Native Animal Species Research Articles

A model proposal for sustainable Nevşehir local cuisine

Local cuisine is a valuable cultural-gastronomical asset for any tourism destination as well as local people. In order not to lose this asset, it is vital to manage the changes triggered by climate change and transmitted through agriculture. Climate change is likely to impact different regions at different levels; thus, some regions have to be ready to challenge a harsher situation. Nevşehir is a Central Anatolian province which is likely to suffer from quite harsh impacts of climate change and its local cuisine is prone to many risks unless an effective plan which considers the relevant issues is executed. With this end in view, representatives of 5 key institutions were interviewed. Beside climate issues, the interviewees note other relevant matters such as economy, ethics, and consumer and producer awareness issues. After a conceptual model draft, this study proposes a conceptual and a practical model for a more sustainable Nevşehir local cuisine. Focusing on sustainability, the final practical model developed is based on climate change issues, agriculture, local cuisine, and their close relationships as well as the factors reminded by interviewed representatives. Main risks associated with climate change include drought, decrease in agricultural efficiency, related quality issues in products and agricultural assets such as soil, and – at the extreme end – a global food crisis. Despite this negative outlook, the province has also some advantages such as resistant native plant and animal species, potential for renewable energy, and slow city possibilities. Proposed recommendations for a more sustainable local cuisine focus on managing change, preserving authenticity, taking the advantage of strengths, increasing efficiency, and climate change mitigation efforts. Final part of the study includes a discussion and some possible future research themes.

Using unstructured crowd-sourced data to evaluate urban tolerance of terrestrial native animal species within a California Mega-City.

In response to biodiversity loss and biotic community homogenization in urbanized landscapes, there are increasing efforts to conserve and increase biodiversity within urban areas. Accordingly, around the world, previously extirpated species are (re)colonizing and otherwise infiltrating urban landscapes, while other species are disappearing from these landscapes. Tracking the occurrence of traditionally urban intolerant species and loss of traditionally urban tolerant species should be a management goal of urban areas, but we generally lack tools to study this phenomenon. To address this gap, we first used species' occurrences from iNaturalist, a large collaborative dataset of species observations, to calculate an urban association index (UAI) for 967 native animal species that occur in the city of Los Angeles. On average, the occurrence of native species was negatively associated with our composite measure of urban intensity, with the exception of snails and slugs, which instead occur more frequently in areas of increased urban intensity. Next, we assessed 8,348 0.25 x 0.25 mile grids across the City of Los Angeles to determine the average grid-level UAI scores (i.e., a summary of the UAIs present in a grid cell, which we term Community Urban Tolerance Index or CUTI). We found that areas of higher urban intensity host more urban tolerant species, but also that taxonomic groups differ in their aggregate tolerance of urban areas, and that spatial patterns of tolerance vary between groups. The framework established here has been designed to be iteratively reevaluated by city managers of Los Angeles in order to track the progress of initiatives to preserve and encourage urban biodiversity, but can be rescaled to sample different regions within the city or different cities altogether to provide a valuable tool for city managers globally.

Site occupancy of native terrestrial mammals in oil palm landscapes is driven by the synergy of land sparing and sharing strategies

The conversion of tropical rainforests into industrial oil palm monocultures has detrimental effects of local biodiversity. Although some medium-sized mammals have demonstrated a degree of adaptability in oil palm landscapes, the factors that influence their ability to persist in such human-altered environments remain obscure. Here, we investigated the site occupancy and activity pattern of the mammals in oil palm landscapes in Peninsular Malaysia. We deployed 81 camera traps throughout six oil palm cultivation areas with two distinct management styles (three sites each in organized smallholdings and industrial plantations). Smallholdings had higher site occupancy of native animal species than industrial plantations. The site occupancy of the mammals was influenced by the proximity to continuous forest, forest patches and riparian vegetation. Landscape metrics are characteristics that affect land sparing strategy, allowing wildanimals in agricultural landscapes to thrive in their habitat despite human threats. At stand-level, the detection of animals was determined by elevation, undergrowth vegetation cover/height, canopy cover, oil palm height, quantity of oil palm fruits, and prune stack thickness. Mammal occupancy was higher in the smallholdings due to the proximity to continuous forest. We recommend improving landscape heterogeneity and connectivity in oil palm matrix to promote species mobility and diversifying oil palm management away from monoculture farming. Our findings indicate that incorporating land sharing and sparing strategies into the oil palm matrix is necessary to conserve biodiversity and maintain ecological services. This implies that industry stakeholders ought not to disregard either land sparing or land sharing.

