
Paolo AgnelliUniversity of Florence | UNIFI · Museum of Natural History
Paolo Agnelli
degree in Natural Sciences
Researches in the field for the study of bat conservation in protected areas.
About
92
Publications
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Introduction
Paolo Agnelli, retired in 2022, was the Curator of the Mammal Collection at the Natural History Museum of the University of Florence since 1990. He currently works as an External Collaborator for the same Museum, carrying out field research for the conservation of bats in protected areas, and for the dissemination and awareness of the ecological role of bats.
He is a specialist in Systematics (Taxonomy) and Ecology of Mammals (particularly Bats), and an active speleologist.
Publications
Publications (92)
The Project “MonitoRARE”, underwritten by the Tuscan regional
government in 2018 with the Universities of Florence, Pisa, and Siena
(Regional Resolution n° 1047, 02/10/17), predicted an interdisciplinary
monitoring program for protected animals, plants, and habitats under
the Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 (Habitat Directive)
within the...
The Eulipotyphla and Rodentia remains from the Grotta dei Pipistrelli in Sicily (Italy), a key region for the historical reconstruction of the Quaternary climates and environments of the central Mediterranean basin, are described and discussed. Three 14C radiometric dating display that the fossil remains were accumulated during the Last Glacial Max...
The presence of the snow vole in the Apuan Alps is confirmed, after the latest reports from the 1980s, thanks to observations made between 2015 and 2017, documented by photos, taken near the Passo del Vestito, in the municipality of Seravezza (Lucca province, Tuscany). The experience here reported is an example of how even non-experts citizens can...
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...
Variation in body size is thought as one of the main responses to climate change, yet studies exploring the existence of this pattern are limited by the scarcity of long temporal datasets. Bats are promising candidates for the occurrence of climate-driven changes in body size because their life cycle is highly sensitive to ambient temperature. Alth...
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...
Body size in animals commonly shows geographic and temporal variations that may depend upon several environmental drivers, including climatic conditions, productivity, geography and species interactions. The topic of body size trends across time has gained momentum in recent years since this has been proposed as a third universal response to climat...
The Barn Owl Tyto alba is commonly reported as a non-selective predator of small mammals, and its diet has been thoroughly analyzed also to assess the small mammal assembly composition in many study areas. The aim of this work was to analyze the diet of the Barn Owl in the Elba island through the analysis of 161 pellets collected in September 2020....
The equatorial sandhopper Talorchestia martensii uses the sun, the moon and the natural magnetic field as orienting compass references. In some arthropod species, the antennae are important for time compensated solar orientation. Therefore, we evaluated the role of antennae in solar, lunar and magnetic compass orientation in T. martensii. We releas...
Background
The Schreiber’s bat, Miniopterus schreibersii, is adapted to long-distance flight, yet long distance movements have only been recorded sporadically using capture-mark-recapture. In this study, we used the hydrogen isotopic composition of 208 wing and 335 fur specimens from across the species' European range to test the hypothesis that th...
In this work, a checklist of the species of amphibians, reptiles, breeding birds and mammals recorded in the area named "Prati di Logarghe-na-Valle del Caprio" (central Italy, province of Massa-Carrara) is presented. Very little is known on the vertebrate fauna of this area, located in the northern Apennines, despite being particularly interesting...
Esistono oggettive difficoltà nel reperire nuove segnalazioni per Nyctalus lasiopterus :-i rifugi di elezione di questa specie si trovano nei cavi degli alberi e sono quindi di non facile individuazione;-le sue emissioni ultrasonore sono molto simili a quelle del più comune Molosso di Cestoni (Tadarida teniotis);-Il suo volo di caccia a varie decin...
Bat remains are useful for palaeoecological reconstructions, they provide independent information on palaeoenvironment and are good indicators for hypogean microclimates. Nine taxa of Chiroptera divided into three families (Rhinolophidae, Vespertilionidae and Miniopteridae) and four genera (Rhinolophus, Myotis, Plecotus and Miniopterus) were discov...
