Reproductive ecology of the black rat (Rattus rattus) in Madagascar : the influence of density-dependent and -independent effects

Funding Information: We are grateful to the technical and research staff from the Institut Pasteur de Madagascar and Association Vahatra for fieldwork assistance during this study. K.S. was supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) under the EastBio DTP [grant number BB/M010996/1]. This work was also supported by the Wellcome Trust [095171/Z/10/Z]; the Medical Research Council [MR/T029862/1]; and by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) (using the UK's Official Development Assistance [ODA] Funding) and Wellcome [219532/Z/19/Z] under the NIHR‐Wellcome Partnership for Global Health Research. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Wellcome, the NIHR, or the Department of Health and Social Care. For the purpose of Open Access, the authors have applied a CC BY license to any author accepted manuscript version arising. Research Funding Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) under the East-Bio DTP. Grant Number: BB/M010996/1 Wellcome TrustBiotechnology. Grant Number: 095171/Z/10/Z the Medical Research Council. Grant Number: MR/T029862/1 the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) UK’s Official Development Assistance [ODA] Wellcome. Grant Number: 219532/Z/19/ZPeer reviewedPublisher PD

Methods for prioritizing protected areas using individual and aggregate rankings

Despite their legal protection status, protected areas (PAs) can benefit from priority ranks when ongoing threats to their biodiversity and habitats outpace the financial resources available for their conservation. It is essential to develop methods to prioritize PAs that are not computationally demanding in order to suit stakeholders in developing countries where technical and financial resources are limited. We used expert knowledge-derived biodiversity measures to generate individual and aggregate priority ranks of 98 mostly terrestrial PAs on Madagascar. The five variables used were state of knowledge (SoK), forest loss, forest loss acceleration, PA size and relative species diversity, estimated by using standardized residuals from negative binomial models of SoK regressed onto species diversity. We compared our aggregate ranks generated using unweighted averages and principal component analysis (PCA) applied to each individual variable with those generated via Markov chain (MC) and PageRank algorithms. SoK significantly affected the measure of species diversity and highlighted areas where more research effort was needed. The unweighted- and PCA-derived ranks were strongly correlated, as were the MC and PageRank ranks. However, the former two were weakly correlated with the latter two. We recommend using these methods simultaneously in order to provide decision-makers with the flexibility to prioritize those PAs in need of additional research and conservation efforts

A systematic review of rodent pest research in Afro-Malagasy small-holder farming systems : are we asking the right questions

Rodent pests are especially problematic in terms of agriculture and public health since they can inflict considerable economic damage associated with their abundance, diversity, generalist feeding habits and high reproductive rates. To quantify rodent pest impacts and identify trends in rodent pest research impacting on small-holder agriculture in the Afro- Malagasy region we did a systematic review of research outputs from 1910 to 2015, by developing an a priori defined set of criteria to allow for replication of the review process. We followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. We reviewed 162 publications, and while rodent pest research was spatially distributed across Africa (32 countries, including Madagascar), there was a disparity in number of studies per country with research biased towards four countries (Tanzania [25%], Nigeria [9%], Ethiopia [9%], Kenya [8%]) accounting for 51% of all rodent pest research in the Afro- Malagasy region. There was a disparity in the research themes addressed by Tanzanian publications compared to publications from the rest of the Afro-Malagasy region where research in Tanzania had a much more applied focus (50%) compared to a more basic research approach (92%) in the rest of the Afro-Malagasy region. We found that pest rodents have a significant negative effect on the Afro-Malagasy small-holder farming communities. Crop losses varied between cropping stages, storage and crops and the highest losses occurred during early cropping stages (46% median loss during seedling stage) and the mature stage (15% median loss). There was a scarcity of studies investigating the effectiveness of various management actions on rodent pest damage and population abundance. Our analysis highlights that there are inadequate empirical studies focused on developing sustainable control methods for rodent pests and rodent pests in the Africa-Malagasy context is generally ignored as a research topic.S1 Table. PRISMA checklist.S2 Table. List of rodent genera detected in rodent pest research in African agricultural systems from 1960±2015.S3 Table. List of different crops and cropping system as impacted by rodent pests in African agriculture (1960±2015).S1 List. Complete list of all publications used in the review±Publications in bold did not have full texts available at time of review.S2 List. Web of Science TM search history±.S1 Web of ScienceTM saved search.A European Union 9th European Development Fund grant from the African Caribbean and Pacific Science and Technology Programme (FED/2013/330-223), a grant from the United Kingdom's Department for International Development (AgriTT/894), a grant from the Sasol Agriculture Trust (South Africa), and International Foundation for Science (SE)-D/4984-2 to LHS.http://www.plosone.orgam2017Animal and Wildlife Science

A systematic review of rodent pest research in Afro-Malagasy small-holder farming systems: Are we asking the right questions?

