The complexity and high relevance of land and natural resources are very important to all communities throughout the world. In fact, without natural resources rural communities strive to survive. The land, trees, water and animals are all examples of natural resources that rural communities depend on …

Stichting SPOTS is a non-profit organization based in the Netherlands with a mission to save the wild felines (big cats) in Africa, especially the leopard, lion, and cheetah. The wild felines are threatened with extinction due to human reasons such as trophy hunting. The numbers of these animals have …

Camera trap technology has galvanized the study of predator-prey ecology in wild animal communities by expanding the scale and diversity of predator-prey interactions that can be analyzed. While observational data from systematic camera arrays have informed inferences on the spatiotemporal outcomes of …

Compassionate conservation is based on the ethical position that actions taken to protect biodiversity should be guided by compassion for all sentient beings. Critics argue that there are 3 core reasons harming animals is acceptable in conservation programs: the primary purpose of conservation is biodiversity …

The concept of green biorefinery is based on the processing of green biomass into range of innovative products. The basic idea is to use the green biomass in the most optimal way to produce energy and marketable products. Grass silage has versatile properties as raw material for green biorefinery with …

Animal welfare is a multidimensional phenomenon and currently its on-farm assessment requires complex, multidimensional frameworks involving farm audits which are time-consuming, infrequent and expensive. The core principle of precision agriculture is to use sensor technologies to improve the efficiency …

Decomposition is an ecosystem process, mainly important in the carbon and nitrogen cycles. When looking at what drives decomposition, there are three major drivers. These are plant litter quality, microbes and soil animals (detritivores). A large problem in understanding the decomposition process is …

The space between the noseband and the skin of competition horses is a current welfare issue. The practices regarding the noseband tightness of Dutch horses was studied, as well as the intentions of Dutch equestrians when fastening the noseband. More than half (59%) of Dutch riders had their horses’ …

This article aims to supplement the three “golden rules” of rewilding – or three Cs – the Cores, Carnivores, and Corridors – by a fourth C – Compassion, in discussing the case of Oostvaardeplassen in The Netherlands. The cores refer to large, strictly protected ecologically intact areas, carnivores refer …

1. Diets that maximise life span often differ from diets that maximise reproduction. Animals have therefore evolved advanced foraging strategies to acquire optimal nutrition and maximise their fitness. The free-living adult females of parasitoid wasps (Hymenoptera) need to balance their search for hosts …