Central American squirrel monkeys Saimiri oerstedii are limited to Costa Rica and Panama, and have never been abundant. The Costa Rican population is now decimated. Based on our survey of squirrel monkeys throughout a large portion of the Costa Rican range of this species in 1996, we can confirm that at least 1246 squirrel monkeys remain in 26 spatially dispersed localities. Despite probable undercounts of squirrel monkeys within sites and potentially missed localities, the total population size should be considered far below a size that would provide long‐term genetic viability. Deforestation and habitat fragmentation spurred by agricultural and tourism development are the familiar culprits contributing to this decline. Our strong recommendation is that future conservation efforts be targeted at the level of each specific locality, perhaps recruiting local, national and international sponsors. A focused strategy would allow management efforts to be tailored to the circumstances specific to each site and thus allocate scarce resources more efficiently.

North American porcupines are distributed across a wide variety of habitats where they consume many different species of plants. Winter is a nutritional bottleneck for northern populations, because porcupines remain active when environmental demands are high and food quality is low. We used captive porcupines to examine physiological responses to low-quality diets at high energy demands during winter at ambient temperatures as low as -39 degrees C. We did not observe an endogenous pattern of body mass gain or loss when porcupines were fed a low nitrogen diet (1.1% dry matter) ad libitum through winter. Dry matter intake declined from 43.6 to 14.6 g kg(-0.75) d(-1) even though ambient temperatures declined from -3 to -30 degrees C, which indicates a seasonal decrease in metabolic rate. Porcupines consuming white spruce needles maintained digestive efficiency for energy (61%) and neutral detergent fiber (NDF) (50%). However, low requirements for energy (398 kJ kg(-0.75) d(-1)) and nitrogen (209 mg kg(-0.75) d(-1)) minimized the loss of body mass when intakes were low and plant toxins increased urinary losses of energy and nitrogen. Porcupines were also able to tolerate low intakes of sodium, even when dietary potassium loads were high. Porcupines use a flexible strategy to survive winter: low requirements are combined with a high tolerance for dietary imbalances that minimize the use of body stores when demands exceed supply. However, body stores are rapidly restored when conditions allow. Porcupines posses many physiological abilities similar to specialist herbivores, but retain the ability of a generalist to survive extreme conditions by using a variety of foods.

No abstract

During the summer of 2008, 6 documented attacks and close encounters with brown bears (Ursus arctos) occurred in the greater Anchorage, Alaska (USA) area. We discuss findings from 2 incidents in which people were mauled within 2 km of each other over a 6-week period and in which it was assumed that a single animal was responsible. To ensure public safety, authorities killed a brown bear implicated in the attacks by circumstantial evidence, though it was not known a priori that the animal was responsible. We extracted DNA from hairs and bite sites on the clothing of both victims and determined species and individual identity of the animal(s) involved in both incidents. Genetic data indicated the brown bear killed by authorities was responsible for one of the maulings, but not both. This research demonstrates that DNAbased techniques, with appropriate sampling, can provide unambiguous identification of animals involved in attacks, as well as provide reasonable justification for excluding others. Because DNA-based techniques can unequivocally identify individual bears carrying out attacks, they should be considered a standard method employed in wildlife attack investigations. Ó