Sequences from complete mitochondrial control regions (mtDNA CR) were used to infer phylogenetic relationships in 25 Cervinae taxa. Cervus splits into clades that are partially discordant with current species delimitations. Nominate Cervus elaphus includes two divergent clades that must be referred to as species elaphus (European elaphoid deer) and canadensis (Eurasian and North American wapitoid deer). Cervus nippon splits into Japanese and continental plus Taiwan sika. Père David's deer is nested within Cervus, suggesting that Elaphurus should be merged with Cervus. European and Persian fallow deer are genetically divergent and distinct species. Sequence length varied due to a CR-I insertion, tandemly repeated twice in rusa and sambar deer, sika and wapiti, and repeated up to six times in a clade of Japanese sika. Variable copy numbers of this repeat are also fixed in different sika subspecies, and could be used as a diagnostic marker for subspecies. Sequence variability at the mtDNA CR is informative for defining species and subspecies boundaries, and for locating the geographical origin of captive-reared stocks. Natural and farmed populations of some species have been deeply affected by human management and the conservation of deer populations would be aided by the appropriate identification of the different evolutionary and taxonomic units.

The human contribution to ambient noise in the ocean has increased over the past 50 years, and is dominated by low-frequency (LF) sound (frequencies <1000 Hz) from shipping, oil and gas development, defence-related and research activities. Mysticete whales, including six endangered species, may be at risk from this noise pollution because all species produce and probably perceive low-frequency sound. We conducted a manipulative field experiment to test the effects of loud, LF noise on foraging fin blue (B. musculus) and (Balaenoptera physalus) whales off San Nicolas Island, California. Naive observers used a combination of attached tracking devices, ship-based surveys, aerial surveys, photo-identification and passive monitoring of vocal behaviour to examine the behaviour and distribution of whales when a loud LF source (US Navy SURTASS LFA) was and was not transmitting. During transmission, 12-30% of the estimated received levels of LFA of whales in the study area exceeded 140 dB re 1 μPa. However, whales continued to be seen foraging in the region. Overall, whale encounter rates and diving behaviour appeared to be more strongly linked to changes in prey abundance associated with oceanographic parameters than to LF sound transmissions. In some cases, whale vocal behaviour was significantly different between experimental and non-experimental periods. However, these differences were not consistent and did not appear to be related to LF sound transmissions. At the spatial and temporal scales examined, we found no obvious responses of whales to a loud, anthropogenic, LF sound. We suggest that the cumulative effects of anthropogenic LF noise over larger temporal and spatial scales than examined here may be a more important consideration for management agencies.

New Zealand's native frogs (genus Leiopelma) are considered to be archaic amphibians of exceptional scientific interest that appear to have remained virtually unchanged for 160-200 million years. They are among the rarest extant amphibians and are highly restricted in distribution, confined to isolated, highly disjunct, populations on the North Island and a few small offshore islands in Cook Strait. Previous investigations have suggested, based on patterns of allozyme variation, that the Stephens Island frog (Leiopelma hamiltoni) and Archey's frog (L. archeyi) are sister taxa to the exclusion of the Maud Island frog, a species in close geographical proximity to the Stephens Island frog and previously viewed as a population of this species. As a consequence of these data, a new species, L. pakeka, the Maud Island Frog, has been described. This new species definition has dramatically enhanced the conservation status of L. hamiltoni, of which there are probably fewer than 150 individuals. In this study we re-examine the systematics of the Leiopelmatidae using mtDNA sequence analyses. Partial 12 S ribosomal RNA and cytochrome b (Cyt b) gene sequences were obtained for 57 frogs from six populations representing all four extant Leiopelma species. Contrary to previous reports we find L. pakeka and L. hamiltoni to be monophyletic. The amount of variation evident between these present species (<1% for Cyt b) is comparable to that seen between populations of L. archeyi. Based on these data, classification of L. pakeka and L. hamiltoni as separate species appears to be unwarranted, but they may be sufficiently distinct to warrant classification as evolutionarily significant units.

Translocation is increasingly used in conservation to re-establish or augment populations of threatened species or to remove individual animals from areas of human-wildlife conflict. We assess the feasibility and utility of translocating hen harriers (Circus cyaneus) in the UK to enhance their distribution and abundance whilst simultaneously reducing the impact of harrier predation on red grouse (Lagopus lagopus scoticus) populations and shooting bags. Current knowledge of hen harrier feeding ecology, dispersal, survival and recruitment suggests that they would be suitable subjects for translocation with the aim of increasing their distribution in the UK. Assessment of habitat and food availability suggest that there are suitable recipient sites beyond the current range of the hen harrier in the UK. However, translocation would not be a sustainable method of reducing predation on grouse moors because it would have to continue indefinitely as long as grouse moors attracted harriers. Translocation of harriers to grouse moors where they have been locally extirpated would not be appropriate until levels of illegal control are reduced. Establishing new harrier populations through translocation away from grouse moors may become desirable if initiatives to reduce human-raptor conflicts on grouse moors are unsuccessful, or as an interim measure to accelerate the recovery of hen harriers in the UK.

