[Ethology • 2023] Bat Droppings Collection by Ants in Epigean Environments

Interactions observed between ant species and bat droppings in the different habitats of the Doñana Biological Reserve of the Doñana National Park, Huelva, SW Spain.

(b) Linepithema humile workers extracting Nyctalus lasiopterus droppings fragments,  (d) Crematogaster scutellaris worker transporting N. lasiopterus droppings,

(e) Pheidole pallidula workers extracting N. lasiopterus droppings fragments, (c) Aphaenogaster senilis worker transporting Pipistrellus pygmaeus droppings. 

 in Vidal-Cordero, Nogueras & Tena, 2023.

DOI: 10.1111/een.13305 

twitter.com/BarbastellaJ

Abstract

1. Ants can be found in insect communities associated with droppings, but most studies about this interaction have been carried out in subterranean environments, specifically in the study of the interaction between ants and bat guano. 

2. In this report, we describe the first case of interaction between seven different ant species and the droppings of two bat species in epigean environments. The study was performed in bat roosts monitored from March to October 2022 in the Doñana Biological Reserve of the Doñana National Park (Huelva, SW Spain). It was carried out via direct observations of droppings deposited on the ground surface or in tree-mounted dropping collectors below bat boxes. 

3. We report a total of 37 interactions by seven different species of ants with droppings of two species of bat, the soprano pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pygmaeus) and the greater noctule (Nyctalus lasiopterus), in four different habitats (Eucalyptus camaldulensis, Pinus pinea, Populus alba and ground surface). 4. The generalist characters and the omnivorous diets of the ant species observed, in addition to the abundant availability of droppings during a period of food scarcity, suggest that droppings are transported as a food resource, with the consequent implications that this interaction may have on faecal degradation and nutrient cycling, as one of the supporting services provided by ants.

Keywords: ant ecology, Chiroptera, ecological service, Formicidae, guano, invasive species

Interactions observed between ant species and bat droppings in the different habitats of our study area and information about the general distribution and diet of the different ant species (Lebas et al., 2017). The percentages calculated for the bat species and the different habitats are based on a total of 37 observations of bat-droppings interactions. The observation of Pheidole pallidula corresponds to the one found at the Zoobotanical Park of Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz, Spain).

The study area located in southwestern Spain and photographs of a bat box with a dropping collector and four examples of different ant species observed interacting with bat droppings on the ground surface.
(a) Bat box in Populus alba with droppings collector below,
(b) Linepithema humile workers extracting Nyctalus lasiopterus droppings fragments, (c) Aphaenogaster senilis worker transporting Pipistrellus pygmaeus droppings, (d) Crematogaster scutellaris worker transporting Nyctalus lasiopterus droppings, (e) Pheidole pallidula workers extracting Nyctalus lasiopterus droppings fragments.

J. Manuel Vidal-Cordero, Jesús Nogueras and Elena Tena. 2023. Bat Droppings Collection by Ants in Epigean Environments. Ecological Entomology. DOI: 10.1111/een.13305

   twitter.com/BarbastellaJ/status/1734484300400075239 

[Ichthyology / Behaviour • 2019] Cryptic Habitat Use of White Sharks Carcharodon carcharias in Kelp Forest revealed by Animal-borne Video

a white shark Carcharodon carcharias 
encountering Cape fur seals Arctocephalus pusillus pusillus in kelp canopy. 

in Jewell, Gleiss, Jorgensen, et al., 2019.

  DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2019.0085 

  twitter.com/RSocPublishing 

Abstract

Traditional forms of marine wildlife research are often restricted to coarse telemetry or surface-based observations, limiting information on fine-scale behaviours such as predator–prey events and interactions with habitat features. We use contemporary animal-attached cameras with motion sensing dataloggers, to reveal novel behaviours by white sharks, Carcharodon carcharias, within areas of kelp forest in South Africa. All white sharks tagged in this study spent time adjacent to kelp forests, with several moving throughout densely kelp-covered areas, navigating through channels and pushing directly through stipes and fronds. We found that activity and turning rates significantly increased within kelp forest. Over 28 h of video data revealed that white shark encounters with Cape fur seals, Arctocephalus pusillus pusillus, occurred exclusively within kelp forests, with seals displaying predator evasion behaviour during those encounters. Uniquely, we reveal the use of kelp forest habitat by white sharks, previously assumed inaccessible to these large predators.

