Unlike many countries in Africa, there is a long tradition of spotted hyenas and people living side by side in peace in Tigray, Ethiopia. While historically the co-existence has been remarkably peaceful, the recent war in Tigray threatens this co-existence. We investigated the effects of war on the scavenging and hunting behavior of spotted hyenas, and the consequences for local people in Tigray. We compared current spotted hyena foraging in sites where heavy fighting took place (n=6 battle sites) to sites where no fighting took place (n=6 control sites) across Tigray using diet analysis. We furthermore measured the abundance of spotted hyenas using playback experiments and conducted semi structured interviews in 1200 households at battle and control sites to assess human-wildlife interactions. Regarding foraging, we found that the spotted hyena scats contained primarily domestic livestock at both the battle and control sites. Human hair was prevalent in hyena scats from battle sites but was absent in scats collected from the control sites. In general, the number of spotted hyenas responding to call-ins was significantly higher at battle than at the control sites. There were several lines of evidence that human-wildlife interactions were more negative. There were more reports of livestock predation in battle than in control sites. Livestock predation was higher overall during the war. Spotted hyena is the largest being responsible for the increase in battle and war, likely scavenging on human remains. We conclude that changes in hyena feeding behavior during the war and siege period can be linked to changes in the availability of scavengable food sources. These results yield insight not only into the consequences of war for the people of Tigray, but also into how the many armed conflicts in regions with large scavenger/carnivore populations may have long-lasting impacts on human-wildlife conflict around the globe.

Selective logging of tropical forests substantially alters the composition and spatial arrangement of plant communities. Previous studies examining logged-forest tree assemblages have focused primarily on adult communities, leaving major knowledge gaps regarding the diversity patterns of earlier life stages. A key question is to elucidate the temporal dynamics of community assembly in human-modified forests. Sampling 8,664 sapling, juvenile, and adult trees from a heavily logged forest in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, we tested whether compositional variation and the relative importance of different environmental and spatial factors explaining patterns of ß-diversity differed between life stages, and whether dissimilarity was driven by species turnover or nestedness. We found positive ß-deviations in all communities, consistent with a strong influence of assembly processes that result in aggregated spatial distributions of individual species. Across life stages, ß-diversity was largely explained by spatial distance, rather than measures of environmental heterogeneity. Dissimilarity was driven by species turnover not nestedness, with compositional variation in early life stages strongly correlated with turnover in adult communities. Collectively, our findings indicate that despite increased spatial heterogeneity in forest structure, liana infestation, and canopy openness post-logging, these factors do not sufficiently explain fine-scale patterns of tree composition. Alternatively, diversity patterns of earlier life stages more closely reflect potential assembly processes related to aggregated adult distributions and associated dispersal limitations resulting from spatial variation in logging activity.

The parasitic weed genus Striga causes huge losses to crop production in sub-Saharan Africa, estimated to be in excess of $7 billion per year, affecting subsistence farmers who frequently lack access to novel technologies proposed for control. Effective Striga management therefore requires the development of strategies utilising existing cultural and management practices. We report a multi-year, landscape-scale monitoring project for Striga asiatica in the mid-west of Madagascar, undertaken over 2019-2020 with the aims of examining cultural, climatic and edaphic factors currently driving abundance and distribution. Long-distance transects were established across the middle-west region of Madagascar, over which Striga asiatica abundance in fields was estimated. Analysis of the data highlights the importance of crop variety and legumes in driving Striga density. Moreover, the dataset revealed significant effect of precipitation seasonality, mean temperature and altitude in determining abundance. A composite management index indicated the effect of a range of cultural practices on changes in Striga abundance. The findings support the assertion that single measures are not sufficient for the effective, long-term management of Striga. Furthermore, the composite score has potential as a significant guide of ISM control beyond the geographic range of this study.