Scavenging is a widespread behaviour and an important process influencing food webs and ecological communities. Large carnivores facilitate the movement of energy across trophic levels through the scavenging and decomposition of their killed prey, but competition with large carnivores is also likely to constrain acquisition of carrion by scavengers. We used an experimental approach based on mot...

In nature, rabies virus (RABV; genus Lyssavirus, family Rhabdoviridae) represents an assemblage of phylogenetic lineages, associated with specific mammalian host species. Although it is generally accepted that RABV evolved originally in bats and further shifted to carnivores, mechanisms of such host shifts are poorly understood, and examples are rarely present in surveillance data. Outbreaks in...

The tumbesian dry forest is an endangered ecosystem located in northwestern Perú. last remnants on its southern distribution are the region of La Libertad. As other ecosystems, presence domestic dogs and cats can have a negative effect native wild carnivores; however, this problem rarely studied In study we assess activity patterns temporal overlap between carnivores, by photo-trapping, within ...

The first mammals were probably nocturnal (McNab 1978; Kemp 1982) and many extant orders of small mammals have retained this trait. This behaviour is presumably due to the measure of protection from predation that darkness provides (Crawford 1934; Falls 1968; Daan and Aschoff 1982). Large, herbivorous mammals are less restricted to the nocturnal phase (e.g. Bunnell and Harestad 1990) and have b...

Brucella suis (B. suis) is the major cause of porcine brucellosis. Zoonosis due to B. suis infection associated with transmission by various animal species is reported. Recently an increase in brucellosis associated with feral swine transmitted B. suis infection in humans and hunting dogs is emerging. Reports on B. suis infection in carnivores including dogs is scant. This report gives a brief ...

By the early 1900's, several large carnivores had been extirpated from Nebraska as a result of unrestricted hunting and trapping by early European settlers. Recently, there have been several confirmed records of carnivores that were once extirpated from Nebraska. In our study, we present new data for five species that recently were documented in Nebraska: Lynx canadensis, Ursus americanus, Cani...

Bluetongue is an International Office of Epizootics List A disease described as the century's most economically devastating affliction of sheep. Bluetongue (BLU) viruses were thought to infect only ruminants, shrews, and some rodents, but recently, inadvertent administration of BLU virus-contaminated vaccine resulted in mortality and abortion among domestic dogs. We present evidence of natural ...

Group defense of territories is found in many gregarious mammalian carnivores, including lions, canids, and hyenas. In these taxa, group members often mark territory boundaries and direct aggressive behavior towards alien conspecifics found within the territory (Boydston, Morelli, & Holekamp, 2001). Middle Pleistocene hominids such as Neanderthals occupied an ecological niche similar to such la...

The use of humerus distal trochlea circumference as a body mass predictor for carnivores isexplored. Trochlea circumference is found to be highly correlated with body mass in carnivores,(r2=0.952, SEE=0.136, p<0001, n=92). Scaling appears to be uniform throughout the orderCarnivora, regardless of foot posture. Some degree of differential scaling between carnivorefamilies and...

Ixodid ticks were collected from 104 wild carnivores belonging to 23 species in various nature reserves and on several farms in all nine provinces of South Africa. Seven feral cats in a nature reserve were also examined. Twenty-four tick species belonging to seven genera were recovered and identified. Amongst these ticks we consider the adults of Haemaphysalis leachi, Haemaphysalis spinulosa, H...