Ute Radespiel

University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover | TiHo · Institute of Zoology

The concept of "facilitated restoration" aims at native biodiversity reinstatement with the help of animal seed dispersers attracted by fruiting trees. Yet, large-crowned trees will have to develop in the early stages of restoration; therefore, seed dispersal provided by small generalist mammals and birds that use rapidly growing herbs, shrubs, and...

Global biodiversity is under accelerating threats, and species are succumbing to extinction before being described. Madagascar’s biota represents an extreme example of this scenario, with the added complication that much of its endemic biodiversity is cryptic. Here we illustrate best practices for clarifying cryptic diversification processes by pre...

Although it is well known that humans substantially altered the Malagasy ecosystems, the timing of the human arrival as well as the extension of their environmental impact is yet not well understood. This research aims to study the influence of early human impact and climate change on rainforests and wildlife in northern Madagascar during the past...

Madagascar's lemur populations are declining in dwindling habitats due to anthropogenic expansion and changing climatic conditions. Gastrointestinal parasites can be important indicators to assess the health status of threatened species. However, parasites, hosts and the environment are connected in complex interactions. The present study aimed to...

Female dominance over males is more frequent in Malagasy lemurs than in other primate clades, but patterns of female–male dominance vary among species, and few data are available for one particularly species‐rich genus, Lepilemur . We investigated the types, temporal distribution, and outcome of female–male agonistic conflicts in the Milne‐Edwards'...

Edge effects result from the penetration to varying depths and intensities, of abiotic and biotic conditions from the surrounding non-forest matrix into the forest interior. Although 70% of the world's forests are within 1 km of a forest edge, making edge effects a dominant feature of most forest habitats, there are few empirical data on inter-site...

Hormones mediate long-range cell communication and play vital roles in physiology, metabolism, and health. Traditionally, endocrinologists have focused on one hormone or organ system at a time. Yet, hormone signaling by its very nature connects cells of different organs and involves crosstalk of different hormones. Here, we leverage the organism-wi...

Fork-marked lemurs (Phaner) are a group of four medium-sized, gummivorous lemur species belonging to the Cheirogaleidae family, representing one of the least-studied primate genera in Madagascar. This study focuses on elucidating the presence and local knowledge of the Endangered Phaner furcifer in the Analanjirofo region of northeastern Madagascar...

New phylogenetic tools and population genetics methods have been developed and vastly advanced over the last decade [...]

Gums produced by trees after injuries are valuable food resources for several primate species. Yet, information on the chemical characteristics of gum is scant and inconsistent. We use gums consumed by lemurs (strepsirrhine primates of Madagascar) as an example to illustrate their possible nutritive and pharmaceutical properties. Exudates from 45 t...

Hunting of wild animals for meat and habitat loss are the main drivers of wildlife population decline around the world, and in tropical regions in particular. While Madagascar is a hotspot for biodiversity, hunting is widespread, mostly in form of subsistence hunting, while hunting for the pet trade is less often reported. We studied hunting of the...

Forest loss is a main driver of biodiversity decline, particularly in tropical regions. In this study, we investigate the degree of deforestation in the entire ranges of nine highly threatened lemur species in northwestern Madagascar. Landsat satellite images were acquired from four different years (1990, 2000, 2011, 2020), classified into forest/n...

A link between the abundance of species and their degree of ecological specialization has previously been suggested within the primate order. Many species of lemurs were only recently described and even basic ecological data are not yet available for them. We investigated the habitat use, abundance, and habitat characteristics of the critically end...

Objectives: The investigation of morphological variation in animals is widely used in taxonomy, ecology, and evolution. Using large datasets for meta-analyses has dramatically increased, raising concerns about dataset compatibilities and biases introduced by contributions of multiple researchers. Materials and methods: We compiled morphological...

Habitat loss and fragmentation are of concern to conservation biologists worldwide. However, not all organisms are affected equally by these processes; thus, it is important to study the effects of living in fragmented habitats on species that differ in lifestyle and habitat requirements. In this study, we examined the dispersal and connectivity pa...

