Luca Luiselli

Rivers State University of Science and Technology | RSUST · Department of Applied And Environmental Biology

Animal space use patterns can be affected by the intra- and interspecific density of individuals competing for resources, with home ranges generally decreasing with increasing population density. By applying spatially explicit capture-recapture models implemented in the R package secr, we study whether home ranges of co-occurring yellow-necked mice...

1.Foraging modes (ambush vs. active foraging) are often correlated with a suite of morphological, physiological, behavioral and ecological traits known as the adaptive syndrome or syndrome hypothesis. In snakes, an ecological correlate often reported in the literature is that ambush‐hunting snakes have a higher relative meal size compared to active...

Actuarial senescence appears to be a common process, and senescence patterns are highly variable across the tree of life. To date, studies on animal senescence have largely focused on model species, such as as fruit flies, humans and a few other endotherms. In contrast, our knowledge about ageing remains fragmentary in ectotherm vertebrates, such a...

Turtles and tortoises (chelonians) have been integral components of global ecosystems for about 220 million years and have played important roles in human culture for at least 400,000 years. The chelonian shell is a remarkable evolutionary adaptation, facilitating success in terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems. Today, more than half of th...

Comparative studies of mortality in the wild are necessary to understand the evolution of aging; yet, ectothermic tetrapods are underrepresented in this comparative landscape, despite their suitability for testing evolutionary hypotheses. We present a study of aging rates and longevity across wild tetrapod ectotherms, using data from 107 population...

Rainbow lizards (Agama agama) are common in suburban areas throughout Africa, and have an opportunistic foraging strategy, with arthropods being the main prey source. In a coastal resort in southern Togo, West Africa, several individuals in a population were observed while feeding regularly upon non-natural human-made food (pizza) and showing a cle...

The relationship between a reptile and its thermal environment is a key feature of habitat use, which may be impacted by, among others, the requirements for food, avoidance of competitors and predators. Juvenile lizards are subject to the same ecological pressures, but may additionally experience predation or exclusion from prime basking site by ad...

According to the IUCN, Southeast Asia is the area of the world with the highest number of threatened turtle species. The current status of chelonians is particularly catastrophic in Vietnam. However, there is still a lack of field data to unambiguously support this fact for a few species. To better understand the freshwater turtle diversity and eve...

Hunting for bushmeat in the tropics has become a major issue in terms of conservation and human health, especially in western and central Africa. In Côte d’Ivoire, despite a ban on hunting since 1974, the bushmeat trade is widespread. This situation has been exacerbated by the long-term socio-political unrest in Côte d’Ivoire, resulting in the lack...

Biases in snake venom research have been partially identified but seldomly quantified. Using the Google Scholar web search engine, we collected a total of 267 articles published between 1964 and 2021, and reviewed them to assess the main trends in this field of study. We developed a 4-category classification of the harmful potential of each of the...

Goliath beetles (genus Goliathus) are among the largest and most charismatic insects in the world. In West African forests, two species (G. cacicus and G. regius) and natural hybrids are found. These beetles are widely collected for the entomological trade. We carried out standardized interview campaigns in Liberia and Ivory Coast to explore local...

The Dahomey Gap is a human-derived savannah zone, interspersed by patches of moist tropical forest, that separates the forest zone into two blocks, the Upper Guinean and the Lower Guinean forests. Community ecology aspects of amphibians and reptiles are still relatively unexplored in this ecological zone of West Africa. Here, the overall species ri...

The Dahomey Gap” is a human-derived mostly savannah region that separates the Guinea-Congolian rainforest block into two major units: the Upper Guinean and the Lower Guinean Forest blocks. In this savannah dominated habitat, several forest patches are distributed throughout. The mammal communities in the Dahomey gap region have been poorly studied....

It is widely assumed that future climatic conditions, alongside their effect on local environments, will result in either a change in how species use their habitats or in a shift in species distributions. The Sahel region of Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to experience drastic changes in its average aridity and overall climate in the coming decades...

Nile Crocodiles, Crocodylus niloticus, are widespread along the riverine systems and wetlands of East Africa, and may locally be involved into serious conflicts with local human communities. A research study was conducted to investigate Human-Crocodiles Conflicts (HCC) and its impacts on lives and livelihoods of local communities in the Sudd Wetlan...

The influence of temperature on the physiological processes in reptiles is well known, for example growth, reproduction and muscular energy are all temperature dependent. However, there may be constraints on the ability of a reptile to harness thermal energy, particularly during cold seasons in the temperate zones. Substrate selection is a key fact...

