• Korean Journal of Ichthyology
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.303-309
• /
• 2014

Feeding ecology of Collichthys lucidus was determined by analysis of stomach contents of 926 specimens ranged from 3.5 to 18.5 cm in the Han River estuary. This fish actively fed on benthic crustaceans, mainly decapods, Palaemon carinicauda and Acetes chinensis, and they can be defined as the benthivorous predator. The percentage of empty stomachs was 23.8%. The vacuity index (VI) did not vary with the size classes, but showed significant monthly variations. Monthly variation of feeding activity appears to be related to the reproduction cycle of the fish, and to the temporal abundance of the prey organisms. Collichthys lucidus in Han River estuary fed on a wide array of prey items and could be considered as a non-selective predator.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
• /
• v.34 no.1
• /
• pp.9-17
• /
• 2020

Domestic cats (Felis catus) introduced to insular environments can be invasive predators that often threaten endemic species and cause biodiversity loss or local extinction on the island. This study was conducted from March to July 2018 to understand the population size, home range, and spatial use of cats introduced to Mara Islet (N 33° 07', E 126° 16') in Jeju Special Governing Province, the Republic of Korea. Observation records based on their natural marks revealed that there were 20 adult cats on Mara Islet. A capture-recapture method also estimated 20 adult individuals (95% confidence interval: 20-24 individuals). According to our telemetry study on ten adults deployed with GPS-based telemetry units, the home range size was 12.05±6.99 ha (95% KDE: kernel density estimation), and the core habitat size was 1.60±0.77 ha (50% KDE). There were no significant differences in the home range and core habitat sizes by sex. The home range of domestic cats overlapped with the human residential area, where they might secure easy foods. Five of ten tracked cats were active at potential breeding colonies for the Crested Murrlet (Synthliboramphus wumizusume), and six approached potential breeding areas of the Styan's Grasshopper Warbler (Locustella pleskei), suggesting the predation risk of the two endangered species by cats. This study provides novel information on the population size and home range of introduced cats on Mara Islet which is an important stopover site of migratory birds as well as a breeding habitat of the two endangered avian species. Reducing the potential negative impacts of the introduced cats on migratory birds and the endangered species on Mara Islet requires monitoring of the predation rate of birds by cats, the population trends of cats and endangered breeding birds as well as the effective cat population control and management.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
• /
• v.37 no.1
• /
• pp.70-75
• /
• 2023

This study was conducted from October 2021 to October 2022 at Gulup island, Incheon, South Korea, to identify activity patterns of Formosan sika deer (Cervus nippon taiouanus) introduced in island areas, using camera trapping. We described the daily activity patterns of Formosan sika deer in each season by analyzing kernel density estimates of capture frequency and checked seasonal differences in daily activity patterns by analyzing the overlap coefficient between seasons. Formosan sika deers introduced to Gulup island showed a crepuscular behavior pattern only in winter and no distinct pattern from spring to fall. The crepuscular behavior pattern is typical for deers to reduce the risk of predation, and it is determined that Formosan sika deers introduced to Gulup island were affected by population control of the species by the local government in the winter. It was in contrast to the fact that human activities, such as backpacking, frequently carried out from spring to fall, did not affect the behavior of Formosan sika deers. Moreover, low winter temperatures have been shown to affect the nocturnal activities of Formosan sika deers in winter. The behavior patterns of Formosan sika deers overlapped least between summer and winter due to cold winter weather and population control. The relationship between the temporal status of Formosan sika deers and seasonal temperature confirmed in this study can be important basic ecological data for establishing control measures of Formosan sika deers introduced not only in islands but also in inland.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
• /
• v.58 no.3
• /
• pp.233-238
• /
• 2019

For greenhouse crops, thrips is one of the major insect pests, but its control is difficult owing to short generation time, rapid escaping behavior, and development of pesticide resistance. Stratiolaelaps scimitus (Womersley) is a soil-dwelling predatory mite attacking various soil invertebrate species, including thrips. Using the method by growers' self-production, we mass-reared S. scimitus colony and investigated thrips control in the greenhouse chrysanthemum. The initial density of thrips was six individuals/flower. The treatment with one S. scimitus box in the greenhouse was estimated to be $1,000individuals/m^2$. From August to September 2018, the greenhouse was released with a total of 10 boxes of S. scimitus. The density of thrips in the untreated and the treated cultivar was $53.7{\pm}7.0$ and $13.5{\pm}1.7$ on the late September, respectively, which indicated a reduction of 74.9% in the treated cultivar. Our results suggest that S. scimitus was highly effective for the control of thrips in the greenhouse chrysanthemum although temperature is very high during the summer season.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
• /
• v.21 no.1
• /
• pp.79-83
• /
• 2005

Foraging behaviour of false dace, Pseudorasbora parva, was investigated in water flowing at various velocities with the existence of a cavity for rest. The pursuit comprised three succeeding processes such as, approaching, chasing and attacking. Angles between the fish body and the water flow direction and swimming speeds increased in the latter stages of approaching, chasing and attacking. All pursuit angles, swimming speeds and distances increased with flow velocity and peaked at the flow velocity of 7 cm/sec. At higher velocities, however, the fish avoided the use of much energy against the large drag force. The probability of capture and the feeding rate steadily decreased with increasing flow velocity. Under the fast flow, the fish adjusted their swimming speed to get the optimum velocity relative to the flowing water for the energetic budget. Fish spent more time in the cavity as flow velocity increased to avoid the energy expenditure necessitated by the high velocity.

