A study led by the Doñana Biological Station has concluded that the Iberian lynx would have more genetic diversity now than 4000 thousand years ago thanks to the genetic exchange with the Eurasian lynx. This study is essential in the current scenario in which the genetic viability of the Iberian lynx is still not guaranteed

The Ciconiidae family includes 19 extant species distributed in all over the world. While all species are similar in morphotype, with dominant black or white plumage colouration, storks may also display some highly coloured areas in small patches of the integument, including bill, legs, and the head. Non-conserved coloured areas are located in frontal zones but cover a low proportion of the entire body and are only visible at close range. These results provide further support to the species...

Every year more than 1 million commercial bumblebee colonies are deployed in greenhouses worldwide for their pollination services. While commercial pollinators have been an enormous benefit for crop production, their use is emerging as an important threat. Commercial pollinators have been linked to pathogen spillover, and their introduction outside their native area has had devastating effects on native pollinators. A more pervasive but underappreciated threat is their potential impact on the...

Allee effects reduce the viability of small populations in many different ways, which act synergistically to lead populations towards extinction vortexes. The Sierra Morena wolf population, isolated in the south of the Iberian Peninsula and composed of just one or few packs for decades, represents a good example of how diverse threats act additively in very small populations. The genome of one of the last wolves identified (and road?killed) in Sierra Morena and that of another wolf in the...

Wildfires, urbanization, and land-clearing for agriculture can be considered among the most important environmental disturbances in Mediterranean regions. Interspecific hybridization has been suggested to be linked to different sources of anthropogenic disturbance, but empirical support to this hypothesis is sparse. This study analyses the impacts of different sources of environmental disturbance on hybridization rates between two Californian oaks.