Madagascar exhibits exceptionally high levels of biodiversity and endemism. Models to explain the diversification and distribution of species in Madagascar stress the importance of historical variability in climate conditions which may have led to the formation of geographic barriers by changing water and habitat availability. The relative importan...

Madagascar comprises one of the Earth's biologically richest, but also one of most endangered, terrestrial ecoregions. Although it is obvious that humans substantially altered its natural ecosystems during the past decades, the timing of arrival of humans on Madagascar as well as their environmental impact is not well resolved. In this context, thi...

Habitat loss and fragmentation are of concern to conservation biologists worldwide. However, not all organisms are affected equally by these processes, thus it is important to study the effects of living in fragmented habitats on species that differ in lifestyle and habitat requirements. In this study we examined dispersal and connectivity patterns...

Lemurs are a well-known example of adaptive radiation. Since colonizing Madagascar, more than 100 extant lemur species have evolved to fill the variety of ecological niches on the island. However, recent work suggests that lemurs do not exhibit one of the hallmarks of adaptive radiations: explosive speciation rates that decline over time. We test t...

Parasite infestations depend on multiple host-related and environmental factors. In the case of ectoparasites, which are exposed to the environment beyond the host, an impact of climate, expressed by seasonal or yearly variations, can be expected. However, long-term dynamics of ectoparasite infestations are rarely studied in nonhuman primates. We i...

Ecological niche modeling (ENM) is particularly useful in the study of cryptic and elusive species that are only rarely seen, difficult to study in the wild, and simultaneously threatened by a multitude of anthropogenic factors. We collected presence records one such example, the understudied Hairy-eared Dwarf Lemur (Allocebus trichotis), from the...

Sucking lice live in intimate association with their hosts and often display a high degree of host specificity. The present study investigated sucking lice of the genus Lemurpediculus from six mouse lemur (Microcebus) and two dwarf lemur (Cheirogaleus) species endemic to the island of Madagascar, considered a biodiversity hotspot. Louse phylogeneti...

Madagascar`s flora and fauna have evolved in relative isolation since the island split from the African and Indian continents. When the last common ancestors of lemurs left Africa between 40-70 million years ago, they carried within them a subset of the viral diversity of the mainland population, which continued to evolve throughout the lemur radia...

The relevance of emerging infectious diseases continues to grow worldwide as human activities increasingly extend into formerly remote natural areas. This is particularly noticeable on the island of Madagascar. As closest relatives to humans on the island, lemurs are of particular relevance as a potential origin of zoonotic pathogen spillover. Know...

The published article [...]

Seasonal reproduction is widespread among primates but the degree of reproductive synchrony and plasticity can vary, even between closely related species. This study compares the dynamics of female reproductive seasonality in two mouse lemur species, Microcebus murinus and M. ravelobensis, in Ankarafantsika National Park, Madagascar, across 24 year...

It is important to understand how sympatric congeners can co-occur within the same landscapes to better understand niche differentiation and how each species respond to habitat modification. We compiled previously published, long-term data from several studies on encounter rates of two sympatric mouse lemurs (Microcebus ravelobensis and M. murinus)...

Madagascar’s Central Highlands are largely composed of grasslands, interspersed with patches of forest. The historical perspective was that Madagascar’s grasslands had anthropogenic origins, but emerging evidence suggests that grasslands were a component of the pre‐human Central Highlands vegetation. Consequently, there is now vigorous debate regar...

Forest cover change is of particular concern in tropical regions. In this study, we investigate the degree of deforestation in the entire ranges of nine highly threatened lemur species in northwestern Madagascar. Landsat satellite images were acquired from four different time stages (1990, 2000, 2011, 2020), classified into forest/non-forest, and c...

The occurrence of natural hybridization has been reported in a wide range of organisms, including primates. The present study focuses on the endemic lemurs of Madagascar, primates for which only a few species occur in sympatry or parapatry with congeners, thereby creating limited opportunity for natural hybridization. This study examines RADseq dat...