Beach-nesting birds (plovers; Aves; Charadridae) are impacted by many natural and human-induced threats (e.g., people trampling, dogs, and natural predators). In this regard, the use of anti-predator cages on their nests is effective in order to mitigate some of these pressures (i.e., predation). To evaluate the efficacy of anti-predator cages and...

Polyphylla ragusae (Coleoptera Scarabaeidae) is an endemic beetle restricted to the island of Sicily (Italy). This species is among the most threatened invertebrates in Italy. Currently, scientific knowledge of the distribution and habitat selection of P. ragusae is scarce, though anecdotal observations suggest that the species is primarily found i...

In many tropical areas of high conservation concern there is still no evidence on the effectiveness of protected areas in protecting specific components of biodiversity. Here, to assess the management effectiveness of protected areas, we carried out a field sampling design for collecting data on waterbird communities within the Nibule National Park...

We analysed the effects of body mass on the monthly activity patterns of six Mediterranean lacertid lizard taxa, four relatively small species, the Italian wall lizard (Podarcis siculus), the common wall lizard (Podarcis muralis), the blue-throated keeled lizard (Algyroides nigropunctatus), and the Ionian wall lizard (Podarcis ionicus), and two lar...

Studies of animal communities along habitat gradients are useful in understanding the ecologicsl factors affecting species diversity and richness. Almost no investigations have been carried out on the community structure of vertebrate groups along habitat gradients modified by humans in historical or prehistoric times. Here, we analyze the communit...

The Sudd in South Sudan, formed by the White Nile's Baḥr al-Jabal section, is one of the largest and most important wetlands in the world. Communities in the region almost exclusively depend on fisheries for food and livelihoods. Although threatened by over-exploitation and habitat changes, fish populations are also affected by climate change. Usin...

Anoxia (Protanoxia) orientalis is a beetle of the family Melolonthidae for which Italy represents the western limit of its distribution. The ecology of this species is little known from the quantitative point of view. The ecological correlates of A. orientalis presence in the whole European range and, more specifically, at its western border in Sic...

We assessed numbers and biomass of species hunted and sold for wild meat in 12 park-adjacent settlements in the Fazao Malfakassa National Park (FMNP), Togo. From hunter interviews and market carcass counts 33 species, 28 from hunter interviews and 26 from market surveys were taken, respectively. A total of 2605 animals were recorded in the study, 1...

Conservation strategies are mainly decided, also for tropical species and habitats, on the basis of studies and examples made in the temperate regions, especially in North America and Europe. Conservation strategies for tropical species are often thought to fail due to a plethora of « human dimension » reasons. These reasons are external to the nat...

The sexually dimorphic dynastine centaurus beetle, genus Augosoma (Coleoptera: Scarabeidae), is endemic to tropical Africa where two species are found (A. centaurus and A. hippocrates). These beetles are consumed by rural populations, cause damage in plantations and are targets of insect collectors and traders. We present information on size differ...

Wild meat markets play a crucial role for food security and cash income for subsistence hunters in the tropics and subtropics. In Nigeria, the amount of meat sold from most species crashed dramatically after the Ebola virus outbreak in 2014. Sales further diminished after arrival of COVID-19, likely because of restrictions to commerce and of change...

We re-examined the knowledge on the relationships between fauna and forest management in Italy. We focused our attention on Vertebrates, including small mammals (Rodents and Soricomorphs), bats, birds, reptiles and amphibians, and on carabid and saproxylic beetles. We found that nearly all groups respond in accordance with Angelstam’s scheme of the...

The adult sex-ratio of a widespread dynastine beetle characterized by remarkable sexual shape dimorphism, Phyllognathus excavatus (Forster, 1771), is reported herein for the first time with regards to the Italian populations. These beetles were studied in a coastal locality of Mediterranean central Italy (Latium), and showed a significantly female-...

Nowadays, Laos remains one of the scientifically least known countries of Asia in terms of herpetological knowledge. Here, we evaluate composition of species in freshwater ecosystems (main river courses) and terrestrial ecosystems (forests) in two distinct regions using Visual Encounter Surveys along designed transects, examination of fishers’ catc...

The snake communities in Asian tropical forests are relatively unknown, with most studies focusing on species lists. We investigated species composition, relative abundance, and community ecology of snakes in a mature secondary hilly forest area in the Quan Son District, northern Vietnam. To our knowledge, it is one of the few field investigations...

