The southern giant petrel (Macronectes giganteus) is a widely distributed top predator of the Southern Ocean. To define the fine-scale foraging areas and habitat use of Antarctic breeding populations, 47 southern giant petrels from Nelson Island were GPS-tracked during the summers of 2019–2020 and 2021–2022. Step-selection analysis was applied to test the effects of environmental variables on habitat selection. Visual overlap with seal haul-out sites and fishing areas was also analysed. Birds primarily used waters to the south of the colony in the Weddell and Bellingshausen seas. Females showed a broader distribution, reaching up to -70°S to the west of Nelson Island, while males were mainly concentrated in waters off the northern Antarctic Peninsula. Habitat selection of both sexes was associated with water depth and proximity to penguin colonies. Both overlapped their foraging areas with fishing sites and females in particular overlapped with toothfish fishery blocks in Antarctica and with fishing areas in the Patagonian Shelf. Due to their habitat associations and overlap with fisheries, when harnessed with tracking devices and animal-borne cameras, giant petrels can act as platforms for monitoring the condition and occurrence of penguin colonies, haul-out sites and unregulated fisheries on various temporal and spatial scales in Antarctica.

The sophisticated spatial reference tools that exist today greatly facilitate studies of spatial ecology. Historically, however, the lack of such tools meant that spatial data were often imprecise, ambiguous or sometimes inaccurate. This can hinder or confound assessments of whether species distributions have changed in the past over decadal timescales. This is the case for Adélie penguins breeding at the southern limit of their breeding range in East Antarctica. In this short note, we resolve uncertainties in the locations of Adélie penguin breeding sites observed in the first population survey in Prydz Bay in 1981 by examining the original working notes of that work in combination with data from a recent survey in 2009 and a recently published spatial reference and identification system for coastal East Antarctica. By clarifying the historical locations, we conclude that the Adélie penguin breeding distribution has remained unchanged in this region over the past three decades, and we provide a robust baseline for assessing change in the future.

Rapid and regionally contrasting climate changes have been observed around Antarctica. However, our understanding of the impact of these changes on ecosystems remains limited, and there is an urgent need to better identify habitats of Antarctic species. The Weddell seal (Leptonychotes weddellii) is a circumpolar mesopredator and an indicative species of Antarctic marine communities. It has been extensively studied in the western Ross Sea and East Antarctica, and an understanding of its ecology in the Weddell Sea in the wintertime is emerging. We documented the behavioural response(s) of four Weddell seals from February to June in 2017 in the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf region and related these to unusual oceanographic conditions in 2017. Unexpectedly, we found that Weddell seals had the longest foraging effort within the outflow of Ice Shelf Water or at its turbulent boundary. They also foraged on the eastern side of the trough from April to June within the Modified Warm Deep Water and seem to take advantage of the unusual conditions of persistent inflow of warm waters through the winter. Linking animal behavioural responses to oceanographic conditions is informative for quantifying rarely recorded events and provides great insight into how predators may respond to changing conditions.

Understanding patterns of dispersal behaviour of threatened species is important in conservation biology and population ecology, especially in fragmented landscapes. Dupont’s Lark Chersophilusduponti is a threatened passerine whose European population has declined by around 40% in the last decade. To study natal and breeding dispersal of the species, we used a long-term mark-recapture dataset (2011–2019) and analysed the records of 32 males (39 dispersal movements) and five females (five dispersal movements) captured during the breeding season at Rincón de Ademuz (Valencia, eastern Spain). Adult birds had a median breeding dispersal of 154 m (Q25-Q75 = 70.0–300.3). Among these captures, two adult males dispersed to a new patch of habitat separated by more than 5,800 m. Only one out of 26 nestlings ringed was trapped as an adult bird, which occurred at a site different from the natal territory (4,500 m). Our results show a low breeding dispersal for the species and are, in essence, in agreement with previous studies carried out in the Ebro Valley metapopulation, one of the core areas for the species in Europe. Nonetheless, unlike in the Ebro Valley, we detected movements of adult birds between habitat patches. The low recovery rate of young birds suggests that they left their natal sites and moved outside the study area or that their survival rate was very low. Future studies focused on the post-fledging survival rate and natal dispersal movements are essential to determine effective conservation measures for the species. Habitat management actions in occupied and potential sites should be carried out close to the areas inhabited by the species to increase the success rate of the interventions and the effective dispersal and therefore population connectivity.