• Korean Journal of Ichthyology
• /
• v.17 no.3
• /
• pp.187-194
• /
• 2005

Feeding of the maiden goby, Pterogobius virgo and multicolorfin rainbowfish, Halichoeres poecilopterus, was studied at Kurahashi Island in the Seto Inland Sea, Japan. P. virgo foraged on only benthic invertebrates in a pit on the bottom by spot-fixed fin digging. Territory size of P. virgo was very small, because they only defended the excavated pit. H. poecilopterus frequently intruded into the feeding territory of P. virgo and fed on benthic invertebrates flushed out by the fin digging of P. virgo. Feeding activity and vigilance time of P. virgo tended to decrease significantly more in such an association than when solitary. Frequency of aggression of P. virgo when H.poecilopterus intruded into the territory was higher the intruder came from the front of the territory than when the invasion was from the side and back, regardless of the size of the intruder. In small H.poecilopterus, feeding success rate was greater from the side and back of the territory than from the front. However, similar-sized H.poecilopterus were more successful in feeding from the front and side. Feeding association provides an antipredatory benefit to P. virgo because of less alert time against predators and earlier detection of predators, although their cost is great because of territory defense and decrease of feeding activity.

• Journal of KIISE:Software and Applications
• /
• v.32 no.4
• /
• pp.277-289
• /
• 2005

To overcome the long design time/high computational effort/low computational performance of phylogenetic learning featuring selection and reproduction, this paper proposes a genetic representation based on XML. Since genetic programs (GP) and genetic operations of this representation are maintained by the invocation of the built-in off-the-shelf XML parser's API, the proposed approach features significant reduced time consumption of GP design process. Handling only semantically correct GPs with standard XML schema can reduce search space and computational effort. Furthermore, computational performance can be improved by the parallelism of GP caused by the utilization of XML, which is a feasible system and wire format for migration of genetic programs in heterogeneous distributed computer environments. To verify the proposed approach, it is applied to the evolution of social behaviors of multiple agents modeling the predator-prey pursuit problem. The results show that the approach can be applied for fast development and time efficiency of GPs.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
• /
• v.32 no.3
• /
• pp.256-260
• /
• 2018

Cannibalism is a widely observed phenomenon in the animal kingdom. However, it is rarely found among birds outside nests in the wild because it occurs irregularly and it is almost impossible to monitor animal behavior constantly. On 17 January 2017, this behavior was directly observed from a group of vultures feeding on a conspecific in a paddy field near Lake Geumho in Haenam-gun ($34^{\circ}35^{\prime}58.25^{{\prime}{\prime}}N$, $126^{\circ}26^{\prime}57.64^{{\prime}{\prime}}E$). It was observed and recorded with the binoculars and a camera with a telephoto lens in a car approximately 20 m (or 60 m) away from the site. The observer approached the feeding site after the last vulture had finished feeding and flown away and found remains of a vulture, including body feathers, skull, sterna keel, and both legs. It was the first report of cannibalism in Cinereous vulture Aegypius monachus in its overwintering grounds. The remaining skeleton was very fleshy, and the surrounding grass was wet with the blood of vulture. No other traces of a mammal or bird that could have been the vultures' prey were found. This report provides a detailed account of the events related to this rare observation and the causes that might have led to it.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
• /
• v.56 no.4
• /
• pp.375-383
• /
• 2023

To determine the cause of the population decline in Gobiobotia naktongensis, substrate preference and burying behaviour were investigated in this study. In general, the species was shown to prefer a substrate size of 1 mm or less, depending on the flow. In addition, the burying depth varied according to the size of the fish and increased with a decrease in water temperature. Our findings showed that the main cause of the population reduction was the physical changes in the substrate structure due to the dams or barrages construction. Notably, the accumulation of silt and mud in the substrate upon the formation of an upstream lentic water region for structural construction and bed armouring caused by scouring and reduced downstream inflow of fine sediment were deterministic in the fish habitat changes, causing problems in burying. As sand substrate structure is critical for the survival and inhabitation of psammophilous species, efficient strategies should be developed with proper habitat management to reduce the anthropogenic damage

• Korean Journal of Ichthyology
• /
• v.32 no.2
• /
• pp.39-48
• /
• 2020

The slender shinner (Pseudopungtungia tenuicorpa), a tiny freshwater fish of about 8 to 10 cm belonging to Cyprinidae, is an endangered species found only in the Han and Imjin Rivers on the Korean Peninsula. During the breeding season, this species spawns in nests of Coreoperca herzi, a predator of this species, or small crevices on rocks. This unique reproductive ecology can make this species more vulnerable to anthropogenic perturbance that can further limit the places to spawn. Here, mtDNA and microsatellite loci were analyzed to identify the genetic diversity and structure of slender shinners and further to provide the basic data necessary for the conservation planning of this species. A total of 28 polymorphic microsatellite markers were developed using Illumina paired-end sequencing, and 67 slender shinners collected from three localities in the Han River were genotyped using these loci. This species showed a remarkably high level of genetic diversity with mean expected heterozygosity of 0.914 and mean allele number per locus of 27.9, and no signature of drastic demographic decline was detected. As a result of our microsatellite analysis, the genetic structure between the two stems of the Han River, North Han and South Han, was prominent. Such a genetic structure was also evident in the sequence analysis of 14 haplotypes obtained from mtDNA control region. Although slender shinners are only found in very limited areas around the world, the genetic structure indicates that there is a block of gene flow among the populations, which should be reviewed in the future if management and restoration of this species is needed.