Davies, Andrew Byron; Levick, Shaun R.; Janse Van Rensburg, Berndt; Robertson, Mark P.; Parr, Catherine Lucy(Wiley, 2024-09)
Termite mounds are keystone structures in African savannas, affecting multiple ecosystem processes. Despite the large size of termite mounds having the potential to modify conditions around them, patterns of mound-induced ...
Hunting has been crucial in early human evolution. Some San (Bushmen) of southern Africa
still practice their indigenous hunting. The use of poisons is one remarkable aspect of their
bow-and-arrow hunting but the sources, ...
Revely, Lewis; Eggleton, Paul; Clement, Rebecca; Zhou, Chuanyu; Bishop, Tom R.(Royal Society Publishing, 2024-06)
Sociality underpins major evolutionary transitions and significantly influences the structure and function of complex ecosystems. Social insects, seen as the pinnacle of sociality, have traits like obligate sterility that ...
Our understanding of polygynous life history is biased towards females. Few studies investigate the processes governing male life history because of the difficulty in measuring male reproductive effort, and because population ...
Getz, Wayne Marcus; Fortmann-Roe, Scott; Cross, Paul C.; Lyons, Andrew J.; Ryan, Sadie J.; Wilmers, Christopher C.(Public Library of Science, 2007-02-14)
Parametric kernel methods currently dominate the literature regarding the construction of animal home ranges (HRs) and
utilization distributions (UDs). These methods frequently fail to capture the kinds of hard boundaries ...
Fiaboe, Kokou Rodrigue; Fening, Ken Okwae; Gbewonyo, Winfred Seth Kofi; Deshmukh, Sharanabasappa(Public Library of Science, 2023-11-15)
Since 2016, the invasive insect Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)
from the Americas has made maize production unattainable without pesticides in parts
of Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. To counteract ...
Kampango, Ayubo Amisse; Saleh, Fatma; Furu, Peter; Konradsen, Flemming; Alifrangis, Michael; Schioler, Karin L.; Weldon, Christopher William(Public Library of Science, 2023-11-27)
There is an increasing awareness of the association between tourism activity and risks of
emerging mosquito-borne diseases (MBDs) worldwide. In previous studies we showed that
hotels in Zanzibar may play an important ...
DNA barcoding has recently been instrumental in identifying both invasive and undetected species in aquatic environments. This study aimed at analysing collected fish fin clips to ascertain the identity of native species ...
Noakes, Matthew Jason(University of Pretoria, 2020-01)
There is considerable variation in avian thermal physiology, with traits such as metabolic rates correlated with climate at both inter- and intraspecific levels. However, it is often unclear whether these correlations ...
Winterbach, Christiaan Willem(University of Pretoria, 2019-10)
Assessing the range, population size and trend of large carnivores are required for conservation management at global to local scales. Survey techniques should be precise with low bias, detect population trends and cover ...
Mumoki, Fiona Nelima(University of Pretoria, 2019-04)
The queen mandibular gland pheromone (QMP) enables the queen to maintain reproductive dominance by inhibiting worker ovary activation and production of queen-like multi-glandular secretions. While the queen is typically ...
Muyobela, Jackson; Pirk, Christian Walter Werner; Yusuf, Abdullahi Ahmed; Yusuf, Abdullahi Ahmed; Sole, Catherine L.(Public Library of Science, 2023-07-27)
BACK GROUND
Tsetse-transmitted African trypanosomiasis is a debilitating and fatal disease of humans
and livestock if left untreated. While knowledge of the spatial distribution patterns of tsetse is
essential for the ...
Padidar, Sara; Monadjem, Ara; Litschka-Koen, Thea; Thomas, Brent; Shongwe, Nondusimo; Baker, Clare; Mmema, Lindelwa; Sithole, Trevor; Murray, James; Casewell, Nicholas R.; Pons, Jonathan; Lalloo, David G.; Harrison, Robert A.; Stienstra, Ymkje; Dlamini, Wisdom M.(Public Library of Science, 2023-11-10)
BACKGROUND
Halving snakebite morbidity and mortality by 2030 requires countries to develop both prevention
and treatment strategies. The paucity of data on the global incidence and severity of
snakebite envenoming causes ...
Outbreaks of the Eurasian spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus) have decimated millions of hectares of conifer forests in Europe in recent years. The ability of these 4.0 to 5.5 mm long insects to kill mature trees over a ...
Gonipterus sp. n. 2 (Coleoptera, Curculionidae) is an invasive, commercially
important weevil that causes large‐scale defoliation of Eucalyptus trees. The
weevil specifically feeds on young leaves and new shoots, thus ...
Shoot and leaf blight caused by Teratosphaeria destructans is one of the most devastating foliar diseases on Eucalyptus. Therefore, breeding for resistance to this disease is considered urgent. Differences in susceptibility ...
Fitza, Katrin N.E.; Allison, Jeremy D.; Slippers, Bernard; Chingandu, Nomatter; Reed, Sharon E.(Taylor and Francis, 2024)
Litylenchus crenatae mccannii is a foliar nematode that causes severe damage to beech, known as beech leaf disease (BLD). Previous studies have characterized and identified L. crenataein Japan and a subspecies L. crenatae ...
Savanna systems are among the most sensitive to future climate and land-use change, yet we lack robust, direct quantifications of savanna carbon cycling. Together with fire, decomposition is the main process by which the ...
Vezi, Madonna S.; Downs, Colleen T.; Zengeya, Tsungai A.(Springer, 2024-09)
The aquarium pet trade is one of the leading pathways for the introduction of invasive species into natural ecosystems. In 2018, we surveyed pet shops across South Africa to obtain a checklist of ornamental fish species ...