Following the continual decline of the Cape vulture Gyps coprotheres since the 1960s, captive breeding and rehabilitation programmes have been established to reinforce populations across southern Africa. This study examines the spatial ecology of captive-bred and rehabilitated vultures following release. Our analysis used 253,671 GPS fixes from 20 captive-bred and 13 rehabilitated birds to calculate home range sizes using kernel density estimation. We found that home range size did not differ significantly between captive-bred and rehabilitated birds. The location of home ranges differed: captive-bred birds showed greater site fidelity, remaining close to their release site, whereas rehabilitated birds dispersed more widely across the species' native range. By remaining close to their release site within a protected area, captive-bred birds had a significantly higher per cent of their GPS fixes within protected areas than did rehabilitated birds. Despite fidelity to their release site, captive-bred birds demonstrated innate capabilities for natural foraging behaviours and the same habitat selection strategy as rehabilitated individuals. These findings suggest that captive breeding and reinforcement of populations at declining colonies could provide localized benefits. Future long-term studies should seek to analyse survivorship and identify the breeding behaviour of these captive-bred birds once they reach sexual maturity.

Globally, marine turtles are considered threatened throughout their range, and therefore conservation practitioners are increasingly investing resources in marine protected areas to protect key life history stages and critical habitats, including foraging grounds, nesting beaches and inter-nesting areas. Empirical data on the distribution of these habitats and/or the spatial ecology and behaviour of individuals of many marine turtle populations are often lacking, undermining conservation efforts, particularly along the Atlantic coast of Africa. Here we contribute to the knowledge base in this region by describing patterns of habitat use for nine green turtles Chelonia mydas tagged with satellite platform transmitter terminals at a foraging ground in Loango Bay, Republic of the Congo, one of only a few documented mainland foraging grounds for marine turtles in Central Africa. Analyses of these data revealed that core areas of habitat use and occupancy for a wide range of size/age classes were restricted to shallow waters adjacent to Pointe Indienne in Loango Bay, with most individuals showing periods of high fidelity to this area. These data are timely given the Congolese government recently announced its intention to create a marine conservation zone to protect marine turtles in Loango Bay. Despite the small sample size of this study, these data exemplify the need for comprehensive strategies that span national jurisdictions, as we provide the first documented evidence of linkages between green turtle foraging sites in Central Africa (Loango Bay, Republic of the Congo) and Southern Africa (Mussulo Bay, Angola).

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.

In urban landscapes, gardens provide refuges for bee diversity, but conservation potential may depend on local and landscape features. Foraging and population persistence of bee species, as well as overall pollinator community structure, may be supported by the abundance, richness, and spatial distribution of floral resources. Floral resources strongly differ in urban gardens. Using hand netting and pan traps to survey bees, we examined whether abundance, richness, and spatial distribution of floral resources, as well as ground cover and garden landscape surroundings influence bee abundance, species richness, and diversity on the central coast of California. Differences in floral abundance and spatial distribution, as well as urban cover in the landscape, predicted different bee community variables. Abundance of all bees and of honeybees (Apis mellifera) was lower in sites with more urban land cover surrounding the gardens. Honeybee abundance was higher in sites with patchy floral resources, whereas bee species richness and bee diversity was higher in sites with more clustered floral resources. Surprisingly, bee species richness and bee diversity was lower in sites with very high floral abundance, possibly due to interactions with honeybees. Other studies have documented the importance of floral abundance and landscape surroundings for bees in urban gardens, but this study is the first to document that the spatial arrangement of flowers strongly predicts bee abundance and richness. Based on these findings, it is likely that garden managers may promote bee conservation by managing for floral connectivity and abundance within these ubiquitous urban habitats.

