Traditional waterfowl monitoring includes only breeding or non-breeding population sizes, but the assessment of breeding success would provide valuable information for the interpretation of population trends, as well as for the early targeting of management measures and further studies. The relationship between breeding success and subsequent breeding population trends is not very well-known in particular for many waterfowl species. Using transfer function (TF) models, we analysed the relationship between breeding success measured as duckling numbers and post-breeding population sizes (i.e. the numbers of adults and ducklings in July), and subsequent breeding population trends for the mallard Anas platyrhynchos, common eider Somateria mollissima, common merganser Mergus merganser and goldeneye Bucephala clangula in Aasla, an island in southwestern Finland. In addition, we used data on the common eider in Söderskär, an island group in the Gulf of Finland, to analyse the extent to which fledgling numbers transform into recruitment and breeding population size. As a complement to the traditional methods of population monitoring, we present a simple and cost-effective method for the assessment of breeding success: the monitoring of post-breeding population sizes (including both adults and young). The breeding population sizes of the mallard, common eider and common merganser were positively related to their breeding success with a time lag corresponding to their recruitment age. For the common eider, the effect of the recruitment number on subsequent breeding population size seemed to last for up to three years after recruitment. There was a coupling between the post-breeding sizes and the subsequent breeding population sizes of the mallard, common eider and goldeneye with a lag corresponding to the recruitment age for the mallard and the common eider, but for goldeneye, one year later than the usual recruitment age. The chicks seem to recruit to the local breeding population to an extent that is sufficient for affecting local breeding population trends. Our results indicate that the annual breeding success of our target species can be assessed on the basis of their post-breeding population sizes. This easy and rapid monitoring method for breeding success is also suitable for voluntary bird watchers.

We studied the diet of the osprey Pandion haliaetus in the Canary Islands during 1997-2008 using prey remains under perches and nests, and direct observations. We collected data both in breeding territories and in non-breeding areas. We counted a minimum of 307 fish individuals as prey remains (both during breeding and non-breeding seasons), and identified another 78 during 433 hours of field observations. According to our results, ospreys consumed at least 15 taxa belonging to 12 families. We found slight differences in the spatial (both intra and inter insular) and temporal diet composition. During the breeding season, the main prey species were flying fishes (belonging to the family Exocoetidae) and needlefishes (belonging to the family Belonidae) according to the two employed methods (i.e. prey remains and direct observations). In the non-breeding period, the diet was composed primarily of non-autochthones freshwater fishes such as common carp Cyprinus carpio and goldfish Carassius auratus. In general, the diet diversity was similar to the diversity reported in other breeding populations of subtropical areas, and being less diverse than those of tropical areas. More precise studies evaluating the effect of fish availability in marine reserves, overfishing areas or fish farms on the demographic parameters are necessary for the management and conservation of threatened Canarian ospreys.

The Rose-ringed parakeet Psittacula krameri, a bird species of subtropical origin, has established feral populations in temperate Europe. We analysed the feeding habits of Rose-ringed parakeets near Paris, France, in order to assess if food provided by humans might contribute to the success of this invasive bird species. We considered 87 feeding events performed during 2002 - 2007 and 247 feeding events performed during March - November 2008. We recorded the consumption of seeds, buds and fruits from many native and introduced shrubs and trees, and the use of bird feeders in private and public gardens throughout the year. We followed four radio-equipped birds for 150 hours during September - December 2008, which spent about half of their feeding time at bird feeders. This confirmed the importance of bird feeders in the diet of the Rose-ringed parakeet. Our study underlines the opportunistic granivorous-frugivorous character of this parakeet species and the possible role of human food sources in the success of its establishment in many cities across temperate Europe.

Mitigation measures to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVCs) on highways are becoming an established practice in many jurisdictions. Most highway mitigation projects occur while roads are being upgraded, enlarged or repaired. Many smaller highways may not be subject to these types of upgrades in the near future but are nonetheless problematic for causing WVCs. Thus, it is important to find cost effective ways to locate and prioritize stretches of highway for mitigation. We present several criteria that can be used to assist in prioritizing the location of wildlife-proof fencing along a 94-km stretch of road in one of Canada's National Parks. We considered temporal consistency of WVC occurrences, conservation value (i.e. reduction in WVC rates), economic benefits (i.e. cost of mitigation vs benefits in WVC reduction), and a combined approach to prioritize management actions. We compared the efficacy of four different lengths of fencing (i.e. phase lengths) at meeting these criteria: 2 km, 5 km, 10 km and 25 km. We used 1,244 WVC records from a long-tem monitoring program (1981-2005) as data to assess mitigation effectiveness. We found that longer fences best address conservation concerns, but all fencing sections, irrespective of length, rarely captured > 50% of WVC locations by species. We found that shorter fences were more economically efficient, but also more variable in performance, than longer fences. Lastly, we found that longer fence lengths tend to produce the best results for the combined metric criteria. Clearly defined management goals will determine the extent to which a phased approach to highway mitigation is viable.

