Evolutionary relationships among hares from North Africa (Lepus sp. or Lepus spp.), cape hares (L. capensis) from South Africa, and brown hares (L. europaeus), as inferred from mtDNA PCR-RFLP and allozyme data

Systematics and taxonomy of hares of the genus Lepus (Lagomorpha) are under contentious debate, and phylogenetic relationships among many taxa are not well understood. Here we study genetic differentiation and evolutionary relationships among North African hares, currently considered subspecies of Lepus capensis , cape hares ( L. capensis ) from the Cape province in South Africa, and brown hares ( L. europeaus ) from Europe and Anatolia, using maternally (mtDNA) and biparentally (allozymes) inherited markers. A polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) analysis of a c. 1.8 kb long segment of the mitochondrial control region using eight hexanucleotide-recognizing restriction endonucleases yielded 28 haplotypes, and horizontal starch gel electrophoresis of proteins encoded by 25 structural gene loci revealed 52 alleles at 18 polymorphic loci. Diverse phylogenetic analyses (neighbor joining dendrogram, median joining network, multidimensional scaling of pairwise distances, AMOVA, F -statistics, hierarchical F -statistics) of genetic variants revealed marked substructuring of mtDNA into three phylogeographic groups, namely an African, a central European, and an Anatolian, but a somewhat less pronounced overall differentiation of the nuclear genome, despite a relatively high number of population-specific (private) alleles. However, all our results are not incongruent with Petter's (1959: Mammalia 23 , 41; 1961: Z. f. Säugetierkunde 26 , 30; 1972 : Société Des Sciences Naturelles et Physiques du Maroc 52 , 122) hypothesis that North African hares generally belong to L. capensis and that brown hares should be included in this species as well.     

Vocal Coordination of Group Movement by Green Woodhoopoes (Phoeniculus purpureus)

Communication signals are used by many species to maintain group cohesion when moving over larger areas. Groups of green woodhoopoes (Phoeniculus purpureus) generally move around their territory as a close‐knit unit. Dominant individuals were more likely than subordinates to initiate movement to a new foraging site, but there was no intersexual difference. Dominants were also more likely than subordinates to be followed immediately. Vocalizations were shown to play an important role in mobilization: in the thick forests inhabited by woodhoopoes, visual cues to coordinate movement are likely to be less successful. When responding to the rallying call of a neighboring group, dominants and subordinates were equally likely to lead, as were males and females. As other group members followed immediately on most of these occasions, vocalizations were less important in this context than when moving to a new foraging site.