The rapid emergence of large-scale atlas-level single-cell RNA-seq datasets presents remarkable opportunities for broad and deep biological investigations through integrative analyses. However, harmonizing such datasets requires integration approaches to be not only computationally scalable, but also capable of preserving a wide range of fine-grain...

The extant primates of Madagascar (Lemuriformes) represent the endpoints of an adaptive radiation following a single colonization event more than 50 million years ago. They have since evolved a diversity of life history traits, ecological adaptations and social systems that rivals that of all other living primates combined. Their social systems are...

A high prevalence of AA-amyloidosis was identified in a breeding colony of northern tree shrews ( Tupaia belangeri) in a retrospective analysis, with amyloid deposits in different organs being found in 26/36 individuals (72%). Amyloid deposits, confirmed by Congo red staining, were detected in kidneys, intestines, skin, and lymph nodes, characteris...

Madagascar’s Central Highlands are largely composed of grasslands, interspersed with patches of forest. The pre-human extent of these grasslands is a topic of vigorous debate, with conventional wisdom holding that they are anthropogenic in nature and emerging evidence supporting that grasslands were a component of the pre-human Central Highlands ve...

Background Quaternary climate fluctuations have been acknowledged as major drivers of the geographical distribution of the extraordinary biodiversity observed in tropical biomes, including Madagascar. The main existing framework for Pleistocene Malagasy diversification assumes that forest cover was strongly shaped by warmer Interglacials (leading t...

Understanding the mechanisms by which similar species coexist in sympatry is a major driver of ecological research. Niche partitioning and ecological plasticity can facilitate spatial and habitat use overlap between generalist and specialist species. Mouse lemurs (Microcebus spp.) are a highly speciose group of small primates that are endemic to th...

Quaternary climatic changes have been invoked as important drivers of species diversification worldwide. However, the impact of such changes on vegetation and animal population dynamics in tropical regions remains debated. To overcome this uncertainty, we integrated high-resolution paleoenvironmental reconstructions from a sedimentary record coveri...

Understanding the mechanisms by which similar species coexist in sympatry is a major driver of ecological research. Niche partitioning and ecological plasticity can facilitate spatial and habitat use overlap between generalist and specialist species. Mouse lemurs (Microcebus spp.) are a highly speciose group of small primates that are endemic to th...

Deleterious effects of habitat loss and fragmentation on biodiversity have been demonstrated in numerous taxa. Although parasites represent a large part of worldwide biodiversity, they are mostly neglected in this context. We investigated the effects of various anthropogenic environmental changes on gastrointestinal parasite infections in four smal...

Movement analysis of primate molar teeth under load using synchrotron X-ray microtomography, Journal of Structural Biology (2020), doi: https://doi. Abstract Mammalian teeth have to sustain repetitive and high chewing loads without failure. Key to this capability is the periodontal ligament (PDL), a connective tissue containing a collagenous fibre...

Madagascar is home to many threatened and endemic primate species, yet this island has seen dramatic declines in lemur habitat due to forest loss. This forest loss has resulted in an increasingly fragmented forest landscape, with fragments isolated from each other by grasslands (i.e., matrix). The grassland matrix is not entirely homogeneous contai...

Eight species of ectoparasites were collected during 225 gray mouse lemur, Microcebus murinus (J. F. Miller), captures, in Ankarafantsika National Park, Madagascar, in 2010-2011. The ixodid tick, Haemaphysalis lemuris Hoogstraal, was the most common ectoparasite and was mostly represented by nymphs. Other ectoparasites recorded include the polyplac...

Background Edge effects can influence species composition and community structure as a result of changes in microenvironment and edaphic variables. We investigated effects of habitat edges on vegetation structure, abundance and body mass of one vulnerable Microcebus species in northwestern Madagascar. We trapped mouse lemurs along four 1000-m trans...

Background: Constraints in migratory capabilities, such as the disruption of gene flow and genetic connectivity caused by habitat fragmentation, are known to affect genetic diversity and the long-term persistence of populations. Although negative population trends due to ongoing forest loss are widespread, the consequence of habitat fragmentation...

