The continuity of traditional extensive livestock farming is being challenged by rapid socioeconomic and environmental changes, threatening livelihoods and ecosystem services critical to food security and sustainability. We conducted a large-scale assessment involving 255 livestock farmers across six extensive livestock farming systems in Spain to understand their perceptions of vulnerabilities. Using the Coupled Infrastructur...

Aim Despite the increasing scientific evidence on the importance of carrion in the ecology and evolution of many vertebrates, scavenging is still barely considered in diet studies. Here, we draw attention to how scientific literature has underestimated the role of vertebrates as scavengers, identifying the ecological traits that characterize those species whose role as scavengers could have gone especially unnoticed. Location...

In recent decades, intensive techniques of livestock raising have flourished, which has largely replaced traditional farming practices such as transhumance. These changes may have affected scavengers’ behaviour and ecology, as extensive livestock is a key source of carrion. This study evaluates the spatial responses of avian scavengers to the seasonal movements of transhumant herds in south-eastern Spain. We surveyed the abund...

Species assemblages often have a non‐random nested organization, which in vertebrate scavenger (carrion‐consuming) assemblages is thought to be driven by facilitation in competitive environments. However, not all scavenger species play the same role in maintaining assemblage structure, as some species are obligate scavengers (i.e., vultures) and others are facultative, scavenging opportunistically. We used a database with 177...

Understanding the distribution of biodiversity across the Earth is one of the most challenging questions in biology. Much research has been directed at explaining the species latitudinal pattern showing that communities are richer in tropical areas; however, despite decades of research, a general consensus has not yet emerged. In addition, global biodiversity patterns are being rapidly altered by human activities. Here, we aim...