within close proximity of ecological traps. Human-mediated leopard mortality occurred mostly in prime leopard habitat. Finerscaled management units resulted in fewer ecological traps and more refugia, and enables authorities to focus conservation attention in areas of concern. Human-mediated leopard mortality exceeded the annual offtake rate considered sustainable. Our study highlights the importance of assessing both the scale and distribution of the harvest, whilst also considering alternative forms of offtake, when devising harvest management strategies. Management scale mismatching and high human-mediated leopard mortality is of particular concern in Limpopo Province, as such, we propose an adaptive, science-based regulatory framework aimed at improving leopard harvest strategies.Panthera Kaplan Graduate Award and a South African National Research Foundation (NRF) bursary (#83690) and NRF post-doctoral fellowship (#88179).http://link.springer.com/journal/105312016-08-31hb201

Camera Trap Images used in "Identifying Animal Species in Camera Trap Images using Deep Learning and Citizen Science"

All images were downloaded from Zooniverse and have been resized to 330x330 pixels.This dataset provides the camera trap images used in "Identifying Animal Species in Camera Trap Images using Deep Learning and Citizen Science" as well as meta-data about the images. The Snapshop Serengeti collection includes 6,163,870 images in JPG format. The Snapshot Wisconsin collection includes 497,204 images in JPG format. The Camera CATalogue collection include 506,241 images in JPG format. Excluded are the images for the dataset "Elephant Expedition" which will be published separately outside DRUM. Also excluded are images of humans due to privacy reasons.This study was partially supported by the NSF under award IIS 1619177The development of the Zooniverse platform was partially supported by a Global Impact Award from Google.We also acknowledge support from STFC under grant ST/N003179/1.EE was funded by the University of Oxford’s Hertford College Mortimer May fund

On a Calculus-based Statistics Course for Life Science Students

The choice of pedagogy in statistics should take advantage of the quantitative capabilities and scientific background of the students. In this article, we propose a model for a statistics course that assumes student competency in calculus and a broadening knowledge in biology. We illustrate our methods and practices through examples from the curriculum

Marine pelagic ecosystems: the West Antarctic Peninsula

The marine ecosystem of the West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) extends from the Bellingshausen Sea to the northern tip of the peninsula and from the mostly glaciated coast across the continental shelf to the shelf break in the west. The glacially sculpted coastline along the peninsula is highly convoluted and characterized by deep embayments that are often interconnected by channels that facilitate transport of heat and nutrients into the shelf domain. The ecosystem is divided into three subregions, the continental slope, shelf and coastal regions, each with unique ocean dynamics, water mass and biological distributions. The WAP shelf lies within the Antarctic Sea Ice Zone (SIZ) and like other SIZs, the WAP system is very productive, supporting large stocks of marine mammals, birds and the Antarctic krill, Euphausia superba. Ecosystem dynamics is dominated by the seasonal and interannual variation in sea ice extent and retreat. The Antarctic Peninsula is one among the most rapidly warming regions on Earth, having experienced a 28C increase in the annual mean temperature and a 68C rise in the mean winter temperature since 1950. Delivery of heat from the Antarctic Circumpolar Current has increased significantly in the past decade, sufficient to drive to a 0.68C warming of the upper 300 m of shelf water. In the past 50 years and continuing in the twenty-first century, the warm, moist maritime climate of the northern WAP has been migrating south, displacing the once dominant cold, dry continental Antarctic climate and causing multi-level responses in the marine ecosystem. Ecosystem responses to the regional warming include increased heat transport, decreased sea ice extent and duration, local declines in icedependent Ade´lie penguins, increase in ice-tolerant gentoo and chinstrap penguins, alterations in phytoplankton and zooplankton community composition and changes in krill recruitment, abundance and availability to predators. The climate/ecological gradients extending along theWAPand the presence of monitoring systems, field stations and long-term research programmes make the region an invaluable observatory of climate change and marine ecosystem response

