Adenovirus: an emerging factor in red squirrel Sciurus vulgaris conservation

1. Adenovirus is an emerging threat to red squirrel Sciurus vulgaris conservation, but confirming clinically significant adenovirus infections in red squirrels is challenging. Rapid intestinal autolysis after death in wild animals frequently obscures pathology characteristic of the disease in animals found dead. 2. We review the available literature to determine current understanding of both subclinical and clinically significant adenovirus infections in free-living wild and captive red squirrel populations. 3. Benefits of scientific testing for adenovirus incorporating both transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technologies are compared and contrasted. We favour viral particle detection using TEM in animals exhibiting enteropathy at post-mortem and the use of PCR to detect subclinical cases where no enteric abnormalities are observed. 4. Adenoviral infections associated with re-introduction studies are evaluated by examination of sporadic cases in wild populations and of data from captive collections used to service such studies. 5. The paucity of data available on adenovirus infection in grey squirrel Sciurus carolinensis populations is documented, and we highlight that although subclinical virus presence is recorded in several locations in Great Britain and in Italy, no clinically significant disease cases have been detected in the species thus far. 6. Current speculation about potential interspecific infection between sciurids and other woodland rodents such as wood mice Apodemus sylvaticus is examined. Where subclinical adenovirus presence has been detected in sympatric populations using the same point food sources, husbandry methods may be used to diminish the potential for cross-infection. 7. Our findings highlight the importance of controlling disease in red squirrel populations by using clearly defined scientific methods. In addition, we propose hypothetical conservation benefits of restricting contact rates between red squirrels and sympatric grey squirrels and of limiting competition from other woodland rodent species

Resource-Area-Dependence Analysis: inferring animal resource needs from home-range and mapping data

An animal’s home-range can be expected to encompass the resources it requires for surviving or reproducing. Thus, animals inhabiting a heterogeneous landscape, where resource patches vary in size, shape and distribution, will naturally have home-ranges of varied sizes, so that each home-range encompasses a minimum required amount of a resource. Home-range size can be estimated from telemetry data, and often key resources, or proxies for them such as the areas of important habitat types, can be mapped. We propose a new method, Resource-Area-Dependence Analysis (RADA), which uses a sample of tracked animals and a categorical map to i) infer in which map categories important resources are accessible, ii) within which home range cores they are found, and iii) estimate the mean minimum areas of these map categories required for such resource provision. We provide three examples of applying RADA to datasets of radio-tracked animals from southern England: 15 red squirrels Sciurus vulgaris, 17 gray squirrels S. carolinensis and 114 common buzzards Buteo buteo. The analyses showed that each red squirrel required a mean (95% CL) of 0.48 ha (0.24–-0.97) of pine wood within the outermost home-range, each gray squirrel needed 0.34 ha (0.11–1.12) ha of mature deciduous woodland and 0.035–0.046 ha of wheat, also within the outermost home-range, while each buzzard required 0.54 ha (0.35–0.82) of rough ground close to the home-range center and 14 ha (11–17) of meadow within an intermediate core, with 52% of them also relying on 0.41 ha (0.29–0.59) of suburban land near the home-range center. RADA thus provides a useful tool to infer key animal resource requirements during studies of animal movement and habitat use

Paleontology of leaf beetles

`The rate of evolution in any large group is not uniform; there are periods of relatise stability, and periods of comparatively rapid change.' Cockerell and LeVeque, 1931 To Yenli Ych, my beloved wife, a most wonderful person! The fossil record of the Chrysomelidae can be tentatively traced back to the late Paleozoic to early Mesozoic Triassic. Mesozoic records at least 9 subfamilies, 19 genera, and 35 species, are represented by the Sagrinae, the exclusively Mesozoic Proto scelinae, Clytrinae, Cryptocephalinae, Eumolpinae, Chrysomelinae. Galerucinac, Alticinae, and Cassidinae. Cenozoic records at least 12 subfamilies- 63 % of the extant- 12! genera, and 325 species, include the same extant subfamilies as well as the Donaciinae, Zeugophorinae, Criocerinae, and Hispinae and can be frequently identified to genus, especially if preserved in amber. Quaternary records are often identified to extant species. tn total, at least t3! genera about 4 % of total extant, and 357 species < 1 % have been reported. At least, 24 genera <1 % of the extant seem to be extinct. Although reliable biological information associated with the fossil chrysomelids is very scarce, it seems that most of the modern host-plant associations were established, at least, in the late Mesozoic to early Cenozoic. As a whole, stasis seems to be the general rule of the chrysomelid fossil record. Together with other faunal elements, chrysomelids, especially donaciines, have been used as biogeographic and paleoclimatological indicators in the Holocene. I

Kenward-et-al_RADA_Red-squirrels_Furzey-Island

Data used to infer the resource needs of red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris) in Furzey Island, southern UK. Inference was made by applying Resource-Area-Dependence Analysis (RADA) to a sample of 15 red squirrel home ranges and a thematic map depicting resource distribution. The compressed archive contains the two datasets: i) standardized 30 locations per home range obtained via VHF telemetry between October 1991 and January 1992 and 2) the thematic map containing two map classes digitized from aerial photography. All coordinates are in UK National Grid format (EPSG 27700). Each dataset is provided as: (i) .txt (locations) and .shp (vector map) and (ii) .loc (locations) and .ves (vector map). Formats in (ii) are native to the Ranges suite of software (http://www.anatrack.com/home.php) for the analysis of animal home ranging and habitat use. Since its first release in 1990, Ranges has been used in analyses underpinning dozens of publications in scientific journals (ex. http://www.anatrack.com/publications.php). The release of the latest version, Ranges 9, was used for RADA outputs in this paper. A DEMO of Ranges 9, which allows for opening and visualizing the data files provided herein, is available for download without charge (http://www.anatrack.com/try_ranges.php). RADA itself is available in the full Ranges 9 version (http://www.anatrack.com/ranges_compare_versions.php)

Kenward-et-al_RADA_Buzzard_radio-tracking_data

Data used to infer the resource needs of common buzzards (Buteo buteo) Dorset, southern UK. Inference was made by applying Resource-Area-Dependence Analysis (RADA) to a sample of 114 buzzard home ranges and a thematic map depicting resource distribution. The compressed archive contains the radio-tracking dataset, which consists of standardized 30 locations per home range obtained via VHF telemetry between 1990 and 1995. The thematic map, formed by using knowledge about buzzards to group 25 land-cover types of the Land Cover Map of Great Britain into 16 map classes, is available against permission at public site http://www.ceh.ac.uk/services/land-cover-map-1990. All coordinates are in UK National Grid format (EPSG 27700). The radio-tracking dataset is provided as: (i) .txt and (ii) .loc. The format in (ii) is native to the Ranges suite of software (http://www.anatrack.com/home.php) for the analysis of animal home ranging and habitat use. Since its first release in 1990, Ranges has been used in analyses underpinning dozens of publications in scientific journals (ex. http://www.anatrack.com/publications.php). The release of the latest version, Ranges 9, was used for RADA outputs in this paper. A DEMO of Ranges 9, which allows for opening and visualizing the data files provided herein, is available for download without charge (http://www.anatrack.com/try_ranges.php). RADA itself is available in the full Ranges 9 version (http://www.anatrack.com/ranges_compare_versions.php)