Feral cats in Australia’s natural environments kill 466 million reptiles yr–1 (95% CI; 271–1006 million). The tally varies substantially among years, depending on changes in the cat population driven by rainfall in inland Australia. The number of reptiles killed by cats is highest in arid regions. On average, feral cats kill 61 reptiles km–2 year–1, and an individual feral cat kills 225 reptiles year–1. Leer más.
a granota toro (Lithobates catesbeianus) està considerada una de les 100 espècies invasores més perjudicials pel seu impacte ecològic segons la IUCN. L’espècie està inclosa al catàleg espanyol d’espècies exòtiques invasores (Real Decret 630/2013, de 2 d’agost), així com al llistat del reglament 1143/2014 del Parlament Europeu i del Consell, de 22 d’octubre de 2014, sobre la prevenció i la gestió de la introducció i propagació d’espècies exòtiques invasores. Aquest passat mes de juny va ser detectada al delta de l’Ebre. Podeu descarregar-vos l’informe tècnic de 2018 i l’informe sanitari en el següent enllaç.
The maintenance of polymorphisms is often explained by sexual selection. However, natural selection may also constrain morphs to particular locations, causing geographical variation in morph diversity. In many well‐known polymorphic organisms in which the relevance of sexual selection on the maintenance of polymorphisms is widely supported, the role of environmental factors has been poorly studied. Here, we adopted a population‐level approach to assess the extent to which geographical variation in climate explains morph composition in a colour polymorphic lizard. We predict that rare morphs are more environmentally constrained than common morphs. Leer más.
Zaida Ortega Francisco y Javier Martín‐Vallejo. The thermal ecology of ectotherms has been studied for almost two centuries, but additional attention is currently being paid to the issue in order to understand how organisms deal with the environment in a climate change context. However, a consensus is still far away, due to the large number of factors involved and their complex interactions. In this context, three analyses in lacertid lizards were carried out: (1) a meta‐analysis, to test for differences between body and air temperatures from 71 populations, (2) a meta‐analysis concerning correlations between body and air temperatures from 60 populations, and (3) a multimodel inference using thermoregulation effectiveness indices from 45 populations. Leer más.
Successful reproduction is an important determinant of the fitness of an individual and of the dynamics of populations. Offspring of the European common frog (Rana temporaria) exhibit a high degree of variability in metamorphic traits. However, environmental factors alone cannot explain this phenotypic variability, and the influence of genetic factors remains to be determined. Here, we tested whether the maternal genotype influences developmental time, body size, and body condition of offspring in a forest pond in Germany. Leer más.
