Efforts to positively influence ecological processes and water quality by manipulating the fish community (biomanipulation) are of particular importance in drinking water reservoirs. One of the principle measures employed is to increase the abundance of predatory fish species as a means of reducing planktonophagous and benthophagous cyprinids. However, there is little information available on the effectiveness of different predatory fish in biomanipulation exercises. We examined the diet of the five dominant predatory species (pike Esox lucius, zander Sander lucioperca, asp Leuciscus aspius, European catfish Silurus glanis, and perch Perca fluviatilis) in five representative reservoirs in the Morava River drainage basin (Czech Republic). Fish prey made up 75 % of total food intake, with undesirable small cyprinids dominant by biomass (40 %). European catfish and asp were not taken as prey and showed no sign of cannibalism. On the other hand, predation on conspecific predatory species (including cannibalism) was relatively high in perch, pike and zander, thereby reducing their net benefit overall. This little-considered aspect of predatory feeding needs to be taken into consideration in future biomanipulation stocking strategies.

Freshwater fish are recognized to be endangered worldwide, but wide gaps in species distribution knowledge limit the implementation of effective conservation plans. The BioFresh project aims to produce the widest synthesis at the national level. The aim of this research is assessing the comprehensiveness and representativeness of information included in the Italian synthesis, composed of 10000 sampling sites and 50000 fish presence records. The assessment was produced at the secondary river basin (SRB) level in two distinct periods, past (1984-1999) and recent (2000-2014), comparing different statistical models of frequency counts of species detected within each SRB. The results highlighted a poor overall knowledge of the Italian fish distribution for both periods. In the all-species dataset, only 11.8 % and 11.1 % of the SRBs were found to have been sufficiently explored in the past and recent periods, respectively. In the native species dataset, these percentages increased to 16 % and 24.7 % respectively, which suggests the presence of background noise in the richness estimates produced by exotic species. Although the information available is far from exhaustive, the BioFresh project, in which data collected over a wide time span are georeferenced and freely available, represents the first synthesis for future research aimed at the management and conservation of the Italian fish fauna.

This article has been retracted at the request of James A. Wilson, author.

It has been brought to the attention of the author of this work, as well as the Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Vertebrate Biology, that there are substantial methodological errors in this paper relating to the measurements of wires, which resulted in inaccurate results. These deficiencies were substantial enough to result in incorrect conclusions regarding the appropriateness of the procedure, which was the focus of the article.

Correction of these errors will result in the conclusions of the work being substantially altered. Therefore a decision has been made to retract publication of this Journal of Vertebrate Biology article

The Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra) is fairly widespread across much of mainland Greece but is currently known to be present on very few of the Greek islands. We reviewed otter data for the islands of Greece, based on confirmed evidence from the literature, personal records and unpublished data (e.g. alive/dead animals, tracks, spraints). The presence of otters on Mediterranean islands is documented only for Greece with recent records for Corfu, Lefkada, Euboea and Samos and older records for Lesvos and Chios. As these islands are close to the mainland, gene flow may contribute to the persistence of their otter populations. Anthropogenic habitat changes are a major threat to otter survival, including severe transformation and disturbance of island habitats. Several small island wetlands suitable to otter presence need to be protected to support otters and enhance their conservation status.

A good knowledge of food resource utilization is essential to understand how most wild ungulates meet their seasonal requirements in order to improve conservation of endangered taxa. Using faecal sampling, the diet of Gazella cuvieri has was investigated in the Djebel Messaâd Mountain (M'sila Province, Algeria) from September 2013 to August 2014. A microhistological analysis method revealed that gazelles ate 29 species of plants during the year. The grass Stipa tenacissima and the shrub Artemisia herba alba were the major food items throughout the year. The highest diversity was recorded in spring (17 taxa) despite a large consumption of Helianthemum lippii, the lowest in a dry summer (nine species), including the major consumption of the shrubs Phillyrea media and Thymus algeriensis, together with Artemisia herba alba, Stipa tenacissima and Stipa parviflora. An average relative numerical abundance of 50.5 % of the diet comprised shrubs and trees, mainly including A. herba alba, T. algeriensis and Cistus libanotis. Grasses and forbs accounted for 29.4 % and 20.1 % respectively. Based on this study, this gazelle species can be classified as an intermediate feeder (i.e. browser-grazer).

