Mustelidae

Ceré Cave (Verona, Italy) is a karst fissure infilled with an ossiferous breccia and was first excavated in the first half of the twentieth century. Revision of the material stored in the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale of Verona was made before the beginning of new excavations. This work presents new analysis of the carnivores. The presence of Homotherium latidens and Canis mosbachensis, and the lack of typical Aurelian species, allow the temporal attribution of the site to the Middle or Late Galerian (Middle Pleistocene).

La Grotta del Cerè (catasto n. 258 V VR) si trova nel comune di Ceredo (Sant'Anna d'Alfaedo, VR) a circa 750 m slm. Conosciuta fin dal 1735, la grotta consiste in una singola sala di 6,5x5 m. Pasa (1954), che studiò il sito, riteneva che la breccia ossifera si fosse formata in un contesto di inghiottitoio e che l'attuale apertura si fosse originata durante un secondo ciclo carsico.
Nella prospettiva di riaprire lo scavo, si è deciso di affrontare una revisione sistematica delle faune conservate presso il Museo di Storia Naturale di Verona. Lo studio dei reperti ha portato ad identificare alcuni taxa mai segnalati in precedenza nel sito (per esempio l'Homotherium) oppure a cambiare l'attribuzione tassonomica di quelli precedentemente descritti. Si riportano qui i dati preliminari riguardanti i carnivori: Canidi, Felidi e Mustelidi.
La specie più abbondante nel sito è il Canis mosbachensis Soergel, 1925, rappresentato da circa 4500 resti. L'abbondanza di resti del genere Canis permette di considerare la Grotta del Cerè uno dei siti più importanti per lo studio dell'evoluzione del genere, permettendo di affrontare un vero e proprio studio di popolazione.
Gli altri Carnivori sono rappresentati da elementi sporadici. Tra i Felidi spicca sicuramente Homotherium latidens (Owen, 1846),  rappresentato unicamente da un P4 superiore sinistro, che non era stato segnalato precedentemente nel sito. Altri Felidi presenti sono: Panthera leo (L., 1758), Panthera cf. pardus (L., 1758), Felis silvestris Schreber, 1775 e Lynx cf. spelaeus Boule, 1906.
I Mustelidae sono rappresentati da Gulo gulo (L., 1758), Mustela cf. putorius L., 1758, Martes sp. L., 1758 e Meles meles (L., 1758).
Le nuove determinazioni, con la presenza di specie come Canis mosbachensis, Ursus deningeri e Homotherium latidens, confermerebbero che la fauna rappresentata è riconducibile all'Età a Mammiferi del Galeriano e non a quella dell'Aureliano come era stato ipotizzato da alcuni Autori.
La maggior parte dei reperti è ben conservata e i carnivori sono la maggioranza delle specie rappresentate. La maggior parte degli individui sono giovani-adulti senza usura marcata dei denti. I Canidi sono oltre il 50% del totale, seguiti dai Rodentia (Marmota marmota primigenia) 12%, Ursidae 6%. Felidae e Mustelidae complessivamente sono circa l'1%. La presenza della marmotta indica che la grotta si trovava al di sopra del limite degli alberi, benchè la presenza della lince, del gatto selvatico, del tasso e del genere Martes sembra indicare la presenza di aree forestali non distanti.

As of 2010, approximately 55,000km 2 , or 12% of Sumatra island, was subject to oil palm cultivation. This has resulted in the mass clearing of tropical forests, which has led to many isolated forest fragments, as well as the disruption of ecosystem functionality. While the impact of these activities on larger carnivores has been well-established, how they have impacted the ecology of smaller carnivores, including mustelids and viverrids, has been much less studied. Between June and December 2015, we conducted camera-trap surveys to investigate the activity patterns and habitat characteristics of small carnivores in Solok Selatan near Kerinci Seblat National Park, a region containing extensive oil palm plantations. We established a total of 15 camera-trap stations, including five cameras in each of three different habitats: fragmented forest, riparian zones and continuous forest. A statistical analysis was carried out using Generalized Linear Model (GLM) to assess the relationship between species richness among various habitat and covariates, then compared with Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) values to identify the most likely models were run in R statistic program. In general, the camera traps recorded seven species of small carnivore during monitoring, consists of one mustelid species exhibiting predominantly diurnal activity, and six viverrids that were largely active at night. Larger distances from the park edge were also associated with greater species richness at camera-traps, most likely because these species had become isolated in forest surrounded by completely unsuitable habitat. We conclude that this mixed oil palm landscape has negatively impacted small carnivore diversity and activity.