Prey choice is the non-random foraging and consumption of prey species by their predators, and is therefore the basis for studies of topics as diverse as quantifying food webs, predator-prey relationships, and optimal foraging models. Diamond-back Terrapins (Malaclemys terrapin) are diet generalists with a large geographic distribution, the U.S. At...

Natural history observations were made, during August–September 2021, on a population of the ecologically poorly known Vesperus luridus (Cerambycidae) at a hilly locality of Latium, Central Italy. These beetles were searched for by night along a 170 m long transect, with the help of hand torches. During the field surveys, we recorded a total of 130...

A body plan (= bauplan) is a suite of morphological characters shared by phylogenetically related animals at some point during their development. Despite its value, the bauplan concept is still rarely employed to characterize functional groups in community ecology. Here, we examine habitat use and spatio-temporal activity correlates of an entire se...

Suitable habitats for anurans can be found in the ever-growing tropical urban environments but anurans’ adaptations to urban conditions, including their trophic ecology remain largely unknown. We studied the food habits of two generalist, widespread West African Sclerophrys adult toads: African common (S. regularis) and Hallowell's toad (S. maculat...

Assessing community assembly rules has been a prominent task by community ecologists. Using a turtle family (Pelomedusidae) as a study case, we analyze the structure of their communities from the continental scale to the habitat scale, by using a suite of statistical approaches: (i) GIS modeling of the most complete presence sites dataset (from IUC...

The Sahelian Flapshell Turtle, Cyclanorbis senegalensis (family Trionychidae) is the most widely distributed of the African members of the trionychid subfamily Cyclanorbinae, occurring across the sub-Saharan Sahel region from Senegal to Ethiopia. It is a moderate sized, sexually size-dimorphic freshwater turtle with females (curved carapace length...

Assessment of the species' status for Kinixys homeana. Previously considered as VU, this tortoise species is now reassessed as Critically Endangered (CR)

Capsule: Golden Eagles Aquila chrysaetos in Sardinia are clustered across the main mountain ranges of the island, with a preference for undisturbed and homogeneous inland habitats. Aims: To analyse habitat preferences of the Golden Eagle in Sardinia, Italy, at the landscape and home range spatial scales. Methods: Landscape scale habitat preferences...

Rafetus swinhoei is a giant freshwater turtle (>160 kg) and is the rarest turtle species in 30 the world, with just two individuals surviving in Vietnam and China (only one in the wild). Being on the brink of extinction, it is an absolute priority to search for additional individuals in the wild, and for new areas of potential presence. Here we ana...

1. The Euphrates Softshell Turtle (Rafetus euphraticus) is the most threatened chelonian species in the Middle East, where it is endemic of the Tigris and Euphrates basins. Since this species is ecologically little known it is difficult to plan any reliable action for its correct management and conservation. 2. In order to enhance the scientific kn...

A survey conducted in Terekeka, Mangalla and Gemeiza, payams of Central Equatoria in South Sudan using face-to-face interviews, structured questionnaire and focused group discussion provided information on income generating strategies of fishing communities. These included: full time or part time fishing, small-scale farming, cattle breeding and fi...

The Cát Bà gecko Goniurosaurus catbaensis is endemic to Cát Bà and Ha Long islands of Vietnam. The ecology of this species is still scarcely studied but previous reports have suggested that the species is Endangered due to small population size and low ecological plasticity. We studied aspects of the ecology of this species between May 2019 and Jun...

The western whip snake is a habitat generalist, often found along woodland edges,where it forages widely. These snakes are extremely fast moving, so usually when basking or moving and encountering a potential predator their initial response will be to flee into cover. If caught or trapped they will bite fiercely and if this is ineffective some indi...

en In Togo, the illegal trade of African elephant (Loxodonta africana ) ivory is widespread despite efforts made by the government to curtail these activities. By using data gathered from CITES institutions and natural resource management authorities in the country, we investigated the extent of ivory trafficking in Togo. We also conducted surveys...

Tropical regions host a large variety of animal species, representing the richest concentrations of biological diversity across the Earth [...]

The Goliath beetle (Goliathus goliatus) is one of the largest and most commercially valuable (for collection exports) beetle species worldwide, and occurs in West and Central Africa, with polymorphic populations being found in Benin, Eastern Nigeria, and Western Cameroun. The white morph is the most commercially valuable, and therefore is actively...