In recent decades, wild boar Sus scrofa populations have increased both in number and distribution in Italy, thus enhancing problems of cohabitation with humans. Crop damage represents one of the main sources of conflict; understanding the spatiotemporal variation of damage events and which factors increase the risk of damage is crucial to the development of effective management strategies. The aims of this study were to determine the impact of wild boar on croplands in the Special Protection Area “Risaie della Lomellina” (western Po Plain, northern Italy) and to formulate a risk prediction model through a binary logistic regression analysis. Damage events almost exclusively involved maize, and were concentrated in spring and summer. Sporadic cases of damage concerned rice, soybean and sorghum fields. The risk of damage was higher in fields close to forests, far from main roads, urban areas and continuous hedgerows, and in areas with low human population densities.

Our aim was to obtain details of the condition of the scimitar-horned oryx (Oryx dammah) and to elucidate the gut microbial diversity of captive individuals of this species. For the first time, 16S rRNA barcoding was used to characterise the faecal microbiota of five captive scimitar-horned oryx individuals. A total of 15 prokaryotic phyla were identified in the five samples. Including Firmicutes (53.40-72.01 %), Bacteroidetes (12.94-23.72 %) and Proteobacteria (1.03-31.74 %), accounting for > 96 % of all the sequences. At the family level, there were < 3.5 % unclassified sequences. In conclusion, these data revealed similarities and differences in gut microbial diversity across the scimitar-horned oryx individuals. These observations advance the current understanding of the bacterial ecosystems in these endangered animals under captivity.

Recent technological developments in non-invasive methods facilitate study of the behaviour of elusive predators. We used two types of automatic digital video surveillance systems in combination with GPS telemetry to record feeding behaviour of wild Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx), intraspecific prey sharing and scavenger activity at ungulate kill sites in the Dinaric Mountains. This approach proved an effective and mostly non-invasive way to obtain detailed data on the consumption of prey by lynx and kleptoparasites, especially when the advanced video system was used. Lynx spent a considerable amount of time in the vicinity of the kill site, but usually visited the carcass for feeding only once per night with a mean visit time of 35 min and most of the feeding occurred during the first half of the night. Lynx covered 83 % of prey remains, which seemed to be effective against avian scavengers that only found 17 % of the carcasses. We recorded six vertebrate species scavenging on lynx kills, with red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and brown bear (Ursus arctos) being the most frequent kleptoparasites. Based on our results, we provide recommendations for future research using this method, as well as outlining the pros and cons of advanced vs. simple video systems.

The red goral is an endangered species with a small population and narrow distribution in China. The only captive population (21 individuals) is held in Shanghai Zoo, China. Demographic and genetic analyses were carried out to assess the status of this captive population and put forward conservation and management proposals. Population status was assessed on the basis of studbook records from 1981 to 2016. The population size grew from seven (three males, four females) to 31 (19 males, 12 females) in 2012 (λ = 1.06) and 21 (17 males, four females) in 2016 (λ = 0.91). From 1981 to 2016, a total of 81 births (45 males, 36 females) and 68 deaths (32 males, 32 females, four unknown) occurred. The mean kinship (MK) of the population is 0.2614 and the average inbreeding index is 0.2037. Parturition mainly occurs in May, June and July, and deaths occurred in January, February, July and November. In addition, the genetic diversity of this population was analysed on the basis of nine microsatellite loci. The results revealed that 14 primer-amplified bands were found; nine of them were stable, with four loci highly polymorphic (polymorphic information content, PIC > 0.05), three moderate (0.25 < PIC < 0.5), one low (PIC < 0.25) and one monomorphic (PIC = 0). In total, 34 alleles were detected from eight microsatellite loci, with the number of alleles per locus (A) ranging from 3-6 (x̄ = 4.250), and the effective number of alleles (Ne) from 1.245 to 3.862 (x̄ = 2.529). The observed heterozygosity (H0) varied from 0.143 to 0.857 (x̄ = 0.562), and the expected heterozygosity (He) from 0.201 to 0.755 (x̄ = 0.550). The polymorphism information content (PIC) varied from 0.188 to 0.705 (x̄ = 0.500). The results indicated a moderate level of genetic diversity among the red goral population in Shanghai Zoo.