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Several studies have shown in different organisms how their movements can be fitted to different patterns to optimize search of food resources. According to abundance and availability of resources, different strategies will be optimal, such as Lévy and Brownian random search. We analyze the movement patterns of four species of migratory raptors with different degrees of ecological specialization in diet during the breeding and wintering periods to evaluate the differences according to species and season: the Egyptian Vulture, the Short-toed Snake Eagle, the Booted Eagle, and the Red Kite. From GPS locations, we obtained a set of segments and lengths that were analyzed to verify their fitting to the functions of Lévy and Brownian strategies. Egyptian Vulture's trajectories fitted to both patterns during the breeding period, whereas during the wintering period most trajectories fitted a Brownian pattern. In the case of the Short-toed Eagle, fit was greater to a Lévy strategy throughout the year, while Booted Eagles and Red Kites exhibited a combination of search patterns. These differences could be accounted for different feeding strategies and environmental context over the annual cycle. In species with a specialized diet (i.e., Short-toed Eagle) the Lévy pattern would maximize the encounters with scarce and unpredictable resources, whereas for species with a broad trophic niche (i.e., Booted Eagle and Red Kite), movements could be adapted to exploit different resources according to their abundance. Scavengers like the Egyptian Vulture shift also between search strategies according to the distribution of carrion. Therefore, the analysis of food search patterns can be used as an indirect indicator to track changes in food availability across a broad range of environmental conditions. This is particularly important under the current context of global change which is largely expected to affect migratory species that spend their vital cycle in distant areas. ; Tracking of Booted Eagles and Red Kites has been made within the "Migra" program (www.migraciondeaves.org/en/) developed by SEO/BirdLife and financed by Fundación Iberdrola España. The Basque Government and the Biodiversity Foundation financed the tagging of several Red Kites in Spain. Tracking of Italian individuals was funded by Gallipoli Cognato Piccole Dolomiti Lucane Regional Park (Italy). Servicio de Vida Silvestre (Generalitat Valenciana) and different local governments funded part of the tagging. JV-M was supported by a FPU grant of Spanish Ministry of Education (reference FPU014/04671).

This article belongs to the Special Issue Deciphering the Crosswalk Dimension of Antibiotic Resistance between Different Reservoirs. ; The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence and diversity of coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) species from wild birds in Spain, as well as to analyze the antimicrobial resistance phenotype/genotype and the virulence gene content. During 2015–2016, tracheal samples of 242 wild birds were collected in different regions of Spain for staphylococci recovery. The species identification was performed using MALDI-TOF. The antimicrobial resistance phenotype and genotype was investigated by the disk diffusion method and by PCR, respectively. The presence of the virulence genes lukF/S-PV, tst, eta, etb, etd and scn was investigated by PCR. Moreover, CoNS carrying the mecA gene were subjected to SCCmec typing. Of the tested animals, 60% were CoNS-carriers, and 173 CoNS isolates were recovered from the 146 positive animals, which belonged to 11 species, with predominance of S. sciuri (n = 118) and S. lentus (n = 25). A total of 34% of CoNS isolates showed a multidrug resistance phenotype, and 42 mecA-positive methicillin-resistant CoNS (MRCoNS) were detected. The isolates showed resistance to the following antimicrobials (percentage of resistant isolates/antimicrobial resistance genes detected): penicillin (49/ blaZ, mecA), cefoxitin (24/ mecA), erythromycin and/or clindamycin (92/ erm(B), erm(C), erm(43), msr(A), mph(C), lnu(A), lsa(B), vga(A) and sal(A)), gentamicin and/or tobramycin (5/ aac(6′)-Ie-aph(2″)-Ia, ant(4′)-Ia), streptomycin (12/str), tetracycline (17/ tet(K), tet(L), tet(M)), ciprofloxacin (4), chloramphenicol (1/ fexA), fusidic acid (86/ fusB, fusD) and trimethoprim–sulfamethoxazole (1/ dfrK). None of the isolates harbored the lukF/S-PV, eta, etb, etd and scn genes, but two S. sciuri isolates (1%) carried the tst gene. Wild birds are frequently colonized by CoNS species, especially S. sciuri. We identified scavenging on intensively produced