Habitat loss and fragmentation affect species occurrence and distribution in rapidly changing ecosystems. These issues are especially relevant on the Island of Madagascar where modern deforestation has been widespread and is ongoing. We investigated the occurrence of the critically endangered Coquerel's sifaka ( Propithecus coquereli ) in an anthro...

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IUCN Red List Assessment

IUCN Red List assessment

IUCN Red List assessment

IUCN Red List assessment

IUCN Red List assessment

IUCN Red List assessment

Delimitation of cryptic species is increasingly based on genetic analyses but the integration of distributional, morphological, behavioral, and ecological data offers unique complementary insights into species diversification. We surveyed communities of nocturnal mouse lemurs (Microcebus spp.) in five different sites of northeastern Madagascar, mea...

Solitary species often employ chemocommunication to facilitate mate localization. In the solitarily foraging, nocturnal mouse lemurs (Microcebus spp.), females advertise their short period of estrus acoustically and by increased scent marking, whereas males search widely for receptive females. Both sexes can be trained by operant conditioning to di...

Introduction The gray mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus ) is an important nonhuman primate model in biomedical research. Numerous studies investigated mouse lemur behavior and possible factors underlying interindividual variation in both, animal personality and cognitive performance. Some effects, such as an age‐related decline in executive functioni...

Mouse lemurs (Microcebus) are a radiation of morphologically cryptic primates distributed throughout Madagascar for which the number of recognized species has exploded in the past two decades. This taxonomic revision has prompted understandable concern that there has been substantial oversplitting in the mouse lemur clade. Here, we investigate mous...

Madagascar is a global biodiversity hotspot of conservation concern. The decline of natural forest habitats due to shifting cultivation has been one of the major land use changes during the last decades. We analyzed satellite images between 1990 and 2018 from northeastern Madagascar to evaluate the contribution of nine variables (e.g., topographic,...

Mouse lemurs are small, nocturnal, arboreal solitary foragers and are endemic primates of Madagascar. This lifestyle and their high predation risk can explain why mouse lemurs rely heavily on olfaction for intraspecific communication. As they often use urine for this purpose, we investigated dichloromethane extracts of the urine of two mouse lemur...

Acoustic phenotypic variation is of major importance for speciation and the evolution of species diversity. Whereas selective and stochastic forces shaping the acoustic divergence of signaling systems are well studied in insects, frogs, and birds, knowledge on the processes driving acoustic phenotypic evolution in mammals is limited. We quantified...

Habitat loss and fragmentation drive the worldwide depletion of biodiversity. Although it is known that anthropogenic disturbances severely affect host and ecosystem integrity, effects on parasites are largely understudied. This study aims to investigate if and how habitat fragmentation affects the composition of ectoparasite communities on small m...

Olfactory communication is highly important for nocturnal mammals, especially for solitary foragers, but knowledge is still limited for nocturnal primates. Mouse lemurs (Microcebus spp.) are nocturnal solitary foragers with a dispersed lifestyle and frequently use chemo-sensory signalling behaviour for governing social interactions. Different mouse...

A new chigger mite species, Schoutedenichia microcebi n. sp. is described from the grey mouse lemur Microcebus murinus (J.F. Miller) from Madagascar. The new species is closely related to S. dutoiti (Radford, 1948), a species described from a single specimen collected on a rodent in South Africa. Examination of the holotype and new material on S. d...

The generation time of organisms drives the rate of change in populations and across evolutionary times. In long-lived species, generation time should also account for overlapping generations, and the average age of parents has been proposed as a best approximation under these conditions. This study uses this definition to estimate the generation t...

Habitat loss and fragmentation are major ecological forces threatening animal communities across the globe. These issues are especially true in Madagascar, where forest loss is ongoing. We examined the effects of forest fragmentation on the distribution and abundance of sympatric, endemic gray, and golden-brown mouse lemurs (Microcebus murinus and...