Developing efficient monitoring strategies for species of conservation concern is critical to ensuring their persistence. We have developed a method using camera traps to estimate density and survival in mesocarnivores and tested it on a population of fishers Martes pennanti in an area of approximately 300 km² of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains in California. Fishers in this region are isolated from other populations by a gap of approximately 400 km, and the status of individual populations in the southern Sierra Nevada is poorly understood, making management decisions difficult. We caught fishers in live traps, marked them with ear tags, and resighted them with camera traps. We measured latency to first detection and detection rate to compare our results to previous camera trapping studies of fishers. We used the robust design Poisson log-normal mixed-effects mark-resight model to obtain annual estimates of density and apparent survival. Our values for latency to first detection and detection rate were slightly lower than those obtained by previous studies. Fishers in this isolated region occur at lower densities than at other locations across their range with only approximately 6-11 animals/100 km². Their average annual, adult survival rate (0.94) was comparable to that found in other studies, though this parameter had very low precision. We experienced relatively high levels of tag loss in our study, suggesting our estimates of abundance are biased upward. We provide recommendations for improving the precision and accuracy of results obtained from this type of study. Our results demonstrate a novel application of mark-resight methods to estimate density and survival for mesocarnivores. These estimates provide timely information to managers about fishers at the local population level in the southern Sierra Nevada mountains.

Attempts to conserve declining tiger Panthera tigris populations and distributions have experienced limited success. The poaching of tiger prey is a key threat to tiger persistence; a clear understanding of tiger diet is a prerequisite to conserve dwindling populations. We used unpublished data on tiger diet in combination with two previously published studies to examine fine-scale spatio-temporal changes in tiger diet relative to prey abundance in Chitwan National Park, Nepal, and aggregated data from the three studies to examine the effect that study duration and the size of the study area have on estimates of tiger diet. Our results correspond with those of previous studies: in all three studies, tiger diet was dominated by members of Cervidae; small to medium-sized prey was important in one study. Tiger diet was unrelated to prey abundance, and the aggregation of studies indicates that increasing study duration and study area size both result in increased dietary diversity in terms of prey categories consumed, and increasing study duration changed which prey species contributed most to tiger diet. Based on our results, we suggest that managers focus their efforts on minimizing the poaching of all tiger prey, and that future studies of tiger diet be of long duration and large spatial extent to improve our understanding of spatio-temporal variation in estimates of tiger diet.

During recent decades, rough livestock grazing has decreased markedly on unimproved land (i.e. natural and semi-natural habitats) across most of Europe, whilst the number of wild cervids has increased. However, we still know little about the overall changes in the herbivore pressure and how herbivore regimes vary between biogeographic regions. We have quantified the spatio-temporal variation in herbivore pressure indirectly by estimating the metabolic biomass of large herbivores in mountain, coastal and inland municipalities of Norway every 10th year during 1949-1999. We quantified how much livestock biomass has decreased, whether this corresponded to increasing cervid biomass, and whether the proportion of grazing relative to browsing has changed within the herbivore community. Total metabolic biomass of livestock and cervids (MBA_total) decreased from 126 kg/km² in 1949 to 107 kg/km² in 1999 (∼85% of MBA_total in 1949). Changes differed markedly between regions. Herbivore pressure in the coastal region nearly halved from 1949 to 1999, while the decrease was minor in the inland and mountain regions. Livestock grazing more than halved, whereas the metabolic biomass of cervids increased by 276% from 1949 to 1999. Cervids dominated the community of large herbivores on unimproved land in Norway in 1999 (54% of MBA_total). Livestock dominated in the mountain (52% of MBA_total) and in the coastal region (54% of MBA_total) in 1999, while cervids dominated in the inland region (67% of MBA_total). Most herbivore foraging consisted of grazing in 1949 (89% at a national scale). This proportion was reduced to 54% by 1999. Percent browsing was especially high (> 90%) in several municipalities in southeastern Norway in 1999. The increase of wild cervids is exceptional in a historical perspective, and managers have to adapt to wild cervids being the major ecosystem engineers in many landscapes.

