In the Amazonian basin, the human populations that traditionally inhabit the forest use its natural resources in various ways. One example is the local fauna which, among several other uses, is an important source of protein. The general aim of our study was to investigate the importance of hunting to the lives of the Amazonian riverine communities and to identify the multiple uses and knowledg...

Selection of habitats has regularly been suggested to influence species demography at both local and broad scales. The expectation is that selection behaviors have positive benefits via greater fitness or increased survival. The current paradigm of habitat selection theory suggests a hierarchical process, where an individual first selects where they choose to live (e.g., range) and then searche...

Common pheasant taxonomically belongs to the Class Aves, Order Galliformes, Family Phasianidae, Genus Phasianus, species Phasianus colchicus. It is well-known gamebird; one of the most hunted birds over the world. Besides that, pheasants are also breeded for meat, which has high nutritive value; the content of high quality protein and low fatness. It has been considered to belong to healthy ani...

The "phylogenetic diversity" (PD) measure of biodiversity is evaluated using a phylogenetic tree, usually inferred from morphological or molecular data. Consequently, it is vulnerable to errors in that tree, including those resulting from sampling error, model misspecification, or conflicting signals. To improve the robustness of PD, we can evaluate the measure using either a collection (or dis...

The sheep tick Ixodes ricinus (L.) (Acari: Ixodidae) is an ectoparasite of major economic and pathogenic importance in Scotland. Its distribution in the Scottish uplands is assumed to be governed by the abundance and distribution of its definitive hosts (deer and sheep) and climatic variables such as temperature and rainfall. As the numbers of its major host in Scotland, red deer, have increase...

Italy has experienced recurrent incursions of H5N2 avian influenza (AI) viruses in different geographical areas and varying sectors of the domestic poultry industry. Considering outbreak heterogeneity rather than treating all outbreaks of low pathogenicity AI (LPAI) viruses equally is important given their interactions with the environment and potential to spread, evolve and increase pathogenic...

The Paleogene (Paleocene-Oligocene) fossil record of birds in Europe is reviewed and recent and fossil taxa are placed into a phylogenetic framework, based on published cladistic analyses. The pre-Oligocene European avifauna is characterized by the complete absence of passeriform birds, which today are the most diverse and abundant avian taxon. Representatives of small non-passeriform perching ...