Dynamic occupancy analyses of native birds in an urban ecological reserve reveal seasonal changes in site occupancy and preference for adjacent urbanized areas

Urban ecological reserves are large green areas immersed within cities where native and exotic species of plants and animals coexist. Here, we examined the environmental features that facilitate the occurrence of nine species of native birds in an urban ecological reserve located within one of the largest cities in the world, Mexico City. We also searched for changes in occupancy rates among the three distinct climatic seasons that occur in central Mexico: warm-dry, rainy, and cold-dry. Using data collected during four years and multi-season occupancy models, we found that most of our study species prefer the urbanized sites that surround the reserve over the core conservation areas. This urban affinity can be explained by the diverse vegetation that prevails in such urban sites, which offers a high habitat heterogeneity that facilitates the presence of bird species with distinct ecological needs. In contrast, the reserve consists of a relatively homogeneous xerophytic scrubland where a few species of shrubs and small trees are dominant. We also detected seasonal changes in five species, with highest occupancy during the warm-dry season of each year, which coincides with both their breeding season and the driest period of the year. This finding indicates that these birds find in the reserve and surrounding urban areas enough food and water during this limiting season as well as safe nesting sites. Our study provides evidence that some native birds can become urban exploiters and that the benefits that they obtain from urban settings are greatest during their breeding season.

Habitat suitability maps for Australian flora and fauna under CMIP6 climate scenarios.

Spatial information about the location and suitability of areas for native plant and animal species under different climate futures is an important input to land use and conservation planning and management. Australia, renowned for its abundant species diversity and endemism, often relies on modeled data to assess species distributions due to the country's vast size and the challenges associated with conducting on-ground surveys on such a large scale. The objective of this article is to develop habitat suitability maps for Australian flora and fauna under different climate futures. Using MaxEnt, we produced Australia-wide habitat suitability maps under RCP2.6-SSP1, RCP4.5-SSP2, RCP7.0-SSP3, and RCP8.5-SSP5 climate futures for 1,382 terrestrial vertebrates and 9,251 vascular plants vascular plants at 5 km2 for open access. This represents 60% of all Australian mammal species, 77% of amphibian species, 50% of reptile species, 71% of bird species, and 44% of vascular plant species. We also include tabular data, which include summaries of total quality-weighted habitat area of species under different climate scenarios and time periods. The spatial data supplied can help identify important and sensitive locations for species under various climate futures. Additionally, the supplied tabular data can provide insights into the impacts of climate change on biodiversity in Australia. These habitat suitability maps can be used as input data for landscape and conservation planning or species management, particularly under different climate change scenarios in Australia.

First Record of Alien Species Craspedacusta sowerbii Lankester 1880 in a Stream of Sardinia (Italy)

In recent decades, the number of invasive alien species introduced outside of their natural distribution range has increased. These species can rapidly spread from the place of introduction, acting as agents of change, threatening ecosystems, habitats, and indigenous species. Craspedacusta sowerbii Lankester, 1880 has invaded freshwater systems all over the world. This article reports the first occurrence of this freshwater jellyfish in a stream on the island of Sardinia, Italy. There is no previous data useful to understand the development of this species in the river systems of the island where streams are usually seasonal, with a strong water reduction, and native animal species are concentrated in a few pools during critical seasons. In our study, we carried out an observation of the phenomenon in order to provide preliminary information about this new population, its characteristics, and environmental features. Endangered and extremely rare endemic species, such as Discoglossus sardus and Euproctus platycephalus, live in Sardinian streams, so this is one more reason to focus on the biological invasion processes of this organism in order to understand its role in this ecosystem’s ecological functioning.

