Monitoring of bushmeat markets has traditionally been seen as a source of faunistic and ecological data on mammal communities in West Africa. Nonetheless, it is largely unexplored whether datasets coming from monitoring of large “hub” markets in towns can reliably picture the mammal faunas and community compositions at the local level. Here, Swali market in Bayelsa State, Nigeria, that is one of the largest bushmeat markets in the Niger Delta, was monitored for six months in 2013-2014. Data from Swali
market were compared with those collected during regular field surveys at five protected forests situated within 15 km radius from the market. A total of 21 mammal species was recorded at Swali versus 29 in the five protected forests. The trade was more intense by wet season. There was a statistically significant linear relationship between mean weight of the sold mammal and its price. A considerable portion of species that occur at the protected forests did not occur in the market samples, including the very rare species and the small-sized species. However, the abundance in the market of the common species was positively related to their apparent field abundance in the forest reserves. Therefore, it is concluded that large-sized bushmeat markets did not depict reliably the whole faunal composition
and the community structure of mammals in West Africa, although these types of surveys are sufficient to characterize the abundance distribution of the common species at the regional scale.
Several decades ago, large areas of the Iberian Peninsula were planted with allochthonous tree species for timber production among other reasons. This severe habitat transformation is likely to affect a large spectrum of the biodiversity in the area. The wild boar Sus scrofa is a widely distributed large mammal, for which population density can be estimated on the basis of hunting results relative to effort in each area. Our goal was to analyze the influence of pine plantations on the relative density of this species in Southern Spain. Based on data obtained from hunts, we found that the relative density of wild boar was negatively related to the relative area covered by pine trees. Our results support a negative effect of pine plantations on wild boar density and indicate that restoration and conservation of native oak forests can favour not only biodiversity but also the maintenance of wild boar populations.
Velké akumulace mamutích kostí na gravettienských sídlištích se v současné době interpretují buď jako pozůstatky úlovku, nebo naopak jako přirozené nahromaděniny mršin, u nichž si lidé zakládali tábořiště, aby je mohli využívat jako palivo a surovinu. První ze zmíněných názorů nevysvětluje obvyklou převahu velkých a těžkých kostí s nepatrným potravním užitkem, druhý je v příkrém rozporu s poznatky o způsobu života chobotnatců a o subsistenčních strategiích loveckých kultur. Rozměrné kosti největší lovné zvěře, případně parohy cervidů se přitom objevují nápadně často již na sídlištích ze starého a středního paleolitu. V prostředí moravského pavlovienu se mamutí kosti vyskytují v rozsáhlých depozicích u sídlišť a doprovázejí většinu dochovaných (tj. zahloubených) hrobů, ve východoevropském epigravettienu se potom ukládají do stěn obydlí a do zvláštních jam. Z rozboru těchto situací vyplývá, že při shromažďování vybraných pozůstatků zvěře spolupůsobily pohnutky transcendentálního a reprezentativního rázu. Důvody, proč současná věda o těchto subjektivních motivacích neuvažuje, jsou bohužel rovněž pouze subjektivní. and Large accumulations of mammoth bones at Gravettian settlement sites are presently interpreted either as the remains of prey animals, or alternatively as natural agglomerations of carcasses, by which people founded camps in order to exploit them as tinder and raw material. The former notion fails to explain the common preponderance of large and heavy bones of unclear use in subsistence, while the latter is in sharp disagreement with what is known about the way of life of the proboscidians and of the hunting strategies. At the same time the bulky bones of the largest game animals, such as the antlers of cervids, appear noticeably frequently at settlements of even the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic. In the milieu of the Moravian Pavlovian, mammoth bones appear in extensive deposits by settlements and accompany the majority of surviving (i.e. subsurface) graves; in the eastern European Epigravettian they are later found in the walls of dwellings and in their own pits. From an analysis of this situation it follows that in the drawing together of selected faunal remains both transcendental and representative motives played a role. The reasons why contemporary science takes no account of such subjective motives are unfortunately themselves subjective.
Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus) numbers are continually declining in many European countries. In this study we used data on the numbers of lapwings ringed annually as chicks in the Czech Republic, adjusted for ringing effort, to estimate regional population trends. We found a region-wide population decline in the Czech Republic between 1976–2004. The trends from ringing records were supported by data from a standardized national monitoring program. The decline in the number of chicks ringed was significantly correlated with the negative trends of national indices in seven of ten regions. The three remaining regions also showed low but non-significant rates of population decline. We found that the rate of decline was not equal among regions. The rate of population decline was significantly related to a derived index of hunting pressure. Therefore, regions with the most pronounced rates of population decline had relatively more shot birds at both staging and wintering areas. At the same time, we found no evidence for shifts in either mean recovery distances or hunting impact index. This study demonstrates that ringing records are not only a valuable source of data on bird recoveries, but also can be used for population monitoring.
Daubenton’s bat Myotis daubentonii is one of the most common bat species of Europe, hunting its prey in the surroundings of water bodies, with different microhabitats. To explore the local adaptability to different environmental conditions, we compared the diet of Daubenton’s bats at four different sites in a lake landscape in northern Germany with a main focus on prey diversity. Bats were caught (n = 85) in mist nets for collecting individual faecal pellets (n = 276). Pellets were dissected and the occurrence of identifiable pieces of each prey group was evaluated and grouped in five different frequency groups. We found 17 different groups of arthropods
among the prey, with a clear dominance of Chironomidae and Trichoptera. There were significant differences among the sampling sites in prey diversity but not in prey richness.The changes in prey diversity were associated with sample sites. We conclude that on a local scale there is low variability in diet of Daubenton’s bat caused by hunting in various habitat structures in the surroundings of water bodies. Our results highlight the ecological flexibility of M. daubentonii, which could be an explanation for the commonness of M. daubentonii across Europe in comparison to the rather rare pond bat (Myotis dasycneme), which has similar habitats and main prey group preferences.
Wild boar population structure was studied in two well-preserved forests of western Iberian Peninsula, one located in a typically Mediterranean zone (vegetation mainly holm oak Quercus ilex and various tall-shrubs species), and the other in a more Atlantic area (mainly oak Q. pyrenica but with abundant cork oak Q. suber in some places). Data were colleted during hunts in monterías’ area between the 1994/95 and 2000/2001 hunting seasons (October to February). 972 hunted wild boars were sexed and aged in the field, using growth patterns and tooth attrition. The mean age of hunted wild boars differed in the two zones. 2.11 years old in holm oak forest, and 1.78 years old in oak forest. This difference may result from shurb cover density and its effect on hunting dog, efficiency in rooting out wild boar. However, mean age was similar other zones of Europe. Proportionately more females were taken than males demonstrate the usefulness of Mediterranean hunting in contributing to management and conservation.
The authors briefly visit the history of hunting and gamekeeping in Czech lands from the legal per- spective. They focus especially on the laws of the 19th century. In detail they discuss the individual provisions of the Hunting Act for the Czech lands from 1866 and thus describe the conditions for hunting in the Czech lands.