Pada tahun 2010, sekitar 55.292 km2 luasan perkebunan kelapa sawit mencapai 12% dari total pulau Sumatera itu sendiri. Pembukaan hutan menjadi perkebunan menimbulkan permasalah tersendiri, terutama timbulnya hutan terfragmentasi yang tidak terhubung dengan hutan sehamparan dan tidak berfungsinya riparian sebagai koridor penghubung. Dampaknya terhadap mamalia karnivora besar telah banyak diteliti, sementara untuk mamalia karnivora kecil belum diteliti, dengan demikian perlu dilakukan penelitian untuk mengetahui bagaimana pola aktivitas dari Mustelidae dan Viverridae di kawasan perkebunan kelapa sawit dan profil habitat yang mereka manfaatkan. Penelitian ini menggunakan metoda Camera trap. Sebanyak 15 camera dipasang pada tiga habitat; fragmentasi, riparian dan hutan sehamparan di dalam kawasan perkebunan kelapa sawit Solok Selatan, masing-masing habitat dipasangi 5 camera. Kamera dipasang dari bulan Juni-Desember 2015. Uji statistik menggunakan Generelized Linear Model (GLM) pada R statistic dilakukan untuk mengetahui hubungan antara keragaman spesies yang diperoleh dengan beberapa parameter lingkungan, kemudian diambil nilai Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) paling kecil dan sederhana untuk digunakan sebagai permodelan. Didapatkan total 7 spesies, satu Mustelidae yang memiliki aktivitas diurnal, dan 6 species Viverridae yang memiliki aktivitas nocturnal. Profil habitat dari kedua famili mamalia karnivora kecil ini menunjukkan bahwa tutupan kanopi dan jaraknya ke hutan Taman Nasional Kerinci Seblat mempengaruhi jumlah spesies yang ditemukan di kawasan perkebunan kelapa sawit tersebut.

Tuberculosis of free-ranging and captive wildlife, including species implicated in the maintenance and transmission of Mycobacterium bovis, is a difficult disease to diagnose and control. Historically, diagnosis of tuberculosis has relied largely upon assays of cell-mediated immunity (CMI), such as tuberculin skin testing. This approach, however, is problematic or impractical for use with many wildlife species. Increasingly, in vitro diagnostic tests, including gamma interferon (IFN-gamma)-based assays, are replacing or complementing skin testing of cattle and humans. Analogous assays are unavailable for most wildlife because of a lack of species-specific immunological reagents. This report describes the development and validation of a whole-blood assay to quantify antigen-specific IFN-gamma mRNA expression by quantitative real-time reverse transcription-PCR. Oligonucleotide primers and probes were designed and tested for reactivity towards several susceptible species of interest with respect to tuberculosis infection. The assay was subsequently optimized to quantify the IFN-gamma mRNA expression in elk and red deer (Cervus elaphus) and was evaluated for its ability to detect mycobacterial antigen-specific responses of experimentally tuberculosis-infected animals. The assay was a simple, rapid, and sensitive measure of antigen-specific CMI. The IFN-gamma mRNA responses correlated well with IFN-gamma protein production and showed performance in determining an animal's infection status superior to that of either lymphocyte proliferation or IFN-gamma protein enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay methods. An additional advantage is the ease with which the assay can be modified to reliably quantify IFN-gamma expression by using consensus sequences of closely related species or of other species for which IFN-gamma sequence information is available.

A morphological differentiation (i.e., the amount of morphological space occupied) in two polecat species, Mustela putorius and M. eversmanii, has been studied. These closely related species are similar in the body size, the age of origin, and many aspects of their natural history. We have used cranial characters to estimate some parameters of morphological diversity, to compare 'morphological niche breadth' occupied by polecats in the morphological space and their overlap, assuming that variation in the characteristics of morphological diversity could be reflected in the extent of adaptive diversification. A comparison of diversity based on 23 cranial characters shows that the polecats occupied distinct areas of the morphospace. Both skull 'size' and 'shape' characters are important components of the morphological differentiation between M. putorius and M. eversmanii. It seems that the difference between these polecat species is accounted for the ecological pattern rather than the phylogenetic one. Resource partitioning and the lessening of their ecological niches' overlap in two sympatric carnivores could apparently explain the observed differences of their morphospaces. The morphological diversity of the European polecat is higher than that of the steppe polecat. A possible explanation of this phenomenon is likely to lie in the differences between prey ranges of these species. The morphological diversification in M. putorius could be facilitated by its adaptations to forest habitats of the temperate zone with a wide range of potential prey, whereas M. eversmanii could have evolved under more severe conditions of arid Eurasian habitats with a possible prey specialization.

Abstract: Originally published in the Otter Specialist Group Bulletin (Duplaix, Groenendijk, Schenck, Staib & Sykes-Gatz, 2003) and subsequently on http://www.giantotterresearch.com, the Giant otter bibliography strives to list nearly all published material on giant otters (Pteronura brasiliensis). This review presents an updated version of the list published in 2003. It is not meant to be exhaustive but to be a working tool for persons who are interested in giant otters and who do not have access to a large university library. It is interesting to note that the number of articles published per year averages about 25 to 30 per year, indicating that the research on giant otters continues at a steady rate.
Many, but not all, of the more recent titles are available for download as PDF files on the www.giantotterresearch.com website and more will become available in the future. We encourage authors to send their articles to one of the authors for inclusion. We will continue to add new titles to the website in the future, so this should be considered a work in progress. The annotations for each entry in the blbliography, if needed, are short and general in nature (eg, giant otter status, giant otter in captivity, giant otter Red List) to allow for quick searches in the list. The www.giantotterresearch.com
website also allows for searches according to specific areas of interest (for example, by country, in captivity, ecology and behavior, etc.). We welcome any questions, additions or corrections to this list: please e-mail the authors.