Equinurbia blakei n. sp. (Nematoda: Strongyloidea: Strongylidae) from the African Forest Elephant, Loxodonta cyclotis

2008 ◽  
Vol 75 (2) ◽  
pp. 196-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramon A. Carreno ◽  
John M. Kinsella
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikolaos Psonis ◽  
Carlos Neto de Carvalho ◽  
Silvério Figueiredo ◽  
Eugenia Tabakaki ◽  
Despoina Vassou ◽  
...  

Abstract Molecular species identification plays a crucial role in archaeology and palaeontology, especially when diagnostic morphological characters are unavailable. Molecular markers have been used in forensic science to trace the geographic origin of wildlife products, such as ivory. So far, only a few studies have applied genetic methods to both identify the species and circumscribe the provenance of historic wildlife trade material. Here, by combining ancient DNA methods and genome skimming on a historical elephantid tooth found in southwestern Portugal, we aimed to identify its species, infer its placement in the elephantid phylogenetic tree, and triangulate its geographic origin. According to our results the specimen dates back to the eighteenth century CE and belongs to a female African forest elephant (non-hybrid Loxodonta cyclotis individual) geographically originated from west—west-central Africa, from areas where one of the four major mitochondrial clades of L. cyclotis is distributed. Historical evidence supports our inference, pointing out that the tooth should be considered as post-Medieval raw ivory trade material between West Africa and Portugal. Our study provides a comprehensive approach to study historical products and artefacts using archaeogenetics and contributes towards enlightening cultural and biological historical aspects of ivory trade in western Europe.


2021 ◽  
pp. 67-76
Author(s):  
Clement Inkamba Nkulu ◽  
Jean Malekani ◽  
Mukulire Peter ◽  
Wrege Julien ◽  
Punga Kumanege ◽  
...  

In order to increase our understanding of forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) vocal communication, this study examined the spatial and temporal activity of elephants from two forest clearings (Bissoloko and Madjouama). To obtain data on the visit of elephant in the clearings daily, it requires considerable human and financial resources for conservation programs observations. However, we deployed autonomous acoustic recorders “SM2” to assess elephants’ activities both day and night time from 2013 to 2014. Elephant visitation in these clearings depends on certain factors as, seasons, years, and preferences of elephant to use one or more site. As a results this study found that (i) elephants visited Bissoloko clearing more than Madjouama, although these two clearings were within 5 km distant one another; (ii) Eighty six per cent of elephant calls occurred at night, and large changes in call density at night often were not reflected in similar changes during the day; (iii) there were significant differences in the calls made at night; (iv) elephants were found to be visiting clearings more often in the wet season than in the dry season; (v) visitation was significantly higher in 2013 than in 2014. Elephants used randomly one or other clearings. This empirical study suggests that African forest elephant has two vocal communication practices. Spatially separated females engage in rumble exchanges that help them to coordinate their movements and to bring them together. Both male and female elephants produce "mate attraction" rumbles to inform the opposite sex of their reproductive status. These results show the value of acoustic monitoring as a tool for better understanding of forest elephant behaviour. We suggest that passive acoustic monitoring should be incorporated into forest elephant monitoring programs to complement direct observations at forest clearings.


2021 ◽  
pp. e01550
Author(s):  
A. Laguardia ◽  
K.S. Gobush ◽  
S. Bourgeois ◽  
S. Strindberg ◽  
G. Abitsi ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob Njaramba Ngatia ◽  
Tian Ming Lan ◽  
Yue Ma ◽  
Thi Dao Dinh ◽  
Zhen Wang ◽  
...  

AbstractTrade in ivory from extant elephant species namely Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), African savanna elephant (Loxodonta africana) and African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) is regulated internationally, while the trade in ivory from extinct species of Elephantidae, including woolly mammoth, is unregulated. This distinction creates opportunity for laundering and trading elephant ivory as mammoth ivory. The existing morphological and molecular genetics methods do not reliably distinguish the source of ivory items that lack clear identification characteristics or for which the quality of extracted DNA cannot support amplification of large gene fragments. We present a PCR-sequencing method based on 116 bp target sequence of the cytochrome b gene to specifically amplify elephantid DNA while simultaneously excluding non-elephantid species and ivory substitutes, and while avoiding contamination by human DNA. The partial Cytochrome b gene sequence enabled accurate association of ivory samples with their species of origin for all three extant elephants and from mammoth. The detection limit of the PCR system was as low as 10 copy numbers of target DNA. The amplification and sequencing success reached 96.7% for woolly mammoth ivory and 100% for African savanna elephant and African forest elephant ivory. This is the first validated method for distinguishing elephant from mammoth ivory and it provides forensic support for investigation of ivory laundering cases.


1976 ◽  
Vol 93 (2) ◽  
pp. 372-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mitchell Bush ◽  
David W. Heese ◽  
Clinton W. Gray ◽  
A. Everette James

2021 ◽  
Vol 171 ◽  
pp. 77-85
Author(s):  
Shifra Z. Goldenberg ◽  
Andrea K. Turkalo ◽  
Peter H. Wrege ◽  
Daniela Hedwig ◽  
George Wittemyer

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