Woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) populations are declining across most of their range. Predation by wolves (Canis lupus) is believed to be the main proximate cause of these declines. Howe...

Controlling infectious diseases at the wildlife/livestock interface is often difficult because the ecological processes driving transmission between wildlife reservoirs and sympatric livestock populations are poorly understood. Thus, assessing how animals use their environment and how this affects interspecific interactions is an important factor in determining the local risk for disease transmission and maintenance. We used data from concurrently monitored GPS-collared domestic cattle and wild boar (Sus scrofa) to assess spatiotemporal interactions and associated implications for bovine tuberculosis (TB) transmission in a complex ecological and epidemiological system, Doñana National Park (DNP, South Spain). We found that fine-scale spatial overlap of cattle and wild boar was seasonally high in some habitats. In general, spatial interactions between the two species were highest in the marsh-shrub ecotone and at permanent water sources, whereas shrub-woodlands and seasonal grass-marshlands were areas with lower predicted relative interactions. Wild boar and cattle generally used different resources during winter and spring in DNP. Conversely, limited differences in resource selection during summer and autumn, when food and water availability were limiting, resulted in negligible spatial segregation and thus probably high encounter rates. The spatial gradient in potential overlap between the two species across DNP corresponded well with the spatial variation in the observed incidence of TB in cattle and prevalence of TB in wild boar. We suggest that the marsh-shrub ecotone and permanent water sources act as important points of TB transmission in our system, particularly during summer and autumn. Targeted management actions are suggested to reduce potential interactions between cattle and wild boar in order to prevent disease transmission and design effective control strategies.

Ecological “big data”: Human activities are rapidly altering the natural world. Nowhere is this more evident, perhaps, than in the Arctic, yet this region remains one of the most remote and difficult to study. Researchers have increasingly relied on animal tracking data in these regions to understand individual species' responses, but if we want to understand larger-scale change, we need to integrate our understanding across species. Davidsonet al.introduce an open-source data archive that currently hosts more than 15 million location data points across 96 species and use it to show distinct climate change responses across species. Such ecological “big data” can lead to a wider understanding of change.Science, this issue p.712

We show that olfactory misinformation increases nest survival of rare birds as effectively as lethal control of predators.

Wild mammalian herbivores can compete with domestic livestock and damage other types of production systems. We reviewed damage by wild mammalian herbivores, excluding rodents, to primary production in New Zealand and assessed whether primary producers alter stocking rates in response to changes in forage availability following pest control. Given the dearth of information on the damage caused by wild mammalian herbivores to many production systems, we primarily focused on their damage to agriculture. With the exception of the substantial damage that brushtail possums ( Trichosurus vulpecula ) and European rabbits ( Oryctolagus cuniculus ) cause, there are no quantitative estimates of pasture depletion by other wild mammalian herbivores on New Zealand farmland. Estimates of dry matter consumption by wild mammalian herbivores, converted to stock unit equivalents, suggest that several species can substantially reduce stocking rates when they occur on farmland. Quantitative data on the damage they cause to horticulture and silviculture are lacking, but damage to coniferous seedlings has been recorded for possums, wallabies ( Notamacropus spp.), and some species of deer ( Cervus spp., Rusa spp., and Dama dama ). The process that primary producers use to decide whether to control wild mammalian herbivores includes complex social and economic factors, but quantitative information is important for weighing up the expected costs and benefits of pest control. However, it is unclear how primary producers manage livestock in response to increases in forage availability following pest control. The paucity of quantitative data on wild mammalian herbivore damage to production assets is a substantial knowledge gap. Key research priorities are (i) understanding how damage varies with pest density (critical information for effective pest management) and (ii) and how primary producers alter stocking rates following reductions in pest density.