South Sudan's biodiversity is threatened because of a plethora of reasons ranging from weak environmental regulation, poor development planning, overexploitation of wildlife, livestock and agricultural land expansion, climate change, political and armed con ict [1]. Climate change has already caused substantial ecological issues in the country. For...

Due to a prolonged civil war (1983-2005 and 2013-2020), the republic of South Sudan in East Africa, which was officially born in 2011, has been one of the least investigated nations of the continent in terms of chelonian diversity, distribution, ecology, and conservation. Since 2017, this nation has been subjected to careful chelonian field investi...

Despite increasing pressures on freshwater resources worldwide, and the threatened status of most freshwater turtles, there is still limited knowledge of habitat use and niche partitioning in Afrotropical freshwater turtle communities. In this study, we describe habitat associations, community diversity, and temporal patterns of occurrence of fresh...

The Nubian flapshell turtle (Cyclanorbis elegans; Trionychidae) is one of the most threatened species of turtles in the world and it has been recently rediscovered (year 2017) in a restricted area of South Sudan. Previous studies showed that fishing bycatch and collection of eggs and nesting females for domestic subsistence are the main threats for...

The composition and structure of antelope assemblages were analyzed by using data from wild meat markets in three distinct study stations in the southern Niger Delta, Nigeria. The relative abundance of the different species coming into the markets was analyzed, and various diversity metrics were used to describe the different antelope communities....

One of the most crucial issues in conservation science is to predict which species are more prone to decline within a subset of taxa. Applying theoretical ecology to inform conservation science may be helpful when evaluating the effects that a decline in the prey resource may have on the communities of given predators. Mean body size of rodent-eati...

Pangolins are considered among the most threatened mammal species, both globally and also in Africa. However, almost nothing is known on their status and distribution across wide areas of their range, particularly in West African countries. Here we assess the status and distribution of pangolin species in Togo. Fieldwork was carried out in five loc...

Terrestrial species from the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR) are under high threat due to deforestation and overhunting. Previous studies have even defined these forests as subjected to an “empty forest syndrome”, a condition in which forests that are apparently well preserved are instead almost deprived of vertebrate faunas due to extreme e...

Peninsular effect is an anomalous gradient in plant and animal species richness from base to tip of a given peninsula. This pattern has been studied intensely on various taxonomic groups, but with scarce attention for using standardized data. Here, using presence-absence data normalized by the field effort, the peninsular effect on the species rich...

Di Nicola M.R., Cavigioli L., Luiselli L., Andreone F. (2021): Anfibi & Rettili d'Italia. Edizione aggiornata. Edizioni Belvedere, Latina, “historia naturae” (8), 576 pp.

Ecological communities may be regulated by complicated spatial-temporal effects. For instance, local collapses of the prey resource may cause consequent collapses in predator abundance, with induced remarkable fluctuations in the population dynamics of predators. Recent studies suggest that the impact of an amphibian pathogen (Batrachochytrium dend...

Citation: Luiselli, L.; Demaya, G.S.; Benansio, J.S.; Petrozzi, F.; Akani, G.C.; Eniang, E.A.; Ajong, S.N.; Di Vittorio, M.; Amadi, N.; Dendi, D. A Comparative Analysis of the Diets of a Genus of Freshwater Turtles across Africa. Diversity 2021, 13, 165.

The chelonian fauna of West Africa is relatively understudied and experiencing a multitude of threats. Moreover, the IUCN Red List status of several African species is both outdated and, we believe, underestimated. Herein, we cover projections for freshwater turtle and tortoise status trends in West Africa over the next decade. This geographic prio...

Pelusios is an Afrotropical endemic genus of freshwater turtles that have adapted to a variety of habitats, with savannahs and forests being their two main habitat types. Although considered generally carnivorous, these turtles have rarely been subjected to detailed field surveys for determining their quantitative diet. In this paper, by using both...

Lizard thermoregulation is costly and is largely behavioural. Podarcis raffonei, endemic of few islets of the Aeolian archipelago (southern Italy), is one of the most threatened lizards in Europe, its survival being under threat also due to the presence of the congeneric P. siculus, a successful invader characterised by behavioural plasticity and e...

en The waterbuck (Kobus ellipsiprymnus), though widespread throughout Africa, is suspected to be declining overall. Data on population numbers and structure are lacking for many parts of its range, especially in West Africa, where the subspecies defassa is found. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the abundance, distribution and attribute...