In this study the previously proposed hypothesis that extant North American wolves originate from multiple waves of colonization from Asia is tested, along with the hypothesis that land connections have been important in the evolutionary history of other isolated wolf populations in Japan.

In this study, a cross-fostering experiment was conducted between an oakwood and an adjacent conifer plantation to investigate the role of early experience and genetic background in habitat selection in a pied flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca) population.

Conservation bias towards flagship species sometimes threatens other species of chief concern. Long-term studies of potential harm by favoured species on other sensitive species, though seldom adopted, are required to fairly evaluate the suitability of management and restoration efforts. The potential detrimental outcomes of conservation biased towards birds is illustrated by investigating the long-term impact of a large waterbird colony on a remnant cork oak population at the Doñana National...

Many studies report a decrease of native species richness in communities after plant invasion by exotic taxa, but the implications of species losses on community functional structure and ecosystem processes have been less explored. The questions addressed are: (1) what are the impacts of invasive plant taxa on the functional structure of the recipient community; and (2) are there links between such functional structure and ecosystem properties representing key ecosystem processes?

The appearance of animals largely depends on melanins present in their integument. However, it is unclear how different melanin forms create different animal color phenotypes. Reflectance spectrophotometry was used to measure the color expression of feathers and hairs of 59 species of birds and 12 species of mammals, comprising a significant part of the palette of melanin-based colors, and analyzed for the first time the detailed chemical composition of melanins on the same samples by HPLC.