Keywords: biologging, animal-borne video and environmental data collection systems (AVEDs), foraging, camera tags

Figure 2. Still-picture frames of a white shark encountering Cape fur seals in kelp canopy. (a) AVED footage of a white shark (Shark 5) encountering Cape fur seals. (b) The seals respond to the shark's presence by hunkering to the sea floor and blowing bubble streams as the shark passes overhead or swimming further into the kelp. (c) The shark swims through the bubbles, (d) then through kelp. (e) The shark pursues the seals, making contact with dense kelp fronds at several points and pushing through them. (f) At least three Cape fur seals (indicated by red arrows) are seen taking refuge in the canopy area of the kelp forest fronds and successfully avoiding the white shark.

Oliver J. D. Jewell , Adrian C. Gleiss , Salvador J. Jorgensen , Samantha Andrzejaczek , Jerry H. Moxley , Stephen J. Beatty , Martin Wikelski , Barbara A. Block  and Taylor K. Chapple. 2019. Cryptic Habitat Use of White Sharks in Kelp Forest revealed by Animal-borne Video.  Biology Letters.  DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2019.0085  

 twitter.com/RSocPublishing/status/1120035760223203329

Shark's-Eye-View Video Captures Epic Seal Chase Through Kelp Forest shar.es/amT4vE via @LiveScience

[Mammalogy / Conservation • 2017] Natural Canopy Bridges Effectively Mitigate Tropical Forest Fragmentation for Arboreal Mammals

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-04112-x  

NationalZoo.SI.edu  

Abstract

Linear infrastructure development and resulting habitat fragmentation are expanding in Neotropical forests, and arboreal mammals may be disproportionately impacted by these linear habitat clearings. Maintaining canopy connectivity through preservation of connecting branches (i.e. natural canopy bridges) may help mitigate that impact. Using camera traps, we evaluated crossing rates of a pipeline right-of-way in a control area with no bridges and in a test area where 13 bridges were left by the pipeline construction company. Monitoring all canopy crossing points for a year (7,102 canopy camera nights), we confirmed bridge use by 25 mammal species from 12 families. With bridge use beginning immediately after exposure and increasing over time, use rates were over two orders of magnitude higher than on the ground. We also found a positive relationship between a bridge’s use rate and the number of species that used it, suggesting well-used bridges benefit multiple species. Data suggest bridge use may be related to a combination of bridge branch connectivity, multiple connections, connectivity to adjacent forest, and foliage cover. Given the high use rate and minimal cost, we recommend all linear infrastructure projects in forests with arboreal mammal populations include canopy bridges.

Figure 1: The six species that most frequently used the 13 natural canopy bridges over the pipeline clearing: (a) Aotus nigriceps, (b) Potos flavus, (c) Coendou ichillus, (d) Caluromys lanatus, (e) Bassaricyon alleni, and (f) Hadrosciurus spadiceus. 

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-04112-x  NationalZoo.SI.edu 

  

Coendou ichillus,     Tamandua tetradactyla

Pithecia irrorata,       Saguinus fuscicollis

Figure 1: The six species that most frequently used the 13 natural canopy bridges over the pipeline clearing:

(a) Aotus nigriceps, (b) Potos flavus, (c) Coendou ichillus, (d) Caluromys lanatus, (e) Bassaricyon alleni, and (f) Hadrosciurus spadiceus. 

Figure 5: Tremaine Gregory climbing a canopy bridge over a recently cleared natural gas pipeline in the Lower Urubamba Region of Peru.