livestock and feeding on landfills as risk factors for CoNS carriage. High proportions of MRCoNS and multidrug resistant CoNS were detected, which coupled with the presence of important virulence genes is of concern. ; This work was partially supported by project SAF2016-76571-R from the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) of Spain and the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) of EU, project RTA2015-00088-C03-02 from the National Institute for Agricultural Research and Technology INIA) and Sierra de Guadarrama National Park in the monitoring of the black vulture colony Alto Lozoya. Laura Ruiz-Ripa has a pre-doctoral fellowship from the Universidad de La Rioja. Rosa Fernández-Fernández has a predoctoral fellowship FPU from the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades of Spain (FPU18/05438). Maria Cruz Camacho was supported by a predoctoral fellowship from the regional government of Castilla – La Mancha (JCCM). ; Peer reviewed

Disentangling individual- and population-level variation in migratory movements is necessary for understanding migration at the species level. However, very few studies have analyzed these patterns across large portions of species' distributions. We compiled a large telemetry dataset on the globally endangered Egyptian Vulture Neophron percnopterus (94 individuals, 188 completed migratory journeys), tracked across ~70% of the species' global range, to analyze spatial and temporal variability of migratory movements within and among individuals and populations. We found high migratory connectivity at large spatial scales (i.e., different subpopulations showed little overlap in wintering areas), but very diffuse migratory connectivity within subpopulations, with wintering ranges up to 4,000 km apart for birds breeding in the same region and each subpopulation visiting up to 28 countries (44 in total). Additionally, Egyptian Vultures exhibited a high level of variability at the subpopulation level and flexibility at the individual level in basic migration parameters. Subpopulations differed significantly in travel distance and straightness of migratory movements, while differences in migration speed and duration differed as much between seasons and among individuals within subpopulations as between subpopulations. The total distances of the migrations completed by individuals from the Balkans and Caucasus were up to twice as long and less direct than those in Western Europe, and consequently were longer in duration, despite faster migration speeds. These differences appear to be largely attributable to more numerous and wider geographic barriers (water bodies) along the eastern flyway. We also found that adult spring migrations to Western Europe and the Balkans were longer and slower than fall migrations. We encourage further research to assess the underlying mechanisms for these differences and the extent to which environmental change could affect Egyptian Vulture movement ecology and population trends. ; Balkans and Caucasus data: This work was financially supported by the LIFE+ projects LIFE10 NAT/BG/000152 and LIFE 16 NAT/BG/000874 funded by the European Union and co-funded by the AG Leventis Foundation and MAVA, the US National Science Foundation, the Christensen Fund, National Geographic Society, the Whitley Fund for Nature, Faruk Yalçin Zoo and Kuzey Doga's donors (in particular Bilge Bahar, Devrim Celal, Seha Işmen, Lin Lougheed, Burak Över, and Batubay Özkan). We are grateful to Turkey's Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs General Directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks and NorthStar Science and Technology for donating three transmitters each. State Nature Reserve Dagestanskiy and Russian Raptor Research and Conservation Network supported work in Dagestan. Western Europe data: deployments of transmitters in Portugal were funded by the EU-funded LIFE Rupis project (LIFE14 NAT/PT/00855); SALORO S.L.U. funded the deployment of transmitters in the Duero region of Spain; DREAL Nouvelle-Aquitaine—Fondation d'entreprises Barjane funded deployments in France; JE was supported by Basque government predoctoral grant (grant number: 569382696); GREFA (Grupo para la Rehabilitación de la Fauna Autóctona y su habitat)-Endangered Species Monitoring Project together with Poison Sentinels Project of WWF/Spain. The Migra Program of SEO/BirdLife (www.migraciondeaves.org/en/) deployed transmitters in collaboration with Fundación Iberdrola España, and were funded by La Rioja Regional Government in La Rioja, and Fundación Hazi and Diputación Foral de Gipuzkoa within the Interreg POCTEFA-ECOGYP project in Gipuzkoa.