The Bali myna Leucopsar rothschildi has long suffered heavy trapping, leading to its near extinction in the wild and categorization as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List. Decades of conservation breeding, release of birds and post-release management at Bali Barat National Park have, until recently, failed to secure a viable wild population. However, over the past decade, population increases, expansion into new areas of the National Park and beyond, and successful breeding in both artificial and natural nest sites have occurred. These recent successes are associated with a change in approach by the National Park authority from concentrating efforts on the last refugium of the species (an area protected from trapping but with potentially suboptimal habitat) and towards the human-dominated landscapes around the main road through the National Park. Bali mynas tended to favour areas with extensive shorter grass cover and open canopies and to shun denser woodland. Anthropogenic landscapes such as farmland and plantations presumably mimic the original savannah habitat of the species, but nestbox provision has probably been crucial in these areas in the absence of natural cavities. A potential further factor in the increases in myna numbers and range has been a scheme involving local people in commercial breeding of the species, thereby reducing its market price, and working with communities to reduce trapping pressure. We encourage continuing operation of this management strategy inside the National Park and its further extension into adjacent tourist areas, which appear to have myna-friendly socio-ecological conditions.

The anthropogenic modification of natural landscapes, and the consequent changes in the environmental conditions and resources availability at multiple spatial scales can affect complex species interactions involving key-stone species such as bat–parasite interactions. In this study, we aimed to identify the drivers potentially influencing host–bat fly interactions at different spatial scales (at the host, vegetation stand and landscape level), in a tropical anthropogenic landscape. For this purpose, we mist-netted phyllostomid and moormopid bats and collected the bat flies (streblids) parasitizing them in 10 sites representing secondary and old growth forest. In general, the variation in fly communities largely mirrored the variation in bat communities as a result of the high level of specialization characterizing host–bat fly interaction networks. Nevertheless, we observed that: (1) bats roosting dynamics can shape bat–streblid interactions, modulating parasite prevalence and the intensity of infestation; (2) a degraded matrix could favor crowding and consequently the exchange of ectoparasites among bat species, lessening the level of specialization of the interaction networks and promoting novel interactions; and (3) bat–fly interaction can also be shaped by the dilution effect, as a decrease in bat diversity could be associated with a potential increase in the dissemination and prevalence of streblids.

There are several primate species with high risk of extinction in small forest fragments disturbed by human activities. However, some species exhibit high ecological plasticity, which allows them to persist in human-modified landscapes. The main goal of this study is to examine the relative roles of vegetation (mean distance among trees and mean canopy cover), human disturbance (distance to the road, distance to the fragment edge and edge type), and habitat spatial configuration (spatial autocorrelation index, category of quadrat – position within the fragment/fragment type) on the habitat selection of the black-tufted marmoset Callithrix penicillata in forest patches. We selected forest patches near and away from roads/urban areas, in southern Minas Gerais state, south-eastern Brazil. We used generalized linear mixed models to explain the presence of black-tufted marmoset in those patches. Our results show that black-tufted marmoset tend to occupy forest fragments closer to roads/urban areas, and consequently are under the influence of anthropic disturbance. In addition to the area delimited by these fragments, there is a preference for edge environments, where disturbances are exacerbated and the ecological conditions are suitable for exploitation by the black-tufted marmoset (supply of gum trees and reduced risk of competition). We suggest that a cross-habitat spillover by marmoset occur from forests to small habitat patches close to human-modified areas, such as those in proximity to roads and urban zones.