Bat remains are useful for palaeoecological reconstructions, they provide independent information on palaeoenvironment and are good indicators for hypogean microclimates. Nine taxa of Chiroptera divided into three families (Rhinolophidae, Vespertilionidae and Miniopteridae) and four genera (Rhinolophus, Myotis, Plecotus and Miniopterus) were discov...
Preserving species within protected areas (PAs) does not guarantee adequate levels of protection if not coupled with conservation of functional connectivity for a target species. We propose an analytical framework to assess the effectiveness of PAs in preserving habitat and functional connectivity for mobile vertebrates. We implemented it in centra...
In recent years, many cryptic species of bats have been discovered thanks to the application of molecular techniques. The several long-eared bat species (genus Plecotus) occurring in Europe show a marked morphological similarity and occur in sympatry, so that when confusion may arise, molecular approaches have prime importance to establish the actu...
Idee, tecniche ed esperienze per coltivare giardini, orti e balconi in modo sostenibile A cura di MARINA CLAUSER ANDREA BATTIATA
Una visione più ampia rispetto a quella passata, rinnovata delle tante funzioni positive che una coltivazione sostenibile può svolgere, consapevole dei tanti effetti vantaggiosi che ricadono in ambito personale, ambient...
The Project MONITO-RARE (a cooperation between the Tuscan Regional Government and the Universities of Florence, Pisa and Siena) envisages a monitoring program in the regional territory for animals, plants and habitats protected by the Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC) to meet Directive requirements and to provide data needed for the Fourth Report acco...
Trace elements bioaccumulation in liver and fur of Myotis myotis from two caves of the eastern side of Sicily (Italy): A comparison between a control and a polluted area * a b s t r a c t Environmental pollution is a topic of great interest because it directly affects the quality of ecosystems and of all living organisms at different trophic and sy...
Seven species of bats (Mammalia, Chiroptera) have been identified in the fossil assemblage from the Grotta dei Pipistrelli (Sortino, Sicily, Italy): Rhinolophus ferrumequinum, R. euryale, R. mehelyi, Myotis myotis, M. blythii, M. capaccinii and Miniopterus schreibersii. All the recognized species are presently part of the Italian bat fauna; current...
Combining genetic, morphological and geographical data, we re-evaluate Sciurus meridionalis, Lucifero 1907 as a tree squirrel species. The species, previously considered a subspecies of the Eurasian red squirrel, Sciurus vulgaris, is endemic to South Italy with a disjunct distribution with respect to S. vulgaris. The new species has a typical, mono...
In the last century bat populations significantly declined mainly due to habitat fragmentation and degradation. As management-dependent species, bats need appropriate monitoring programs for the implementation of sound conservation strategies. However, bats' small size, high mobility, elusiveness and nocturnal lifestyle make them difficult to surve...
Preliminary note on the faunistic emergencies of Lunigiana (North-Western Tuscany, Italy).
The Tuscan Lunigiana (Massa-Carrara province), an area characterized by a high environmental quality, is not well investigated by the zoological point of view. With this contribution a preliminary list of faunal emergencies, such as molluscs, crustaceans, amp...
Between the end of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth century, hunters, explorers and naturalists organized impressive expeditions for animal collection in poorly known areas, especially in the tropical zones. The specimens and the findings brought back to the mother-country allowed to enrich the heritage of many Italian...
Little is known about the potentially disrupting effects of wind farms on the habitat connectivity of flying vertebrates at the landscape scale. We developed a regional-scale model to assess the wind farm impact on bat migration and commuting routes. The model was implemented for the bat Nyctalus leisleri in a region of central Italy currently unde...
Every year public administrations, private companies and individuals perform repeated treatments with pesticides to fight the presence of mosquitoes and other insects considered harmful in anthropized areas. Therefore, large quantities of pesticides are widely spread in the urban environment, both indoor and outdoor. These activities can cause dama...
