Biology subjects

Conteddu, K.

Publications and source records attributed to Conteddu, K..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2023

Does fear of humans predict anti-predator strategies in an ungulate hider species during fawning?

Humans are a major evolutionary force on wildlife via artificial selection. While often explored through the lens of extractive interactions (e.g., hunting) able to favour certain behavioural traits over others, the implications of non-extractive ones, such as wildlife feeding, remain under-studied. Research has recently shown that people tend to feed (and sometimes favour) a limited subset of bolder individuals within natural populations, although its dynamics and consequences are not fully clear. Using fallow deer living in a peri-urban setting as a model population, we studied whether mother deer that display reduced fear of humans and consistently approach them for food adopt weaker anti-predator strategies by selecting for fawning bedsites that are less concealed and closer to human hotspots, allowing them to take advantage of additional artificial feeding opportunities in comparison to shier mothers in this population. Our dataset encompassed 171 fawns from 109 mothers across 4 years. Contrary to our expectations, we found that mothers that regularly accepted food from humans selected for more concealed bedsites farther away from them, giving their offspring better protection while also taking advantage of additional artificial food during lactating. Our results show marked behavioural adaptation by a subset of females, making this the first time that the link between tendency to approach humans and strategies to protect offspring is explored. Given previous findings that these begging females also deliver heavier fawns at birth, our research adds a piece to the complex puzzle describing human manipulation of behaviour in natural populations and its fitness consequences.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2023

Fawn bedsite selection by a large ungulate living in a peri-urban area

Human-wildlife conflict in expanding peri-urban and urban areas is of increasing concern, as a result of growing human populations along with the associated anthropogenic footprint on wildlife habitats. Empirical data from wildlife research carried out within human dominated landscapes are key to understanding the effects of human pressures on wildlife ecology and behaviour, exploring wildlife behavioural flexibility (or phenotypic plasticity), and informing wildlife management decisions. Here, we explored how female fallow deer (Dama dama) responded to human and dog presence during the birthing period in the largest walled urban park in Europe. We collected data on 477 bedsites utilised by 283 neonate fawns across three consecutive fawning seasons, gathered fine-scale data on humans and dogs space use, and built Resource Selection Functions at multiple spatial scales. We found that, when choosing bedsites to give birth and leave fawns unattended, fallow deer mothers significantly avoided hotspots of park visitors on foot (and their dogs) along the hiking trail routes. Bedsites were also unlikely to be in close proximity of paved roads used by vehicle traffic. Additionally, fallow deer mothers were found to select for dense understory vegetation for bedsites, providing low visibility to conceal their offspring. Our results provide detailed insights into bedsite spatial and habitat selection by a large herbivore in response to human activities, and we provide clear indications to wildlife managers to preserve established fawning sites and alleviate human-wildlife conflict during a critical period of the deer annual biological cycle.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2023

Curbing zoonotic disease spread in multi-host-species systems will require integrating novel data streams and analytical approaches: evidence from a scoping review of bovine tuberculosis

BackgroundZoonotic diseases represent a significant societal challenge in terms of their health and economic impacts. One Health approaches to managing zoonotic diseases are becoming more prevalent, but require novel thinking, tools and cross-disciplinary collaboration. Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is one example of a costly One Health challenge with a complex epidemiology involving human, domestic animal, wildlife and environmental factors, which require sophisticated collaborative approaches. ObjectiveWe undertook a scoping review of multi-host bTB epidemiology to identify recent trends in species publication focus, methodologies, scales and One Health approaches. We aimed to identify research gaps where novel research could provide insights to inform control policy, for bTB and other zoonoses. ResultsThe review included 167 articles. We found different levels of research attention across episystems, with a significant proportion of the literature focusing on the badger-cattle-TB episystem, with far less attention given to the multi-host episystems of southern Africa. We found a limited number of studies focusing on management solutions and their efficacy, with very few studies looking at modelling exit strategies. Surprisingly, only a small number of studies looked at the effect of human disturbances on the spread of bTB involving wildlife hosts. Most of the studies we reviewed focused on the effect of badger vaccination and culling on bTB dynamics with few looking at how roads, human perturbations and habitat change may affect wildlife movement and disease spread. Finally, we observed a lack of studies considering the effect of weather variables on bTB spread, which is particularly relevant when studying zoonoses under climate change scenarios. ConclusionsSignificant technological and methodological advances have been applied to bTB episystems, providing explicit insights into its spread and maintenance across populations. We identified a prominent bias towards certain species and locations. Generating more high-quality empirical data on wildlife host distribution and abundance, high-resolution individual behaviours and greater use of mathematical models and simulations are key areas for future research. Integrating data sources across disciplines, and a "virtuous cycle" of well-designed empirical data collection linked with mathematical and simulation modelling could provide additional gains for policy-makers and managers, enabling optimised bTB management with broader insights for other zoonoses.

ecology↗