The critically endangered Western Derby eland Taurotragus derbianus derbianus, representing < 200 wild individuals, undoubtedly needs a coordinated conservation programme. To promote the survival of this subspecies, a single worldwide semi-captive population was established in Senegal in 2000, with one male and five female founders transferred from the Niokolo Koba National Park. To determine a long-term conservation strategy, we used demographic and pedigree data based on continuous monitoring of reproduction during 2000 - 2009 in breeding enclosures in the Bandia and Fathala Reserves, in conjunction with modelling software. In 2009, the semi-captive population consisted of 54 living individuals (26 males and 28 females), managed using the minimal kinship strategy. The female breeding probability was 84%, annual calf and adult mortality rates were 5.09% and 3.27%, respectively, and the annual population growth rate was 1.36. As the population grew, the animals were progressively separated into five herds within two reserves. A pedigree analysis revealed an effective population size of 6.72 and an N_e/N ratio of 0.13. The population retained 77% of the gene diversity (GD). The founder genome equivalent (FGE = 2.21) was relatively low due to the overrepresentation of one founder male. Although the mean level of inbreeding (F) reached 0.119, a significant potential GD (92%) was still retained. In this article, we predict GD development in this population in the next 100 years with the inclusion of new founders. If the whole wild population were included, we could maintain 90% of GD. As this option is not practically feasible, we present three options with the goal of maintaining 75% GD. We highly recommend capturing new founders from the remaining wild population to ensure the survival of the subspecies at least in semi-captivity, which could allow possible reinforcement of the wild population or reintroduction in the future. The semi-captive population, if appropriately constituted and genetically managed, could play a considerable role in Western Derby eland conservation.

Estimating density, age and sex structure of wild populations is a key objective in wildlife management. Live trapping is frequently used to collect data on populations of small and medium-sized mammals. Ideally, sampling mammal populations by live capturing of individuals provides a random and representative sample of the target population. Trapping data may, however, be biased. We used live-capture data from mountain hares Lepus timidus in Scotland to assess sampling bias between two different capture methods. We captured hares using baited cage traps and long nets on five study areas in the Scottish Highlands. After controlling for the effects of body size, individuals caught in traps were lighter than individuals caught using long nets, suggesting that the body condition of hares differed between the capture methods. This tendency may reflect an increased risk-taking of individuals in poorer body condition and less aversion to entering traps in order to benefit from eating bait. Overall, we caught more adult hares than juveniles and more female hares than males. Our results show that estimates of density and population structure of mountain hares using live-capture data could be affected by the capture method used. We suggest that live-capture studies employ more than one capture method and test for heterogeneity in capture probability to minimise potential bias and achieve reliable estimates of population parameters.

The European rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus is a key species in Mediterranean ecosystems of the Iberian Peninsula, and reliable methods for monitoring its abundance are urgently required. Although clearance plot pellet counts may be useful in monitoring rabbit populations, such counts are potentially affected by variation in the persistence of rabbit pellets. The aim of our study was to assess persistence of rabbit pellets in the Iberian Peninsula for reliable estimates of rabbit abundance from clearance plot counts. We carried out the experiment from July 2006 to November 2007 at seven localities in central southern Spain. Marked fresh pellets were monthly placed at experimental plots, and their persistence was monitored monthly. Persistence was estimated from the proportion of marked pellets remaining between consecutive counts. Independent variables in analysis included slope steepness, vegetation, rabbit and ungulate activity, meteorology and temporal variables. Persistence significantly varied among localities and seasons and with their interaction. The final model showed that pellet persistence was best explained by total rainfall between counts, and also included the time between visits and slope steepness and the interactions rainfall*time between visits and rainfall*slope. Our results suggest that estimating pellet persistence for each locality and season is necessary to make estimates obtained from different localities and months comparable. In the Mediterranean region, early summer at the start of the dry season would be the recommended time for yearly rabbit monitoring based on any pellet-count index, since reduced rainfall favours pellet persistence. Sampling protocols must standardise the number of days between counts, and plots must be established in areas with gentle slope to maximise pellet persistence between counts.

Several metrics of biodiversity are used to assess the variability and abundance of multiple species across various ecological levels. Previous research suggests that biodiversity in agricultural areas is diminished due to habitat fragmentation and alterations to natural vegetation. Contrary to the effects of agriculture, the American beaver Castor canadensis has been shown to have a significant contribution to increased biodiversity. Our study focuses on the biodiversity of mammals in wetland areas of the southern mixed-wood boreal forest natural region of east-central Alberta, Canada. We compared various measures of biodiversity levels of mammals in the winter months between wetlands on agricultural land and wetlands in Miquelon Lake Provincial Park (MLPP). Similarly, we compared wetlands with active and inactive beaver colonies to determine differences in winter biodiversity of mammals and the amount of water coverage within a pond. We collected data using winter tracking surveys and analyzed the data using geographic information systems (GIS) techniques. We found that winter biodiversity of mammals was higher at the sites within the protected area (MLPP) than at those on agricultural lands. However, our data also suggest that forested areas surrounding agricultural wetlands may play an important role in maintaining biodiversity within agricultural areas. The presence of beavers alone was not a significant factor in relation to winter biodiversity, but the presence of the species was important for maintaining water levels of agricultural wetlands, which in turn plays a role in resource heterogeneity.