Urbanization has a significant influence on amphibian communities, populations, and individuals because of habitat loss, degradation of habitat quality, and habitat fragmentation. Advertisement calls of anurans are used for communication and play an important role in reproduction; however, how anthropogenic noise and habitat change caused by urbanization affect anuran advertisement calls is less well known. In this study, we examined changes in the advertisement calls of two frog species, the ornamented pygmy frog (Microhyla fissipes) and rice frog (Fejervarya multistriata), during the breeding season along an urban–rural gradient in Shanghai, China. We used the percentage of impervious area (including buildings and roads) in each 2 km-radius landscape to represent the urbanization index of 34 study sites. We then measured five advertisement call parameters (call duration, call interval, call rate, pulse rate, and dominant frequency) of these two species (100 males of F. multistriata and 89 males of M. fissipes) in each study site from May to July in 2020 and 2021. We explored how the urbanization index and other variables (air temperature, snout–vent length and calling situation (one frog species calling, or two frog species calling together)) in each study site affected these call parameters. The results showed that the dominant frequency of M. fissipes was significantly negatively related to urbanization index, and call duration and call interval were significantly negatively related to air temperature; furthermore, call rate and pulse rate were significantly positively related to air temperature, and call duration was also significantly positively related to snout–vent length. For F. multistriata, pulse rate was significantly negatively related to urbanization index, snout–vent length, and situation (two frog species calling together), but significantly positively related to air temperature; by contrast, call interval was significantly positively related to snout–vent length. We suggested that these two frog species had different responses to urbanization, which could help us to better understand the change of anuran breeding behaviors and reproductive life-history strategies in the face of rapid urbanization.

Climate change significantly impacts species distribution and survival, particularly for habitat specialists with limited dispersal abilities. This study investigates the current and future distribution of Tylonycteris pachypus, one of the world’s smallest bats specialized in bamboo-dwelling, using ensemble modeling approaches. Based on comprehensive occurrence data and seven environmental variables, we developed an ensemble model using the Biomod2 platform, achieving high predictive accuracy (AUC: 0.981, TSS: 0.877). Three environmental variables were identified as crucial determinants: minimum temperature of the coldest month (40.90% contribution), maximum temperature of the warmest month (38.38%), and precipitation of the wettest quarter (11.09%). Currently, highly suitable habitats (291.893 × 10⁴ km²) are concentrated in three main regions: southern China and Indochina Peninsula, Myanmar–Bangladesh–northeastern India, and isolated areas in southwest India and Thailand. Under future climate scenarios, particularly SSP585, suitable habitats are projected to decrease substantially (64.4% reduction by 2090s), with a notable northward shift in distribution. However, the species’ limited dispersal ability, specific habitat requirements, and geographical barriers may constrain its capacity to track these climate-driven changes. Our findings highlight the vulnerability of T. pachypus to climate change and emphasize the need for targeted conservation strategies, including protecting climate-resilient habitats and maintaining bamboo forest corridors. This study provides a comprehensive framework for monitoring and conserving this specialized species under climate change, while considering its unique ecological constraints and dispersal limitations.

Estimating the impacts of anthropogenic activities and climate change on species' spatial distributions is crucial for conservation. In this study, based on 62 valid occurrence records of Sphenomorphus incognitus and 24 environmental factors (19 climate factors, 4 topographic factors, and 1 human activity factor), we utilized the biomod2 combined model platform to predict suitable habitats for S. incognitus under two current scenarios (Scenario 1: natural state; Scenario 2: human interference state) and two future climate scenarios (SSP1‐2.6 and SSP5‐8.5) in 2050s and 2090s. The mean true skill statistic (TSS) and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) suggested that the ensemble model yield more precise predictions than those of individual models. Rainfall and slope were identified as the most important factors influencing S. incognitus distribution. Human disturbance has significantly reduced suitable habitat by 44.13 × 10⁴ km², which is a decrease in 23.95% compared to natural conditions. Spatial analysis revealed substantial fragmentation of suitable habitat due to human activities. The incorporation of anthropogenic factors into the analysis of future climate scenarios has revealed that the area of suitable habitat exhibits divergent trends. Two distinct scenarios have been identified, each of which results in a reduction in the area of the region by 29.58 × 10⁴ km² and an increase by 27.04 × 10⁴ km², respectively, by the year 2090. The primary influence persists in human activities. The centroid of suitable habitat shifted toward the southeast under SSP1‐2.6 and toward the northwest under SSP5‐8.5. Our findings highlight the significant impact of anthropogenic factors on S. incognitus habitat and emphasize the need for conservation measures. Future research should incorporate additional socioeconomic data to further investigate the effects of human disturbance on this species.

