Two opposite spatial dynamics of red deer ( Cervus elaphus L.) occur in Mediterranean landscapes at the end of the summer: a higher segregation of animals during periods of food scarcity versus the aggregation of individuals of both sexes for reproductive purposes. Nevertheless, red deer spatial dynamics and activity patterns may differ in fenced areas, where high deer numbers are reached artificially through intensive managem...

Prey species develop anti-predatory strategies as a response to minimising the risk of being predated. However, how the European rabbit ( Oryctolagus cuniculus ) adapts to different predator pressure is not fully known. Here, we studied the adaptive anti-predatory responses of European rabbits exposed to different terrestrial predation pressure. To do this, we took advantage of a rabbit translocation programme in the Sierra No...

Restricted seed dispersal frequently leads to fine‐scale spatial genetic structure (i.e., FSGS) within plant populations. Depending on its spatial extent and the mobility of pollinators, this inflated kinship at the immediate neighbourhood can critically impoverish pollen quality. Despite the common occurrence of positive FSGS within plant populations, our knowledge regarding the role of long‐distance pollination preventing re...

The persistence of mutualisms despite the strong incidence of exploiters could be explained if exploiters deny one or more services (i.e., cheat) while eventually supplying some subtler but critical services. Pulp feeders usually ingest fruit reward without dispersing seeds and thus are considered to be mainly cheaters or thieves of seed‐disperser mutualisms. By consuming the fruit pulp, however, they could release seeds from...

The role of Southern European peninsulas as glacial refugia for temperate species has been widely established, but phylogeographic patterns within refugia are being only recently addressed. Here we describe the phylogeographic patterns for Southern water vole ( Arvicola sapidus ) in its whole distribution across Iberia and France. Control region and cytochrome b sequences were obtained for 228 samples from 130 localities acros...

The role of the Y chromosome in speciation is unclear. Hybrid zones provide natural arenas for studying speciation, as differential introgression of markers may reveal selection acting against incompatibilities. Two subspecies of the European rabbit ( Oryctolagus cuniculus ) form a hybrid zone in the Iberian Peninsula. Previous work on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), Y‐ and X‐linked loci revealed the existence of two divergent line...

Aim This paper describes the dispersal process of roe deer ( Capreolus capreolus Linnaeus, 1758) with respect to climatic factors, landscape characteristics and human activity. We hypothesized that environmental characteristics constrain the relative abundance and dispersal process of roe deer. Location The study was conducted in the Iberian Mountains, north‐eastern Spain, during 1986–2000. Methods Roe deer colonization dates...

Applied conservation biology must provide solutions for the conservation of species in modern landscapes, where prime habitats are being continuously fragmented and altered and animals are restricted to small, nonviable populations. We studied habitat selection in a fragmented population of endangered Iberian lynx ( Lynx pardinus ) by examining 14 years of radiotracking data obtained from lynx trapped in two different source a...