Oosthuizen, Tasha; Pillay, Neville; Oosthuizen, Maria Kathleen(Taylor and Francis, 2024)
Urbanization, and the accompanying artificial light at night (ALAN), can disrupt the activity of animals. Such disruptions at the base of a food web can ripple through the ecosystem. Most studies of ALAN are performed in ...
Mammals have evolved to occupy spatial and temporal niches in order to optimize resource utilization and minimize predation risk or competition. Subsequently, niche partitioning may be influenced by phylogenetic associations, ...
Fletcher Jr, Robert J.; O’Brien, Amanda; Hall, Timothy F.; Jones, Maggie; Potash, Alex D.; Kruger, Laurence; Simelane, Phumlile; Roques, Kim; Monadjem, Ara; McCleery, Robert A.(Royal Society, 2023-10)
Animals are faced with a variety of dangers or threats, which are increasing
in frequency with ongoing environmental change. While our understanding
of fearfulness of such dangers is growing in the context of predation ...
Arid-dwelling mammals are exposed to extreme daily temperatures, which puts these mammals at risk of overheating and dehydration, particularly while active, these risks are increased as the body size is reduced. Consequently, ...
The detoxification limitation hypothesis posits that, unless plant defense compounds interact synergistically or additively to increase their harmful effects, generalist herbivores will prefer consuming combinations of ...
Abraham, Andrew J.; Duvall, Ethan S.; Le Roux, Elizabeth; Ganswindt, Andre; Clauss, Marcus; Doughty, Christopher E.; Webster, Andrea B.(Elsevier, 2023-08)
In nutrient-poor wildlife reserves it has become common-practice to provide supplemental mineral resources for
wildlife. Yet, the impacts of anthropogenic mineral supplementation on large herbivore nutrition, behaviour, ...
Abundance and trait-driven processes have both been identified as potential mechanisms in determining the occurrence of species
interactions. However, little is known about how these two mechanisms interact to determine ...
Lemerle, Marie Anna; Wiesel, Ingrid; Somers, Michael J.(Routledge, 2024)
This study examined the daily and monthly activity patterns of brown hyenas (Hyaena brunnea) and black-backed jackals (Canis mesomelas) at a Cape fur seal colony in southern Namibia, to provide recommendations for developing ...
Allen, Benjamin L.; Bobier, Christopher; Dawson, Stuart; Fleming, Peter J.S.; Hampton, Jordan; Jachowski, David; Kerley, Graham I.H.; Linnell, John D.C.; Marnewick, Kelly; Minnie, Liaan; Muthersbaugh, Mike; O'Riain, M. Justin; Parker, Dan; Proulx, Gilbert; Somers, Michael J.; Titus, Keifer(Elsevier, 2023-10)
Killing animals has been a ubiquitous human behaviour throughout history, yet it is becoming increasingly controversial and criticised in some parts of contemporary human society. Here we review 10 primary reasons why ...
The changing physical properties of the Southern Ocean are known to impact the recruitment and survival of Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba). For oceanic krill predators, the resulting reduced energy intake may lead to ...
Sumbera, R.; Uhrova, M.; Begall, S.; Caspar, K.R.; Jerkovicova, D.; Van Daele, P.; Chitaukali, W.N.; Faulkes, Chris G.; Bennett, Nigel C.; Johannes, C.; Burda, H.; Mikula, O.(Springer, 2023-09)
The Mashona mole-rat, Fukomys darlingi (Thomas, 1895), is a little studied social African mole-rat (Bathyergidae) from south-astern Africa. Here, we present an integrative study characterizing the genetic diversity of ...
Pienaar, Elizabeth Frances; Sturgeon, Diane J.E.(Pensoft Publishers, 2024-02)
The exotic pet trade has resulted in substantial invasion and disease risks, owing to the release of pets into new environments. Scientists have conjectured that pet owners acquire and release species with undesirable ...
Viljoen, A.; Oosthuizen, Maria Kathleen(Royal Society, 2023)
Rodents are integral components of ecosystems as they provide several important ecosystem services. Despite their importance as prey, pollinators and seed distributors, African rodents are largely understudied. The effect ...
Over their lifetime, individuals may use different behavioural strategies to maximize their fitness. Some behavioural traits may be consistent among individuals over time (i.e., ‘personality’ traits) resulting in an ...
This study presents the pattern of occurrence of sub-Antarctic fur seals (SAFS), Arctocephalus tropicalis, in the southern Brazilian coast and evaluate its association with climatic variability and anomalies in the ...
Resource selection functions are commonly used to evaluate animals' habitat selection, for example, the disproportionate use of habitats relative to their availability. While environmental conditions or animal motivations ...
Shabangu, Fannie Welcome; Daniels, Robyn; Jordaan, Rowan Keith; De Bruyn, P.J. Nico; Van den Berg, Marcel A.; Lamont, Tarron(Royal Society, 2024-01)
Killer whales are apex predators with temporally and spatially varying distributions throughout the world's oceans. Their ecology and behaviour are poorly understood in most regions due to limited research, often because ...
Mitigating human–wildlife conflicts by altering human behaviors is critical to urban wildlife conservation. We investigated what actions urban residents are willing to take to mitigate human–wildlife conflicts in metropolitan ...
Genomic studies of species threatened by extinction are providing crucial information about evolutionary mechanisms and genetic consequences of population declines and bottlenecks. However, to understand how species avoid ...