Impact of human created environments in the pathogenic potential and antimicrobial resistance of staphylococci from wild neotropical primates in Brazil

The non-human primate (NHP) Leontopithecus rosalia is an endangered species native of Brazil and lives in forest fragments with different levels of contact with humans (natural, private and urban). Other NHPs – Callithrix spp. - were introduced by humans and co-exist and interact with the native species in these forests.To evaluate if living in or close to human-modified environments could constitute a risk for L. rosalia, we compared the prevalence, genetic background, antibiotic susceptibility and virulence gene content of staphylococci collected from the native and the introduced species from different forest fragments.We found that presence in human-dominated environments increased the colonization rate of L. rosalia with Mammaliicoccus sciuri (former Staphylococcus sciuri) from 18 % to 85 % (p = 0.0001) and of Callithrix spp with Staphylococcus aureus from 6 % to 100 % (p = 0.0001). According to molecular typing data obtained differences probably resulted from dissemination of these bacterial species from the invader NHP species and from humans. Changes in microbiota were paralleled by an increase in the prevalence of Panton-Valentine Leukocidin gene and in resistance to beta-lactams, macrolides and/or lincosamides as exposure to human environment increased. In particular, erythromycin resistance in S. aureus from Callithrix spp. increased from 0 % to 50 % and resistance rate to at least one antibiotic in coagulase-negative staphylococci species from L. rosalia increased from 13 % to 56 % (p = 0.0003).Our results showed that contact of native animal species with human-created environments increased the content of antimicrobial resistant and pathogenic bacteria on their commensal microbiota, which ultimately can impact on their health. ImportanceEndangered animal species are vulnerable to environmental alterations and human activities have been repeatedly identified as factors driving drastic changes in the natural landscape. It is extremely important to monitor changes in the environment surrounding protected species, because this could lead to early detection of any potential threats. In this study, we found that the contact of L. rosalia - a protected non-human primate from Brazil - with human environments is related to changes in their commensal microbiota. These included an increase in the number of pathogenic and antibiotic resistant bacteria, which have a higher potential to cause infections that are more difficult to treat. We provided evidence for the harmful impact human contact has on L. rosalia. Also, our results suggest that monitoring of commensal microbiota of protected animal species might be a useful way of sensing the risks of protected species to human exposure.

Genotyping-by-sequencing reveals a high number and quality of single nucleotide polymorphisms in guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus) from the Peruvian Andes.

Guinea pigs are a major source of animal protein for Peruvian Andean families. Despite the economic and cultural relevance of guinea pigs, their genomic characterization has been scarcely addressed. Genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) has emerged as an affordable alternative to genotyping of livestock and native animals. Here, we report the use of GBS for single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) discovery of traditionally raised guinea pigs from six regions of the Peruvian Andes and one group of breeding animals. The paired-end (2 × 150 bp) sequencing of 40 guinea pig DNA samples generated a mean of 6.4 million high-quality sequencing reads per sample. We obtained an average sequencing depth of 10× with an 88.5% mapping rate to the Cavia porcellus reference genome. A total of 279 965 SNPs (102 SNPs/Mbp) were identified after variant calling and quality filtering. Based on this SNP set, we assessed the genetic diversity and distance within our selected guinea pig populations. An overall average minor allele frequency of 0.13, an observed heterozygosity of 0.31, an expected heterozygosity of 0.35, and an F-value of 0.1 were obtained, while the SNP-based neighbor-joining tree suggests a closer genetic relationship between individuals from geographically close locations. We showed that GBS is a cost-effective tool for SNP discovery and genetic characterization of Peruvian guinea pig populations. Therefore, it may be considered as a suitable and affordable tool for genomic characterization of poorly studied native animal species.