The spatial resources used by a population of lace monitors (Varanus varius) were examined over an active season (September–April) and an inactive season (May–August). In total, 33 monitors were observed, of which 23 monitors were radio-tracked for up to 11 months. Radio tracking provided new information on the spatial ecology of V. varius. During summer (December–February), V. varius moved often, over large (184.5 ha) overlapping home-range areas. In the intermediate seasons of spring (September–November) and autumn (March–May), monitors moved less often and used less than 39% of the summer home-range. Finally, in the cold winter season (June–August) many monitors did not move at all and most used less than 5% of their summer home-ranges. The thermal environment, and reproductive status of V. varius affected its use of space, and the importance of these factors varied seasonally. No spatial segregation was noted between monitors, with home-ranges overlapping on average for eight other radio-tracked monitors. The home-range size of V. varius was accurately predicted using published data on body mass and home-range size for the Varanidae.

The spatial organization of epiphytes has come under increasing attention. This kind of information is necessary for the general understanding of their ecology and for the design of sustainable harvesting methods. In this study, the small-scale (local) distribution of epiphytic bromeliads was studied using correlograms and permutational regression on distance matrices. Fieldwork was carried out in a young secondary forest stand in the central cordillera of Colombia at 3150 m asl. A complete census of the bromeliads in this plot was made, using a lattice with 400 quadrats. Six species of bromeliad were found (1008 individuals). All of these except one showed an aggregated spatial pattern. This pattern was independent of the position of the trees in the sampled plot. The distribution of the bromeliads was determined by the availability of substrate (branch surface area per quadrat), the proximity of conspecifics and the geomorphology of the terrain. The structure of the forest surrounding an epiphyte had an influence on the position of the epiphyte in the tree (height measured as distance from the canopy). The use of two-dimensional, lattice-based sampling strategies is discussed as a possible method for comprehensive surveys of epiphyte populations in natural forests.

We shall examine the impact of Charles S. Elton's 1924 article on periodic fluctuations in animal populations on the development of modern population ecology. We argue that his impact has been substantial and that during the past 75 years of research on multi-annual periodic fluctuations in numbers of voles, lemmings, hares, lynx and game animals he has contributed much to the contemporary understanding of the causes and consequences of population regulation. Elton was convinced that the cause of the regular fluctuations was climatic variation. To support this conclusion, he examined long-term population data then available. Despite his firm belief in a climatic cause of the self-repeating periodic dynamics which many species display, Elton was insightful and far-sighted enough to outline many of the other hypotheses since put forward as an explanation for the enigmatic long-term dynamics of some animal populations. An interesting, but largely neglected aspect in Elton's paper is that it ends with speculation regarding the evolutionary consequences of periodic population fluctuations. The modern understanding of these issues will also be scrutinised here. In population ecology, Elton's 1924 paper has spawned a whole industry of research on populations displaying multi-annual periodicity. Despite the efforts of numerous research teams and individuals focusing on the origins of multi-annual population cycles, and despite the early availability of different explanatory hypotheses, we are still lacking rigorous tests of some of these hypotheses and, consequently, a consensus of the causes of periodic fluctuations in animal populations. Although Elton would have been happy to see so much effort spent on cyclic populations, we also argue that it is unfortunate if this focus on a special case of population dynamics should distract our attention from more general problems in population and community dynamics.

This study investigates how habitat variation affects sett density, the number of animals per social group and group territory size in the badger (Meles meles). Identical methods were applied in three habitat types: lowland parkland with mixed woodland, pastoral farmland and upland rough pasture with moorland, representing areas of presumed good, medium and poor badger habitat, respectively. Contiguous main setts were identified and bait-marking was used to estimate territory size. Group size was estimated by direct enumeration. Variation in sett density, group size and territory size supported the hypothesis that badger group and territory size are influenced by habitat type. This was further supported by analyses of data from other studies in the British Isles. The implications for badger spatial ecology, badger survey techniques and the badger's role in the epidemiology of TB are discussed.