News

WildCRU Otter article covers Journal of Zoology July issue

The cover of this month’s issue of Journal of Zoology (July 2015) displays a photo of a young giant otter. And the first article featured is one entitled ‘Effects of territory size on the reproductive success and social system of the giant otter, south-eastern Peru’ (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jzo.12231/abstract). We are proud to announce this publication, whose co-authors include three WildCRU members (Jessica Groenendijk, Dr Paul Johnson, and Professor David Macdonald), and which represents the culmination of years of fieldwork and collaboration. It presents data from a long-term study of the giant otter population of Manu National Park, linking territory size variability to the composition of resident giant otter groups and their reproductive success, and concludes that giant otter societies are likely shaped by the spatial dispersion of lakes, and food abundance and dispersion within these rich patches.