Background: Microsatellites are a ubiquitous occurrence in prokaryotic and eukaryotic genomes. Microsatellites have become one of the most popular classes of genetic markers due to their high reproducibility, multi-allelic nature, co-dominant mode of inheritance, abundance and wide genome coverage. We characterised microsatellites in the genomes and genes of two bat species, Pteropus vampyrus and Miniopterus natalensis. This characterisation was used for gene ontology analysis and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway enrichment of coding sequences (CDS). Results: Compared to M. natalensis, the genome size of P. vampyrus is larger and contains more microsatellites, but the total diversity of both species is similar. Mononucleotide and dinucleotide repeats were the most diverse in the genome of the two species. In each bat species, the microsatellite bias was obvious. The microsatellites with the largest number of repeat motifs in P. vampyrus from mononucleotide to hexanucleotide were (A)_n, (AC)_n, (CAA)_n, (AAAC)_n, (AACAA)_n and (AAACAA)_n, with frequencies of 97.94%, 58.75%, 30.53%, 22.82%, 54.68% and 22.87%, respectively, while in M. natalensis were (A)_n, (AC)_n, (TAT)_n, (TTTA)_n, (AACAA)_n and (GAGAGG)_n, with of 92.00%, 34.08%, 40.36%, 21.83%, 25.42% and 12.79%, respectively. In both species, the diversity of microsatellites was highest in intergenic regions, followed by intronic, untranslated and exonic regions and lowest in coding regions. Location analysis indicated that microsatellites were mainly concentrated at both ends of the genes. Microsatellites in the CDS are thus subject to higher selective pressure. In the GO analysis, two unique GO terms were found only in P. vampyrus and M. natalensis, respectively. In KEGG enriched pathway, the biosynthesis of other secondary metabolites and metabolism of other amino acids in metabolism pathways were present only in M. natalensis. The combined biological process, cellular components and molecular function ontology are reflected in the GO analysis and six functional enrichments in KEGG annotation, suggesting advantageous mutations during species evolution. Conclusions: Our study gives a comparative characterization of the genomes of microsatellites composition in the two bat species. And also allow further study on the effect of microsatellites on gene function as well as provide an insight into the molecular basis for species adaptation to new and changing environments.

Climate change significantly impacted on the survival, development, distribution, and abundance of living organisms. The Chinese serow Capricornis milneedwardsii, known as the “four unlike,” is a Class II nationally protected species in China. In this study, we predicted the geographical suitability of C. milneedwardsii under current and future climatic conditions using MaxEnt. The model simulations resulted in area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) values above 0.9 for both current and future climate scenarios, indicating the excellent performance, high accuracy, and credibility of the MaxEnt model. The results also showed that annual precipitation (Bio12), slope, elevation, and mean temperature of wettest quarter (Bio8) were the key environmental variables affecting the distribution of C. milneedwardsii, with contributions of 31.2%, 26.4%, 11%, and 10.3%, respectively. The moderately and highly suitable habitats were mainly located in the moist area of China, with a total area of 34.56 × 10⁴ and 16.61 × 10⁴ km², respectively. Under future climate change scenarios, the areas of suitability of C. milneedwardsii showed an increasing trend. The geometric center of the total suitable habitats of C. milneedwardsii would show the trend of northwest expansion and southeast contraction. These findings could provide a theoretical reference for the protection of C. milneedwardsii in the future.

The composition and function of animal gut microbiota are influenced by various intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Hibernation represents a significant physiological challenge for heterothermic mammals, yet the effects on gut microbiota in bats remain understudied. This study investigated seasonal variations in the gut microbiota of Rhinolophus sinicus between summer activity and winter hibernation using 16S rRNA gene sequencing ( n = 12 per group). Sequencing analysis identified 907 ASVs in the hibernation group and 555 ASVs in the summer group, with only 27 ASVs shared between groups, suggesting substantial seasonal turnover in microbial community membership. At the phylum level, Pseudomonadota (formerly Proteobacteria) dominated the gut microbiota, but no significant difference was found between seasons (77.52% during hibernation vs. 57.15% during summer). Bacillota (formerly Firmicutes) decreased significantly, while Actinomycetota (formerly Actinobacteriota) increased significantly in the hibernation group compared to the summer group. Genus‐level composition exhibited seasonal variation, with distinct microbial communities characterizing each period. Alpha diversity analysis revealed significant differences in Faith's phylogenetic diversity between seasons, suggesting shifts in phylogenetic composition, while Chao1, Shannon, and Simpson indices remained unchanged. Beta diversity analyses revealed significant structural divergence between seasonal groups. Functional prediction using PICRUSt2 suggested seasonal shifts in metabolism‐related pathways, with putative enrichment of lipid metabolism and xenobiotic biodegradation pathways during hibernation, while carbohydrate metabolism appeared more prominent during the active period. These findings suggest that winter fasting may alter intestinal microbial metabolic functions, potentially shifting the microbiota from carbohydrate‐oriented to lipid‐oriented metabolism. This study enhances our understanding of host‐microbiome crosstalk in hibernating mammals and highlights the potential adaptive role of gut microbes in facilitating survival under extreme physiological conditions.