Per combattere l’eccedente presenza di zanzare, amministrazioni pubbliche, aziende private e singoli cittadini svolgono ripetuti interventi antiparassitari, riversando ingenti quantitativi di pesticidi nell’ambiente. La diffusione di grandi quantitativi di sostanze chimiche di sintesi e la conseguente contaminazione degli ecosistemi ha ridotto dras...
Competition may lead to changes in a species' environmental niche in areas of sympatry and shifts in the niche of weaker competitors to occupy areas where stronger ones are rarer. Although mainland Mediterranean (Rhinolophus euryale) and Mehely's (R. mehelyi) horseshoe bats mitigate competition by habitat partitioning, this may not be true on resou...
ToscoBAT nasce con lo scopo di creare un atlante dei chirotteri presenti nelle cavità sotterranee toscane. Per realizzare questa innovativa ricerca partecipata, il Museo di Storia Naturale dell’Università di Firenze, in collaborazione con la Federazione Speleologica Toscana, ha curato la realizzazione di un database online per la raccolta e la cond...
Sengi or elephant-shrew specimens in the Zoological Section of the Natural History Museum, Florence University, increase the known distribution of the endemic Somali sengi (Elephantulus revoilii) by 475 km. The expanded range may improve its conservation status, but the information raises questions on habitat and taxonomic separation from the close...
No evidence of competition-driven geographic separation exists for bats. Although mainland Mediterranean (Rhinolophus euryale) and Mehely‟s Horseshoe Bats (R. mehelyi) mitigate interspecific competition by habitat partitioning, this may not be true on resource-limited islands. On Sardinia, R. mehelyi is widespread but becomes rarer where R. euryale...
For the high costs and time needed, bat specialists generally sample bat colonies properly once or twice a year just in few underground sites among the many caves they should visit. Moreover, there are a lot of caves with bats that specialists do not even know or they are technically a challenge. Nevertheless, artificial and natural underground sit...
Species distribution patterns may potentially result from a range of causal factors, historical or current, involving abiotic factors as well as biotic interactions. However, biotic interactions are often disregarded in models exploring species distribution. This study offers a perspective on how presence-only modelling and niche analysis constitut...
The recent publication of the travel journal by Giacomo Savorgnan di Brazzà, head of a scientific mission to Western Equatorial Africa on behalf of the French government in the years 1883–1886, provides a great opportunity to increase our knowledge of a small sample of primate specimens, now preserved in the Zoological Section of the University of...
The understanding of Earth's biodiversity depends critically on the accurate identification and nomenclature of species. Many species were described centuries ago, and in a surprising number of cases their nomenclature or type material remain unclear or inconsistent. A prime example is provided by Elephas maximus, one of the most iconic and well-kn...
AimBats are promising candidates for studying morphometric responses to anthropogenic climate or land-use changes. We assessed whether the cranial size of a common bat (Pipistrellus kuhlii) had changed between 1875 and 2007. We formulated the following hypotheses: (1) if heat loss is an important reaction to climate change, body size will have decr...
The understanding of Earth's biodiversity depends critically on the accurate identification and nomenclature of species. Many species were described centuries ago, and in a surprising number of cases their nomenclature or type material remain unclear or inconsistent. A prime example is provided by Elephas maximus, one of the most iconic and well-kn...
One of the largest nursery colonies of Rhinolophus ferrumequinum in Italy occurs in the Natural Park of Migliarino San Rossore Massaciuccoli, Tuscany, with the species roosting in several buildings. We identified various roosts used by R. ferrumequinum within the park and investigated their microclimatic parameters (temperature, relative humidity a...
Nowadays, molecular techniques are widespread tools for the identification of biological entities. However, until very few years ago, their application to taxonomy provoked intense debates between traditional and molecular taxonomists. To prevent every kind of disagreement, it is essential to standardize taxonomic definitions. Along these lines, we...
