During the last century, human activities have promoted large changes in habitats, leading to changes in the abundance and composition of mammal communities. Some species have been favoured intentionally (specially those with high economic importance), or unintentionally (i.e. opportunistic species), introduced (as some livestock species), or persecuted (i.e. species that affect livestock or game). In this paper, we show and explain the changes in the composition of the large mammal community in Aragon, a northeastern Spanish area where there have been extinctions (lynx, Lynx sp.); introductions (moufflon, Ovis ammon; fallow deer, Dama dama); reproductions (red deer, Cenws elaphus); and particularly natural expansions (wild boar, Sns scrofa ; roe deer, Capreolus capreolns; red deer; Pyrenean chamois, Rupicapra pyrenaica pyrenaica). Some taxa are currently almost extinct (brown bear, Ursus arctos; Pyrenean ibex, Capra pyrenaica pyrenaica) and others are recovering after getting close to extinction (wolf, Cants lupus). Three interconnected causes may explain the clear increment of ungulates in our study area : (1) the abandonment of rural activities, (2) the subsequent decrease of livestock, and (3) the increase of forest habitats. None of those species are currently below 150 % of their range in the 19 lh century. The setting up of hunting reservations and the design of a hunting legislation have also contributed to the observed changes. Traditionally, large predators have not been favoured by human activities, while compensatory protection measures carried out have been scarce or came too late. While some of these species are probably extinct in the area, the remaining occupy currently less than one fourth of their former range and need urgent conservation measures for to recover.Resume. -Au cours du siecle dernier, les activites humaines ont provoque de grands changements dans les habitats, ce qui a conduit ä des modifications de l'abondance et de la composition des communautes de mammiferes. Certaines especes ont ete favorisees intentionnellement (en particulier celles qui ont une grande importance economique), ou involontairement (especes opportunistes), introduces (certaines especes de betail), ou au contraire consideres comme nuisibles au betail ou aux animaux de chasse. Nous montrons ici les modifications dans la composition de Pensemble de la faune des grands mammiferes en Aragon, region du nord-est de PEspagne ou il y a eu des extinctions (lynx), des introductions (mouflon, daim), des reintroductions (cerf), et aussi des expansions naturelles (sanglier, chevreuil, cerf, isard). Certaines especes Mammalia, t. 64, n° 4, 2000: 411-422. Brought to you by | University of California Authenticated Download Date | 6/6/15 12:09 PM 412 MAMMALIA sont preque eteintes (ours, ibex), et d'autres se retablissent apres avoir ete proches de l'extincition (loup). Trois causes liees entre elles peuvent expliquer Faccroissement des ongules dans cette region : 1) abandon des activites rurales ; 2) la reduction du betail; 3)...

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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 in the study area were obtained from a survey for large mammals and from direct interviews with the employees of the Fish and Game Agency. We used a 10 · 10 km UTM grid as the sampling unit (n ¼ 91). The relative abundance of roe deer was estimated by counting the number of pellet groups in line transects, which were representative of the habitat availability in the 10 · 10 km UTM grid. Climatic factors were obtained from meteorological stations placed near to the plot. Landscape structure indices, topography and human activity factors were obtained from digital maps using fragstats 3.3 and idrisi 32. We discarded a number of variables with no statistical significance and avoided multicollinearity by using Spearman rank correlation. Then, we used GLMz (with a multinomial error distribution and a logit link function) to analyse the influence of each variable considered in the dispersal process. Finally, GLMz (with a binomial error distribution and a logit link function) were used a posteriori to differentiate between the effects of the explanatory factors on a particular phase of the dispersal process. ResultsOur results indicate that proximity to a previously colonized grid significantly affected the global process of roe deer colonization. Independently of the proximity of the nearest population in the previous phase of colonization, our results also indicated that the dispersal process was influenced by precipitation and landscape structure, leading the species to colonize even apparently hostile places. Original nuclei of these populations occurred in territories with high and constant precipitation, and a landscape formed by mosaics of agricultural land with a high proportion of forests. During the expansion process, roe deer colonized territories with summer droughts, dominated by large agricultural patches and with few forest patches.Main conclusions These data support the working hypothesis that environmental characteristics constrain roe deer relative abundance and dispersal process through the Iberian Mountains. The location of the original nuclei of these populations probably had environmental conditions that were more favourable for the roe deer. Areas settled in the final phases of the dispersal process had low relative abundances of roe deer, and are likely to act mainly as dispersal corridors rather than being able to sustain viable populations themselves.

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Some populations of European wild rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) in Spain have recovered after rabbit hemorrhagic disease, but others (the majority) have not recovered. The European wild rabbit is a keystone species in Spain's Mediterranean ecosystems, and several factors have been studied to determine what will stabilize populations and possibly propagate recovery. Many of the previous efforts to determine these pivotal factors have been short-term studies focused on few localities. Most management efforts and studies focused on the wellpreserved habitats of southwestern Spain. Our objective was to examine spotlight counts from 60 localities over the past 13 years following the arrival of rabbit hemorrhagic disease in Aragón, northeastern Spain, to estimate rabbit population trends using linear regressions. The number of rabbits seen was transformed into a rough kilometric abundance index. With this data, we calculated a population trend index only for those localities with 6 or more years of data (n=42). No clear population trends were observed for the study period at a regional scale [X ±SE, range]; (0.065±0.081 from −0.860 to 0.915). We also examined factors that potentially influence regional rabbit population trends, including vegetation, topography, soil softness, climate, predator population trends, and hunting pressure. Our results indicate that rabbit trends have their strongest positive correlation with low hunting pressure and are negatively affected in areas of hard soils. In Aragón, the best populations of endangered raptors are concentrated in the Central Valley, which is the same area where rabbit populations are currently increasing.