It is commonly held that species loss is linked to human population size but there are surprisingly few quantitative studies that measure the strength and nature of this linkage. In a study of about 150 nations, a highly significant positive relationship (P << 0.01) was found between population size and threat levels of birds and mammals. For continental nations, log population explains 16-33% of the variation in threat level among nations. The pattern of the continental population-threat correlation indicates that per capita human impacts are initially very high and asymptotically diminish with increasing population size. No population-threat correlation was found for island nations, since human impacts are apparently so catastrophic that human population size is largely irrelevant. Surprisingly, for both islands and continents, area does not affect the level of threat after human population size is accounted for. Thus, even on continents the harmful impacts of humans, for a given population size, are evidently so profound that no amount of added area provides compensatory refugia for native species. Major regional differences in levels of threat are shown, with nations in Asia and the Middle East having generally higher proportions of threatened species than nations in Africa. The causes of these differences are only partly related to population size. Other factors not related to population size are that Asian nations tend to have much higher rates of mammal over-harvesting and Middle Eastern nations tend to have statistically lower percentages of area set aside as preserves. Threat proportions are correlated between birds and mammals among nations implying that one group may be a proxy indicator of impacts on the other. The slope of this relationship indicates that mammals suffer more losses during initial human impacts but proportions of threatened birds increase more rapidly than mammals as human impacts become more widespread.

The sensitivity of bat species to stochastic disturbance was investigated by exploiting the natural experiment provided by Hurricane Georges, which struck the island of Puerto Rico (Caribbean) in September 1998. Six forest habitats and three cave roost sites sampled for bats prior to the hurricane were sampled in the same way after the hurricane. Populations showed significant declines in abundance and species richness across all forest habitats sampled. Species' sensitivity to disturbance were not equal: larger species were significantly more affected by disturbance than smaller species, once the effects of phylogenetic non-independence were removed. There was some evidence that frugivorous and nectarivorous species are more affected by hurricane disturbance than insectivorous species. These findings have important implications for maintaining viable populations of species in areas that experience a high degree of environmental fluctuation.

Large carnivores are key visitor attractions in protected areas, but are difficult to see. Thus, supplementary feeding is sometimes used to attract them to viewing sites. Such intervention is contentious but its effects have rarely been examined. This paper analyses a case study of supplementary feeding in Komodo National Park, Indonesia. Using data from daily and annual Komodo dragon censuses, feeding records and financial accounts, the effects of feeding and its cessation on dragon numbers, tourist viewing opportunities and local community benefits were examined. Regular feeding caused dragon numbers to increase at the feeding site, but not year-round. Cessation of feeding caused numbers to decline again to natural levels. However, tourists were less likely to see dragons at the feeding site after cessation, and local community revenues declined with the loss of a market for goats. Solutions lie in finding less intrusive means for tourists to view dragons, and enabling local people to become involved in tourism through training, recruitment and the development of alternative markets.

The monitoring and management of species depends on reliable population estimates, and this can be both difficult and very costly for cryptic large vertebrates that live in forested habitats. Recently developed camera trapping techniques have already been shown to be an effective means of making mark-recapture estimates of individually identifiable animals (e.g. tigers). Camera traps also provide a new method for surveying animal abundance. Through computer simulations, and an analysis of the rates of camera trap capture from 19 studies of tigers across the species' range, we show that the number of camera days/tiger photograph correlates with independent estimates of tiger density. This statistic does not rely on individual identity and is particularly useful for estimating the population density of species that are not individually identifiable. Finally, we used the comparison between observed trapping rates and the computer simulations to estimate the minimum effort required to determine that tigers, or other species, do not exist in an area, a measure that is critical for conservation planning.

Accurate long-term series of demographic data are available for most populations of southern elephant seals. However, research on the elephant seals of the Falkland Islands began only recently, and information for an accurate forecasting of the future of this population is lacking. In this paper we present data on the current status of the population and its trend in size during the last 11 years. We built an age-structured model of the population and analyzed the effect of variation in demographic parameters on population growth. Elasticity analysis demonstrated that variation in mortality has a more pronounced effect on instantaneous growth rate than an equivalent variation in fecundity. We examined the effects of environmental variability, inbreeding and catastrophes on population viability by a computer simulation using the VORTEX PVA programme. In the stochastic model, the most important factor affecting extinction risk was variability in mortality rates, in particular of the adult classes. We concluded that, although the population does not appear to be at immediate risk of extinction, its small size and isolation make it necessary to accurately monitor the population trends and to acquire additional information on life history and feeding strategies.

Animal Conservation, Volume 3, Part 4, pages 321-332

Iago Mosqueira, Isabelle M. Côte, Simon Jennings and John D. Reynolds, Conservation Benefits of Marine reserves for fish populations contained a spelling error within the first named author.

The publisher wishes to apologise to the authors and our readers for this mistake.