Improving the mapping of coastal invasive species using UAV imagery and deep learning

ABSTRACT Spartina anglica C. E. Hubb. is an invasive species of saltmarsh and mudflats in Ireland. It spreads quickly and can form extensive meadows, which can lead to the extinction of native plant and animal species. Traditional ground-based field surveys would be expensive for the scale of monitoring needed to formulate site-specific management strategies. Advanced mapping techniques, such as Unoccupied Aerial Vehicle (UAV) remote sensing and deep learning (DL), offer an opportunity to automatically map invasive species’ occurrence. However, training a DL model requires lots of labelled data which can be prohibitively difficult and expensive to obtain. We implemented a DL semantic segmentation technique on UAV imagery of Spartina-invaded habitats and tested a range of hyperparameters—model architectures, encoder backbones and input image patch sizes—to determine an effective segmentation network structure. We also investigated applying data augmentation and pseudo-labelling techniques to increase the size of the labelled dataset. U-Net architecture with Inception-v3 as its backbone trained on 128 × 128-pixel image patches offered the best model performance: mean Intersection-Over-Union (mIOU) score = 0.832. The model trained on the combined augmented and pseudo-labelled data achieved an mIOU score of 0.712 on a test dataset, while there was a decrease of 0.158 in model performance when only the original labelled data were used. This result suggests the potential for using these techniques in creating more robust models. The proposed methodology demonstrates that the combination of UAV imagery and deep learning could be a promising tool for mapping the distribution of invasive plant species.

Conservation planning in national parks may benefit from site occupancy and detection estimates of native animal species

Protected areas are the best strategy to conserve native biodiversity around the world. In Southeast Asia, most of the pristine tropical forest habitats are limited to terrestrial protected areas such as national parks and wildlife reserves. Endau Rompin National Park (ERNP) is one of undisturbed biodiversity-hotspots in the southern region of Peninsular Malaysia but surrounded by industrial oil palm plantations and threatened by habitat fragmentation. To date, little is known about the distribution and habitat requirement of wildlife, including those conservation priority species in the ERNP. This study aims to investigate the mammal distribution in the ERNP by estimating the probability of occurrence of a species among sampled sites. At 24 camera-trapping sites, we used passive infrared camera traps to detect the forest wildlife. We estimated wildlife occupancy by using single-season occupancy analysis while considering of imperfect detection and relating it to stand- and landscape-level variables. We detected 26 species of native wild animals in the study area including several conservation priority species such as Asian elephant, Asian tapir, and Malayan tiger. The site occupancy of conservation-priority species attests to ERNP's status as an important regional biodiversity hotspot. The detection probabilities of wildlife species were highly sensitive to specific ecological variables at stand- and landscape-level. Our data indicated that tree canopy cover, forest edges, adjacent human settlements, and riparian habitats (e.g., stream and river) are crucial for the persistence of the native wildlife species. Our results suggest that pristine forest habitat such as those typical to the ERNP are critical for wildlife conservation. We suggest that the stand- and landscape-level ecological variables are considered in the conservation planning to protect the forest biodiversity and ecological integrity of the national park and other terrestrial protected areas in the tropics.

Mycobacterial Infections in Invasive Turtle Species in Poland.

Over the last 30 years, the number of invasive turtle species living in the wild has significantly increased in Poland. This proliferation carries many threats, which mainly include the displacement of native species of animals from their natural habitats. Turtles can also be reservoirs for pathogens, including bacteria from the Mycobacterium genus. In order to confirm or rule out the presence of acid-fast mycobacteria in the population of invasive turtle species, samples from carapace, plastron, internal organs and mouth cavity swabs from 125 animals were tested. Twenty-eight mycobacterial strains were isolated in culture, which were classified as atypical following multiplex-PCR reactions. The GenoType Mycobacterium Common Mycobacteria (CM) test, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry, PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PRA)-hsp65 and DNA sequencing were used to identify the species of isolates. Of the 28 strains, 11 were identified as M. fortuitum, 10 as M. chelonae, 3 as M. avium ssp. avium, 2 as M. nonchromogenicum and 1 each of M. neoaurum and M. scrofulaceum. The results of the research will also strengthen the understanding that these animals can be vectors for pathogens when living in the wild.

