Satellite telemetry is an increasingly utilized technology in wildlife research, and current devices can track individual animal movements at unprecedented spatial and temporal resolutions. However, as we enter the golden age of satellite telemetry, we need an in-depth understanding of the main technological, species-specific and environmental factors that determine the success and failure of satellite tracking devices across species and habitats. Here, we assess the relative influence of such factors on the ability of satellite telemetry units to provide the expected amount and quality of data by analyzing data from over 3,000 devices deployed on 62 terrestrial species in 167 projects worldwide. We evaluate the success rate in obtaining GPS fixes as well as in transferring these fixes to the user and we evaluate failure rates. Average fix success and data transfer rates were high and were generally better predicted by species and unit characteristics, while environmental characteristics influenced the variability of performance. However, 48% of the unit deployments ended prematurely, half of them due to technical failure. Nonetheless, this study shows that the performance of satellite telemetry applications has shown improvements over time, and based on our findings, we provide further recommendations for both users and manufacturers.

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Wild boar are currently one of the most widespread mammals of the world and in many regions populations keep expanding. In Flanders (Belgium), the wild boar has returned since 2006 after almost half a century of absence and numbers are increasing fast. he Flemish landscape is severely fragmented and is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Understanding the relationship between landscape structures and species biology is the basis of landscape ecology and increases the understanding of factors driving habitat use, recolonisation and expansion. We conducted a landscape genetics study to identify factors driving wild boar expansion in Flanders. A total of 838 DNA-samples collected from the wild boar hunting bag between 2007 and 2016 were genotyped for 140 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). We show that the wild boar population expansion started from two local gene pools while staying relatively genetically distinct, though with some admixture. A third gene pool emerged around 2013 in the northwest coming from the Netherlands and Germany. he landscape genetic analysis revealed that the main factors explaining the spatial genetic pattern are isolation by distance and forest cover which inluenced gene low positively. Forest fragmentation had no signiicant efect on genetic distances. As human-wildlife conlicts are increasing in line with wild boars' expanding distribution range, understanding factors driving expansion during recolonisation is essential for assessing the future dispersal of wild boar in Flanders. With a better insight in future dispersal, it will be possible to conduct risk assessments which target more eicient management actions to limit human-wildlife conlicts.

a b s t r a c tIn this paper we will focus on how governance issues are being dealt with in the BElgium Ecosystem Services (BEES) Community of Practice and on some Belgian Ecosystem Services (ES) research projects aimed at policy or practice support. As ES governance is still mainly an aspect of policy or practice oriented research, we will specifically focus on method and methodological decision making. The system or systems we aim to govern are complex. But also the governance processes are inherently complex. How do we take this complexity into account in decision support? Do we acknowledge complexity in our approach or do we drastically simplify and reduce it to relatively simple proportions? The methodological approach of decision support methods is open for debate as neither crystal clear nor undisputed yardsticks for best practices exist. On an ambition level, BEES members generally seem to prefer transdisciplinary as well as inclusive valuation approaches, though not exclusively in all circumstances. In Belgium research projects, similar to the developments within BEES, from a research practice dominated by scientists, gradually research processes are opening up to transdisciplinary collaboration. Simultaneously these processes gradually shift from mainly top down approaches to bottom up approaches or hybrid combinations of both entry points. A closer and more nuanced view shows that real transdisciplinary collaboration in Belgian ES research still is only at the beginning. Partly this can be explained by the fact that inter-and transdisciplinary approaches are perhaps more realistic, but also have to deal with more social complexity. New balances have to be found between sophistication and pragmatics. Also the role of science can become more ambiguous: the closer to stakeholders, the more an independent role can be questioned. Regarding ES valuation methods, in general a trend towards more inclusive valuation is clearly noticeable in Belgian ES research, inclusive in the sense of a diversity of ES valuation aspects to be taken into account, diverse types of expression of value(s), a combination of quantifiable and qualitative information, and a diversity of valuators by way of more bottom-up approaches. Still, there are quite some differences between projects and challenges for integration.

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