Alberto Pastorino

• MSc in Natural Sciences
• Freelance

Lead poisoning from spent ammunition is known to affect many avian species. Birds of prey ingest lead when feeding on game shot with lead gunshot or bullets. Raptors with scavenging habits are particularly vulnerable to ingesting lead in areas with intensive hunting and are good indicators of the risk of poisoning from lead ammunition. To assess ho...

Alien species are species that are introduced into an area where they are not naturally present. Some of them may exert negative ecological impacts, thus being defined as invasive. The aoudad or Barbary sheep Ammotragus lervia is a north-African ungulate commercialised and introduced for game hunting to Europe, South Africa, and America. As a gener...

The global decline in insect biomass has far‐reaching implications for terrestrial and freshwater food webs, impacting species reliant on insects as a crucial component of their diet. This issue extends to species traditionally considered agricultural pests, such as the common cockchafer Melolontha melolontha. In the race to combat cockchafers thro...

The present study updates the distribution of Zerynthia polyxena and its host plant Aristolochia pallida in the alpine region of Aosta Valley, NW Italy. Unpublished data and confirmations of historically known sites are provided and updated to the years 2022-2023. We searched for the two species within 212 cells of one square kilometer, and we conf...

Water bodies are considered a barrier to the migration of large bird species, mainly because of the absence of thermals that these birds heavily rely on to move large distances with little energy expenditure. In this two-year study, we combined vertical and horizontal radar data with visual observations to compare the autumn migratory behavior of t...

The loss of biodiversity is a major conservation concern of the last decades, with a key role played by invasive alien species that can cause dramatic changes to native ecosystems, altering habitats and reducing or eliminating endemic species. The aoudad or Barbary sheep (Ammotragus lervia Pallas, 1777) is a north-African ungulate commercialised an...

Rediscovery of Salamandrina perspicillata Savi, 1821 (Amphibia: Caudata: Salamandridae) within the "Parco Nat-urale Regionale del Beigua" and comments about the distribution range. In 2018, an observation of one adult Savi's salamander in a left tributary of the Stura valley (Masone, Genova province), shifted the species range toward west, within...

Land-use changes, both in terms of land abandonment and intensification, have led to fragmentation and loss of traditional agricultural habitats. Extensive grazing is among the forms of land use that have undergone the greatest changes. This represents one of the main threats to biodiversity; consequently, a comprehensive overview about the impacts...

Il Mediterraneo centrale rappresenta una delle principali rotte migratorie utilizzate dagli uccelli che si muovono tra l'Africa e l'Europa (Zalles & Bildstein 2000). In quest'area lo Stretto di Messina rappresenta il luogo in cui convergono il maggior numero di individui in migrazione sia durante la primavera sia durante l'autunno. Lo Stretto diven...

Analisi della migrazione autunnale dei Gruccioni in Aspromonte

Background: The Western Marsh Harrier (Circus aeruginosus) is a partial migrant with the populations from Eastern and Northern Europe migrating south to sub-Saharan Africa. During the autumn migration, that is peaking in September, harriers move on a broad front heading SW and undertake long sea-crossings en route to their wintering quarters, passi...

Weather is one of the main factors affecting the migratory behaviour of birds. Rain and fog negatively influence bird flight, forcing animals to make long detours or to stop, waiting for better conditions, leading also in extreme cases to mortality events. We monitored spring and autumn bird migration on the continental side of the Strait of Messin...

A seguito dell’incremento demografico del cormorano Phalacrocorax carbo palesatosi in Europa negli ultimi anni sono aumentati i conflitti tra questa specie ittiofaga ed alcune attività umane quali la pesca sportiva e l’acquacoltura. Tali interazioni sono dovute in Italia soprattutto all’incremento delle popolazioni svernanti della sottospecie Phala...

Results of radar tracking of bee-eaters at the strait of messina in southern Italy.

The migration of Western Marsh Harriers to the African wintering quarters along the Central Mediterranean flyway