The politics of animal extinction and conservation: Interests, framing, and policy

Why do conservation policies fail to prevent species extinctions and die-offs in contravention of stated intentions and goals? Bringing together a range of literature, including political ecology, political theory, conservation science, communication theory, environmental communication, with original data, this article explores this question, then addresses these failures within Aotearoa New Zealand's context. Using the New Zealand case, it offers a systems-level view of these failures, focusing on the influences and limitations that arise from the political-economic structures, fractured governance, interest group influence, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in representative democracies. Secondly, in these settings, we argue that communication and framing by the interested parties—politicians, government officials, interest groups and NGOs—buttress this system, partly by normalizing it, obscuring scientific realities, shifting focus away from deeper issues, and thus limiting the possibility of substantive solutions in what might be called a colonization of consciousness. Together, this economic-political-communication complex has failed to prevent—and in some ways aided—mass die-offs of native animal species. The article then suggests exploring alternative models, such as deliberative democracy, to this seemingly intractable problem, to strengthen the influence of scientific expertise, better inform decision-makers, advance public understandings of science, and improve democracy by engaging members of the public in decision-making processes. While this study focuses on New Zealand, the issues related to political ecology, the political-economic systems, and the framing of issues, apply to many democratic countries.

Implementing community-engaged ecological research in Proctor Creek, an urban watershed in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

The Southeast Region of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) implemented community-engaged research in Proctor Creek, an urban watershed in Northwest Atlanta, Georgia, to sample for aquatic species of concern in Atlanta, Georgia's Proctor Creek Watershed as a part of the Urban Waters Federal Partnership program. This research shifted the focus of the agency from the endangered and pristine natural spaces to a major city watershed negatively impacted by urbanization and other human influences for more than a century. Team members from USFWS, Proctor Creek Watershed residents, local students, and other stakeholders in the Urban Waters Federal Partnership (UWFP) spent three months conducting stream surveys and participating in community-led events to build relationships and learn community priorities. The team collected data at 11 sites throughout the Proctor Creek Watershed, visually assessed each site, and collected aquatic species using dip nets, seines, and traps. We observed approximately 28 aquatic species, including 13 unique fish species, and eight macroinvertebrate species, including two unique crayfish species. We also observed varying degrees of ecological health throughout the watershed. Native aquatic animal species were found at all stream sites, no matter the condition of the stream. Through creating training resources and disseminating data among team members for future sampling, the team established pathways to keep natural resource stewardship sustainable without direct federal involvement. Through engaging in community-engaged research to achieve the mission of the agency, the USFWS Proctor Creek Watershed survey helped shift the paradigm of how government agencies can connect their mission statements to the ever-changing complex needs of the American public.

Pharmacists in zoos? A qualitative study investigating the potential for pharmacist involvement in wildlife health care in Aotearoa, New Zealand

BackgroundThe importance of wildlife health has been critically emphasized by the current global pandemic. Pharmacists play a valuable role in the health care of companion animals and livestock; however, their involvement in exotic animal health is largely unexplored. ObjectivesThis project consulted with zoo vets in New Zealand and investigated their practices around prescribing and dispensing of medicines to explore the opportunities for the involvement of pharmacists. MethodsA mixed methods approach was used where data were initially collected through an online survey distributed to 26 veterinarians and animal keepers working in zoos, wildlife parks, and sanctuaries. An optional semistructured interview followed the survey. ResultsThe facilities surveyed housed New Zealand native animal species and 85% also housed exotic animals. Veterinarians dispensed 75% of medicines at their animal facility, whereas the remaining 25% were dispensed by veterinary nurses. On average, 5-10 medications were dispensed at each animal facility per day. Common medicines dispensed were antibiotics, pain relievers, and antifungals. Most respondents felt that they could benefit from working alongside pharmacists in veterinary care. Compounding, access to medicines and identification of tailored formulations were identified as areas where collaboration would be valued. Limitations in the knowledge of pharmacists in animal medicine were distinguished as an area enhancement to assist in collaborative relationships. ConclusionsThere are opportunities for the skills of pharmacists to be incorporated into the care of animals in zoos and wildlife parks in New Zealand. Strengthening the pharmacist-veterinarian relationship can enhance the health outcomes of animals in animal facilities through this interprofessional interaction.