List of biological samples, GenBank accessions and sampling details. Bats examined in this study using a DNA barcoding approach with reference to specimen voucher (when available), family and species attribution (except for unrecognized bats), GenBank accession numbers, sampling localities (with province) and assigned locality group names (NIT: Nor...
NJ reconstruction of Italian echolocating bats coxI sequences. Neighbour joining tree based on coxI sequences of Italian echolocating bats generated with MEGA. Square brackets indicate the different taxonomic ranks corresponding to species, MOTUs (dotted line), and IOTUs (bold line) inferred by OT. As reported in Figure 2, Myotis bechsteinii and Pl...
NJ reconstructions of Myotis nattereri species complex based on ND1 and cyt b sequences. Phenetic relationships among sequences of the cyt b and ND1 genes for Italian and European lineages belonging to the species complex Myotis nattereri. Locality groups are shown as follows: SIT, Southern Italy; CIT, Central Italy; SIT, Southern Italy; SMO, south...
Frequency distribution of intraspecific and interspecific genetic divergences in morphologically identified echolocating bats from Italy. Graph shows intraspecific (yellow bars) and interspecific (red bars) comparisons across the bats species included in the reference dataset. Distances were calculated by MEGA 4.0 (pairwise deletion), using Kimura’...
Cumulative error plot. Minimum cumulative error analysis conducted on the reference dataset of Italian echolocating bats species. Type I (yellow) and type II (red) errors obtained with different thresholds.
(PDF)
List of GenBank accession numbers and sampling details of bats belonging to the M. nattereri species complex. Sampling locality details, accession numbers with related reference of cyt b and ND1 sequences and name of corresponding lineage are provided for each individual.
(PDF)
We developed a set of nine polymorphic microsatellite markers from a genomic library enriched for dinucleotide repeats in the European polecat Mustela putorius. Microsatellite loci amplification was tested on fresh tissues and museum samples collected over the last 40 years in central and northern Italy. Number of alleles per locus ranged from 3 to...
Una delle maggiori cause del declino numerico dei Chirotteri a livello europeo è senza dubbio la progressiva scomparsa dei loro rifugi, generalmente dovuta alla presenza dell’uomo. Alcune specie si sono tuttavia adattate ad utilizzare come riparo alcuni manufatti umani, anche durante alcune delle fasi più importanti del loro ciclo biologico. Le rec...
Abstract - This paper summarizes more than four decades of cetacean research data collected by the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Milano and, between 1986 and 2003, by the Centro Studi
Cetacei of the Società Italiana di Scienze Naturali. It is the result of the collaboration among scientists of several Italian museums. A detailed analysis conce...
RIASSUNTO
Il progetto nasce nel 2006 da un’idea del Museo di Storia Naturale di Firenze per diffondere la corretta divulgazione sui pipistrelli, informare sul loro ruolo ecologico di predatori di insetti e stimolare la partecipazione delle persone a concrete azioni di conservazione. È stato elaborato un efficace modello di bat box, che è stato dist...
The project "BAT BOX: Be a Bat's Friend" was launched in 2006 with the aim of spreading correct information about the ecological role of bats, rehabilitating their image and fostering the involvement of the public in conservation actions. A wooden, single-chamber bat box was designed and produced at low cost. Through collaboration with Coop, to dat...
The primatological collection housed in the Natural History Museum, Zoological Section «La Specola» of Florence University, is considered one of the most important in Italy in terms of both the quantity and the historical value of the specimens. In recent years a complete review, reorganization and revaluation of the historical value of the collect...
The first descriptions of the anthropomorphic monkeys reached Europe channelled through a combination of legend, anecdote and travel journal. The first actual chimpanzee in flesh and blood only arrived around the seventeenth century, and the similarity between these great apes and human beings immediately unleashed conflicting reactions of attracti...