Rodent pests are especially problematic in terms of agriculture and public health since they can inflict considerable economic damage associated with their abundance, diversity, generalist feeding habits and high reproductive rates. To quantify rodent pest impacts and identify trends in rodent pest research impacting on small-holder agriculture in the Afro-Malagasy region we did a systematic review of research outputs from 1910 to 2015, by developing an a priori defined set of criteria to allow for replication of the review process. We followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. We reviewed 162 publications, and while rodent pest research was spatially distributed across Africa (32 countries, including Madagascar), there was a disparity in number of studies per country with research biased towards four countries (Tanzania [25%], Nigeria [9%], Ethiopia [9%], Kenya [8%]) accounting for 51% of all rodent pest research in the Afro-Malagasy region. There was a disparity in the research themes addressed by Tanzanian publications compared to publications from the rest of the Afro-Malagasy region where research in Tanzania had a much more applied focus (50%) compared to a more basic research approach (92%) in the rest of the Afro-Malagasy region. We found that pest rodents have a significant negative effect on the Afro-Malagasy small-holder farming communities. Crop losses varied between cropping stages, storage and crops and the highest losses occurred during early cropping stages (46% median loss during seedling stage) and the mature stage (15% median loss). There was a scarcity of studies investigating the effectiveness of various management actions on rodent pest damage and population abundance. Our analysis highlights that there are inadequate empirical studies focused on developing sustainable control methods for rodent pests and rodent pests in the Africa-Malagasy context is generally ignored as a research topic

A New Species Of Microgale (Lipotyphla : Tenrecidae : Oryzorictinae) From The Foret Des Mikea Of Southwestern Madagascar

Volume: 117Start Page: 251End Page: 26

Skull morphological evolution in Malagasy endemic Nesomyinae rodents

International audienceMadagascar is a large island to the southeast of Africa and in many ways continental in size and ecological complexity. Here we aim to define how skull morphology of an endemic and monophyletic clade of rodents (sub-family Nesomyinae), that show considerable morphological variation, have evolved and how their disparity is characterized in context of the geographical and ecological complexity of the island. We performed a two-dimensional geometric morphometric analysis on 370 dorsal and 399 ventral skull images of 19 species (comprising all nine extant endemic genera) and tested the influence of three ecological parameters (climate, locomotor habitat and nychthemeral cycle) in a phylogenetic context on size and shape. The results indicate that skull shape appears to importantly reflect phylogeny, whereas skull size does not carry a significant phylogenetic signal. Skull shape is significantly influenced by climate while, skull size is not impacted by any of the ecological factors tested, which is controversial to expectations in an insular context. In conclusion, Nesomyinae must have evolved under unusual types of local constraints, preventing this radiation from demonstrating strong ecological release

Phylogenetic Relationships Of Malayan And Malagasy Pygmy Shrews Of The Genus Suncus (Soricomorpha: Soricidae) Inferred From Mitochondrial Cytochrome B Gene Sequences

Omar, Hasmahzaiti, Adamson, Eleanor A. S., Bhassu, Subha, Goodman, Steven M., Soarimalala, Voahangy (2011): Phylogenetic Relationships Of Malayan And Malagasy Pygmy Shrews Of The Genus Suncus (Soricomorpha: Soricidae) Inferred From Mitochondrial Cytochrome B Gene Sequences. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 59 (2): 237-243, DOI: http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1010745

Fig. 2 in Phylogenetic Relationships Of Malayan And Malagasy Pygmy Shrews Of The Genus Suncus (Soricomorpha: Soricidae) Inferred From Mitochondrial Cytochrome B Gene Sequences

Fig. 2. The neighbour-joining (A) and Bayesian (B) trees for Suncus inferred from 1140 base-pairs of cytochrome b gene sequence. Bootstrap and posterior probability values are given above branches.Published as part of <i>Omar, Hasmahzaiti, Adamson, Eleanor A. S., Bhassu, Subha, Goodman, Steven M. & Soarimalala, Voahangy, 2011, Phylogenetic Relationships Of Malayan And Malagasy Pygmy Shrews Of The Genus Suncus (Soricomorpha: Soricidae) Inferred From Mitochondrial Cytochrome B Gene Sequences, pp. 237-243 in Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 59 (2)</i> on page 241, DOI: <a href="http://zenodo.org/record/10107452">10.5281/zenodo.10107452</a&gt