1,721,158 research outputs found
Nesting of the Spotless Starling, Sturnus unicolor, on the island of Favignana (Aegadian Islands, Sicily)
The presence of the Spotless Starling in Sicily was reported for the first time at the beginning of the XIX century, although the first nests for the province of Trapani are reported almost at the end of the XX century. As a breeder, the Spotless Starling remained absent from all the circumsicilian islands until the first report for the island of Pantelleria, in 2012. In 2020, the nest of Spotless Starling was observed on the island of Favignana, within a hole on an antenna. The couple fed the chicks with Ligia italica crustacean isopod of the family Ligiidae. The nesting on the island of Favignana confirms the continuous expan-sion of the species in Sicily
Status del progetto di reintroduzione del Grifone nei parchi delle Madonie e dei Nebrodi (Sicilia)
Reintroduzione in Sicilia (Parco Nebrodi e Parco Madonie
Mass movements related to tectonics in the Aspromonte massif (southern Italy)
Geomorphic and structural studies have been carried out on the headwaters of Vallone Colella Torrent, in an area intensely affected by mass-movement phenomena on the Aspromonte massif of southern Italy. Rock types outcropping in the area are mostly gneiss and granitoids, with subordinate presence of metarenites, phyllites, and biotite schists; all lithologies experienced low-grade metamorphism, as indicated by petrographic analysis. Structural surveys, performed at macroscopic and mesoscopic scale, allowed recognition of several sets of discontinuities related to different deformation events. The upper reaches of Vallone Colella Torrent present a large, active landslide zone, the debris materials of which feed the debris flows along the drainage system towards the main valley. Mass-movement phenomena are both shallow and deep-seated; the latter are limited to a sector of the study area, while shallow processes are present throughout the landslide zone. Some considerations of the relationship between tectonics and mass movement are presented, with particular reference to the presence of a large-scale downthrown wedge (bounded by structural surfaces on both sides of the valley), located in the same area affected by deep-seated phenomena
Le deformazioni gravitative profonde di versante come limiti alla pianificazione territoriale.
The value of by-catch data: how species-specific surveys can serve non-target species
Camera trapping has a wide range of research application, but, while research designs are often focused on the study of a single focal species, cameras can also record other non-target species. Occupancy modeling using by-catch data can be a valuable resource to gain information on these species maximizing the scientific effort and efficiency of wildlife surveys. In this study, we used by-catch data from a European wildcat (Felis silvestris silvestris) survey in Southern Italy to assess the habitat covariates determinant for the occupancy of the crested porcupine (Hystrix cristata). We recorded 33 detections at 17 out of 51 cameras (naive occupancy = 0.33). The best models fitted the data well, and porcupine occupancy estimate was 0.58 (SE +/- 0.09) with a detection probability of 0.11 (SE +/- 0.03). Average model showed that woodlands and number of shrub patches increased porcupine occupancy, while the reverse was true for altitude. Our results have improved the insights on the habitat use and ecological needs of this understudied species, and it is the first study that develops occupancy models for the porcupine using the presence/absence data obtained from a camera trap survey. Our study is an example of how camera trap surveys are often an under-exploited source of valuable information on a wider spectrum of sympatric species beyond the focal species for which camera traps were deployed. Minimum requirements for a camera trap survey to provide robust occupancy estimates for non-target species are discussed
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
A case of cannibalism in the false smooth snake Macroprotodon cucullatus on the island of Lampedusa
A case of cannibalism in the false smooth snake Macroprotodon cucullatus on the island of Lampedus
- …
