Understanding patterns of dispersal behaviour of threatened species is important in conservation biology and population ecology, especially in fragmented landscapes. Dupont’s Lark Chersophilusduponti is a threatened passerine whose European population has declined by around 40% in the last decade. To study natal and breeding dispersal of the species, we used a long-term mark-recapture dataset (2011–2019) and analysed the records of 32 males (39 dispersal movements) and five females (five dispersal movements) captured during the breeding season at Rincón de Ademuz (Valencia, eastern Spain). Adult birds had a median breeding dispersal of 154 m (Q25-Q75 = 70.0–300.3). Among these captures, two adult males dispersed to a new patch of habitat separated by more than 5,800 m. Only one out of 26 nestlings ringed was trapped as an adult bird, which occurred at a site different from the natal territory (4,500 m). Our results show a low breeding dispersal for the species and are, in essence, in agreement with previous studies carried out in the Ebro Valley metapopulation, one of the core areas for the species in Europe. Nonetheless, unlike in the Ebro Valley, we detected movements of adult birds between habitat patches. The low recovery rate of young birds suggests that they left their natal sites and moved outside the study area or that their survival rate was very low. Future studies focused on the post-fledging survival rate and natal dispersal movements are essential to determine effective conservation measures for the species. Habitat management actions in occupied and potential sites should be carried out close to the areas inhabited by the species to increase the success rate of the interventions and the effective dispersal and therefore population connectivity.

We used satellite telemetry to identify in-water habitat used by individuals in the smallest North-west Atlantic subpopulation of adult nesting loggerhead turtles Caretta caretta during the breeding season. During 2010, 2011 and 2012 breeding periods, a total of 20 adult females used habitats proximal to nesting beaches with various levels of protection within Dry Tortugas National Park. We then used a rapid, high-resolution, digital imaging system to map habitat adjacent to nesting beaches, revealing the diversity and distribution of available benthic cover. Turtle behaviour showing measurable site-fidelity to these diverse habitats has implications for managing protected areas and human activities within them. Protecting diverse benthic areas adjacent to loggerhead turtle nesting beaches here and elsewhere could provide benefits for overall biodiversity conservation.

The local population of common bottlenose dolphin in the Balearic Islands coastal waters, a mass tourism destination in the western Mediterranean subject to increasing anthropogenic pressures, was monitored over a three-year period. Photo-identification surveys provided a relatively small population estimate, even though the islands are considered to be a hotspot for the species in the Mediterranean. Dolphins showed strong site-fidelity and relatively limited mobility across the archipelago, which makes them highly dependent on waters which are severely affected by overfishing, habitat degradation and boat disturbance resulting from a continuously-growing tourism and shipping industry. Ecosystem-based management actions are urgently needed to ensure the conservation of this fragile population of bottlenose dolphins. Conservation measures should be developed within the already-existing political and legal marine biodiversity conservation framework and in collaboration with local authorities and stakeholders.

Patterns of dispersion and site fidelity were investigated in a tent-roosting population of the short-nosed fruit bat, Cynopterus sphinx (Megachiroptera), in southern India. A local population of C. sphinx occupied diurnal roosts in a variable subset of 45 stem tents constructed within the dense foliage of mast trees (Polyalthia longifolia). Individually marked tent-roosting bats were visually censused over the course of a 38-d interval spanning the postpartum oestrus period. On any given day, 33.3–85.7% (mean = 60.8%, SD = 14.2) of adult males roosted singly, with the remainder holding harems of 1–10 breeding females (mean = 3.01, SD = 0.79). Average harem sex ratio was 2.8-fold higher than the adult sex ratio of the total tent-roosting population within the study area, indicating the potential for a high variance in male mating success within a single breeding season. Bats of both sexes typically occupied one primary tent, interspersed with shorter periods of residency in alternate tents. Males exhibited a significantly higher degree of roost fidelity than females. Some females roosted sequentially with different males and with different combinations of females, whereas others remained continuously associated with a single male and/or particular female roostmates over the duration of the census period. There were no statistically significant relationships between physical characteristics of tents and rates of occupancy by males or females. Intermittent transfers by females between groups suggest that the defence of diurnal roosts by males represents a more profitable mating strategy than the direct defence of compositionally labile female groups.