Joint Practice Guidelines for Radionuclide Lymphoscintigraphy for Sentinel Node Localization in Oral/Oropharyngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Involvement of the cervical lymph nodes is the most important prognostic factor for patients with oral/oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), and the decision of whether to electively treat patients with clinically negative necks remains a controversial topic. Sentinel node biopsy (SNB) provides a minimally invasive method for determining the disease status of the cervical node basin, without the need for a formal neck dissection. This technique potentially improves the accuracy of histologic nodal staging and avoids overtreating three-quarters of this patient population, minimizing associated morbidity. The technique has been validated for patients with OSCC, and larger-scale studies are in progress to determine its exact role in the management of this patient population. This document is designed to outline the current best practice guidelines for the provision of SNB in patients with early-stage OSCC, and to provide a framework for the currently evolving recommendations for its use. Preparation of this guideline was carried out by a multidisciplinary surgical/nuclear medicine/pathology expert panel under the joint auspices of the European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM) Oncology Committee and the Sentinel European Node Trial (SENT) Committee

Joint practice guidelines for radionuclide lymphoscintigraphy for sentinel node localization in oral/oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma

Involvement of the cervical lymph nodes is the most important prognostic factor for patients with oral/oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), and the decision whether to electively treat patients with clinically negative necks remains a controversial topic. Sentinel node biopsy (SNB) provides a minimally invasive method of determining the disease status of the cervical node basin, without the need for a formal neck dissection. This technique potentially improves the accuracy of histological nodal staging and avoids over-treating three-quarters of this patient population, minimizing associated morbidity. The technique has been validated for patients with OSCC, and larger-scale studies are in progress to determine its exact role in the management of this patient population. This article was designed to outline the current best practice guidelines for the provision of SNB in patients with early-stage OSCC, and to provide a framework for the currently evolving recommendations for its use. These guidelines were prepared by a multidisciplinary surgical/nuclear medicine/pathology expert panel under the joint auspices of the European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM) Oncology Committee and the Sentinel European Node Trial Committee

Advances in tenascin-C biology

Tenascin-C is an extracellular matrix glycoprotein that is specifically and transiently expressed upon tissue injury. Upon tissue damage, tenascin-C plays a multitude of different roles that mediate both inflammatory and fibrotic processes to enable effective tissue repair. In the last decade, emerging evidence has demonstrated a vital role for tenascin-C in cardiac and arterial injury, tumor angiogenesis and metastasis, as well as in modulating stem cell behavior. Here we highlight the molecular mechanisms by which tenascin-C mediates these effects and discuss the implications of mis-regulated tenascin-C expression in driving disease pathology

Robust ecological analysis of camera trap data labelled by a machine learning model

1. Ecological data are collected over vast geographic areas using digital sensors such as camera traps and bioacoustic recorders. Camera traps have become the standard method for surveying many terrestrial mammals and birds, but camera trap arrays often generate millions of images that are time‐consuming to label. This causes significant latency between data collection and subsequent inference, which impedes conservation at a time of ecological crisis. Machine learning algorithms have been developed to improve the speed of labelling camera trap data, but it is uncertain how the outputs of these models can be used in ecological analyses without secondary validation by a human. 2. Here, we present our approach to developing, testing and applying a machine learning model to camera trap data for the purpose of achieving fully automated ecological analyses. As a case‐study, we built a model to classify 26 Central African forest mammal and bird species (or groups). The model generalizes to new spatially and temporally independent data (n = 227 camera stations, n = 23,868 images), and outperforms humans in several respects (e.g. detecting ‘invisible’ animals). We demonstrate how ecologists can evaluate a machine learning model's precision and accuracy in an ecological context by comparing species richness, activity patterns (n = 4 species tested) and occupancy (n = 4 species tested) derived from machine learning labels with the same estimates derived from expert labels. 3. Results show that fully automated species labels can be equivalent to expert labels when calculating species richness, activity patterns (n = 4 species tested) and estimating occupancy (n = 3 of 4 species tested) in a large, completely out‐of‐sample test dataset. Simple thresholding using the Softmax values (i.e. excluding ‘uncertain’ labels) improved the model's performance when calculating activity patterns and estimating occupancy but did not improve estimates of species richness. 4. We conclude that, with adequate testing and evaluation in an ecological context, a machine learning model can generate labels for direct use in ecological analyses without the need for manual validation. We provide the user‐community with a multi‐platform, multi‐language graphical user interface that can be used to run our model offline.Additional co-authors: Cisquet Kiebou Opepa, Ross T. Pitman, Hugh S. Robinso