COMPETITIVE ABILITY OF INVASIVE WEED SPECIES AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON PHYTOCENOSE BIODIVERSITY

The global threat from the spread of invasive plant species leads to an imbalance of plant living conditions in the agrocenosis and depletion / destruction of biodiversity. Ukrainian scientists are conducting a research on the impact of alien species of flora in the context of environmental threats to phytoinvasions. Invasive plants are especially dangerous both for the integrity of natural ecosystems and for various areas of economic activity. Invasive plant species cause significant damage to agriculture, forestry and water management, nature reserve areas.
 Less common invasive plant species create one of the biggest environmental problems in the world. This is a scientifically proven fact, which is legally reflected both in international conventions and in the legislation of individual countries.
 The foundation of an ecosystem is made by its flora. Therefore, invasive plant species are a blow to its foundation. If climatic conditions are suitable for invasive plants, they have a huge competitive advantage over native species, as they have no or limited natural enemies/consumers and diseases in the local ecosystem that could deter their spread. Therefore, they simply squeeze out local species from the territories, dooming them to extinction.
 The extinction of native plant species leads to extinction of native species of animals, fungi and many microorganisms that have built ties with the aboriginal flora for thousands or millions of years. They are directly dependent on it and are organically interconnected. That is why the invasion of an alien species does not increase the number and activity of local biodiversity, but, on the contrary, leads to the death of a significant number of species of flora and fauna dominated by only one or more species of invasive plants.
 In Ukraine, the impact of non-native plants on the environment is growing every year. In terms of Adventist flora, Ukraine ranks first among other flora in the world. The spontaneous fraction of adventive flora of Ukraine has 830 species of vascular plants (including 18 % – archeophytes and 82 % – kenophytes), which is about 14 % of the total flora of the country, which has more than 6,000 species of vascular plants (including all aboriginal and adventitious species), as well as the main cultivated and wild plants.

Limited evidence for phenological differences between non-native and native species

Although many species shift their phenology with climate change, species vary significantly in the direction and magnitude of these responses (i.e., phenological sensitivity). Studies increasingly detect early phenology or high phenological sensitivity to climate in non-native species, which may favor non-native species over natives in warming climates. Yet relatively few studies explicitly compare phenological responses to climate between native vs. non-native species or between non-native populations in the native vs. introduced range, limiting our ability to quantify the role of phenology in invasion success. Here, we review the empirical evidence for and against differences in phenology and phenological sensitivity to climate in both native vs. non-native species and native and introduced populations of non-native species. Contrary to common assumptions, native and non-native plant species did not consistently differ in mean phenology or phenological sensitivity. However, non-native plant species were often either just as or more sensitive, but rarely less sensitive, to climate as natives. Introduced populations of non-native plant species often show earlier reproduction than native populations of the same species, but there was mixed evidence for differences in phenological sensitivity between introduced and native plant populations. We found very few studies comparing native vs. invasive animal phenology. Future work should characterize phenological sensitivity to climate in native vs. non-native plant and animal species, in native vs. introduced populations of non-native species, and across different stages of invasion, and should carefully consider how differences in phenology might promote invasion success or disadvantage native species under climate change.

Global deforestation and its relation to animal extinction

Deforestation and animal extinction go hand in hand, also side effect of deforestation is not only limited to wildlife but to all across globe. Global Forest cover during 1900 CE was around 5500 million hectare (MN ha) and it was just 409 MN ha in 2020. From global warming to a trophic cascade and many more are caused due to deforestation. Due to rapid deforestation native animal species are unable to endure and are perishing at a rapid rate which has accelerated significantly during the last two decades. Sustainable development and situational awareness are important to reduce the damage.