Tremaine Gregory, Farah Carrasco-Rueda, Alfonso Alonso, Joseph Kolowski and Jessica L. Deichmann. 2017. Natural Canopy Bridges Effectively Mitigate Tropical Forest Fragmentation for Arboreal Mammals. Scientific Reports. 7, Article number: 3892. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-04112-x

ResearchGate.net/publication/317837512_Natural_canopy_bridges_effectively_mitigate_tropical_forest_fragmentation_for_arboreal_mammals

Natural Canopy Bridges Maintain Vital Connections for Arboreal Mammals in Fragmented Forests  NationalZoo.SI.edu/news/natural-canopy-bridges-maintain-vital-connections-for-arboreal-mammals-fragmented-forests

[Environment • 2015] Global Nutrient Transport in A World of Giants

Fig. 4. Potential interlinked system of recycling nutrients. The diagram shows a potential route of nutrient transport of the planet in the past. Red arrows show the estimated fluxes or diffusion capacity of nutrients listed in Table 1. Grey animals represent extinct or reduced population densities of animals.
Whales and other deep-diving marine mammals feed deep in the ocean and poop up high, moving nutrients upward through the water column. Seabirds and spawning fish transfer nutrients from sea to shore. Megafauna such as moose move nutrients as they graze and poop, creating a natural manure fertilizer. Grey animals represent the loss of megafauna that once contributed to this nutrient cycle. (Numbers in kilograms.)

 PNAS/Renate Helmiss | DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1502549112

Significance

Animals play an important role in the transport of nutrients, but this role has diminished because many of the largest animals have gone extinct or experienced massive population declines. Here, we quantify the movement of nutrients by animals in the land, sea, rivers, and air both now and prior to their widespread reductions. The capacity to move nutrients away from hotspots decreased to 6% of past values across land and ocean. The vertical movement of phosphorus (P) by marine mammals was reduced by 77% and movement of P from sea to land by seabirds and anadromous fish was reduced by 96%, effectively disrupting an efficient nutrient distribution pump that once existed from the deep sea to the continental interiors.

Abstract

The past was a world of giants, with abundant whales in the sea and large animals roaming the land. However, that world came to an end following massive late-Quaternary megafauna extinctions on land and widespread population reductions in great whale populations over the past few centuries. These losses are likely to have had important consequences for broad-scale nutrient cycling, because recent literature suggests that large animals disproportionately drive nutrient movement. We estimate that the capacity of animals to move nutrients away from concentration patches has decreased to about 8% of the preextinction value on land and about 5% of historic values in oceans. For phosphorus (P), a key nutrient, upward movement in the ocean by marine mammals is about 23% of its former capacity (previously about 340 million kg of P per year). Movements by seabirds and anadromous fish provide important transfer of nutrients from the sea to land, totalling ∼150 million kg of P per year globally in the past, a transfer that has declined to less than 4% of this value as a result of the decimation of seabird colonies and anadromous fish populations. We propose that in the past, marine mammals, seabirds, anadromous fish, and terrestrial animals likely formed an interlinked system recycling nutrients from the ocean depths to the continental interiors, with marine mammals moving nutrients from the deep sea to surface waters, seabirds and anadromous fish moving nutrients from the ocean to land, and large animals moving nutrients away from hotspots into the continental interior.

Keywords: biogeochemical cycling, extinctions, megafauna, whales, anadromous fish

Christopher E. Doughty, Joe Roman, Søren Faurby, Adam Wolf, Alifa Haque, Elisabeth S. Bakker, Yadvinder Malhi, John B. Dunning Jr., and Jens-Christian Svenning. Global Nutrient Transport in A World of Giants. PNAS, October 26, 2015 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1502549112

Declines in whales, fish, seabirds and large animals disrupt Earth's nutrient cycle

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151026172050.htm

"Earth has a problem: not enough poop."

The extinction of megafauna both at land and at sea has led to a shortage of mega manure, new research finds. As a result, the planet's composting and nutrient-recycling system is broken.

......

No Crap: Missing '#MegaPoop' Starves #Earth || #environment #megafauna  via @LiveScience https://shar.es/1uM1HK