Cultures in the laboratory: mapping similarities and differences between M\u0101ori and non-M\u0101ori in engaging with gene-editing technologies in Aotearoa, New Zealand

Public engagement on rapidly advancing gene-editing technologies requires attention not merely to science and economics, but also to culture. In focusing on the similarities and differences between Indigenous and non-Indigenous perspectives on new and emerging genetic technologies, this article reports on a national survey in Aotearoa New Zealand among a stratified random sample of an equal number of Māori and non-Māori participants. Identifying approaches to the experimentation, use, and potential commercialization of genetic technologies, the article moves along the continuum of nuanced cultural insights into gene editing for purposes ranging from human medical treatments and food production to conservation of native species of plants and animals and pest eradication. The development of typologies using K-means cluster analysis reveals the public’s complex responses to genetic modification as well as gene editing. The article signals how recognizing a diversity of values on gene-editing technologies can help shape a robust policy design on the use and regulation of gene technologies in a variety of sectors and contexts.

Planting Design in the Ecuadorian Andes: Memory, Resilience, and Re-Connection

Modern cities are constantly growing and evolving. This expansion of urban development bleeds into the surrounding landscapes, causing the displacement and disturbance of native plant and animal species to remote areas where topography limits human access. As a result, metropolitan areas often become gray places with low biodiversity, elevated temperatures, poor air quality, flood issues, and lack of a local identity. Quito, Ecuador is one of the cities facing this important challenge. Perched high in the Andes, Quito is a place of great biodiversity, nevertheless the constructed landscapes are dominated by introduced species due to colonization and to the lack of availability of native species in the nursery trade. This article walks through the creation of a native nursery in Quito and the implementation of initial trial plots, a green roof, and a garden. It explains the discoveries made during the process and provides directions for future goals to reintroduce native plant species into urban environments and contemporary landscapes in order to create more sustainable cities. The goal is to help people reconnect with their natural heritage and to learn about native plants to ensure the continuity of ancestral knowledge of the natural world for future generations.

Venomous Animals in the Portuguese Territory: Clinical Management of Bites and Stings

There are many native species of animals with the potential to cause severe disease in Portugal. Of the four clinically relevant snake species, the vipers (Vipera latastei and Vipera seoanei) are the most concerning. They can cause severe disease and require in-hospital management, monitoring and specific treatment, including the administration of anti-snake venom serum. The Malpolon monspessulanus and Macroprotodon brevis snakes cause mostly localized clinical manifestations, which do not require specific treatment. Only a minority of the spider species in Portugal possess chelicerae (mouthparts of the Chelicerata, shaped as either articulated fangs or pincers, which may contain venom or be connected to the venom glands and are used for predation or capture of food) long enough to perforate the human skin. Nevertheless, Latrodectus tredecimguttatus and Loxosceles rufescens spider bites may require specialized treatment in a hospital setting, as well as careful active symptom surveillance. Diversely, the treatment for Scolopendra cingulata and Scolopendra oraniensis centipedes' bites is merely symptomatic. The only existing scorpion species in Portugal is the Buthus ibericus; its sting typically causes local symptoms with intense pain, and its treatment consists essentially of analgesia. The insects of the Hymenoptera order, such as bees and wasps, have the ability to inject venom into the skin. Most people present only with local or regional inflammatory response, and symptomatic treatment is usually effective. Even so, individuals with hypersensitivity to bee venom may develop anaphylaxis. Several marine species in the Portuguese coast are venomous to humans, including weeverfish (Trachinidae family), stingrays (Dasyatis pastinaca, Taeniura grabata, Myliobatis aquila), red scorpion fish (Scorpaena scrofa), cnidaria (Pelagia noctiluca, Chrysaora hysoscella, Physalia physalis) and bearded fireworm (Hermodice carunculata); treatment is symptomatic. Contact with the larvae or bristles (chitinous structures with locomotor or tactile functions) of Thaumetopoea pityocampa (pine processionary) can cause cutaneous, ocular and, rarely, respiratory reactions; its management is also symptomatic.