Title Participants Abstract "A new small Phrynobatrachus (Amphibia: Anura: Phrynobatrachidae) from southern Cameroon" "Mark-Oliver Roedel, Thomas Doherty-bone, Marcel Talla Kouete, Peter Janzen, Katherine Garrett, Robert Browne, Nono Legrand Gonwouo, Michael F. Barej, Laura Sandberger" "We describe a new small Phrynobatrachus species from southern Cameroon. The new species exhibits a combination of unique morphological characters and a distinctive colour pattern consisting of a black lateral face mask, a black throat in males, a white throat with uniform black lower mandibles in females and a white belly in both sexes. Morphologically it is characterized by small size, absence of an eyelid cornicle, presence of black spines on anterior part of vocal sac in males, spines on flanks, presence of discs on toe and finger tips, distinct webbing, absence of nuptial pads on male thumbs and scapular ridges converging in a straight line. Analysis of mitochondrial 16S rRNA revealed that the new species differs from 34 other West and Central African species of the genus by a minimum distance of 4.5% and is most similar to several Phrynobatrachus species which are almost all endemic to the Cameroon volcanic line or parts of it, i.e. P. chukuchuku (4.9, P. werneri (5.1, P. steindachneri (5.2, P. schioetzi (5.6, P. batesii (5.9, P. cricogaster (5.5, P. danko (6.1, and P. manengoubensis (6.1, respectively. The new species is most similar to P. batesii, which was described from forests close to the type locality of the new species. Morphologically the new species differs from P. batesii by much smaller size (" "Local spotted hyena abundance and community tolerance of depredation in human-dominated landscapes in Northern Ethiopia" "Gidey Yirga, Ekwal Imam, Hans De Iongh, Herwig Leirs, Solomon Kiros, Tesfamichael G. Yohannes, Mekonen Teferi, Hans Bauer" "The generally accepted wisdom that large carnivores cannot survive in human dominated landscapes does not hold true in Ethiopia. The present work reports on spotted hyena abundance and distribution in and around three National Forest Priority Areas in Tigray, northern Ethiopia. Calling stations were used to assess spotted hyena abundance and distribution in and outside the protected areas. We assessed human tolerance towards predators and factors responsible for livestock loss. The response outside the forest was significantly higher. Predators, disease and theft were the factors responsible for livestock loss. The presence of a guard, the construction of an enclosure and the presence of dogs were used to mitigate livestock depredation. The majority of the respondents had a positive attitude towards predator conservation. Our data suggest that spotted hyenas in our study area are more abundant and widely distributed in human-dominated landscapes than in natural forest areas, probably because of better scavenging opportunities from human waste and livestock. (C) 2014 Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Saugetierkunde. Published by Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved." "Altitudinal variation and conservation priorities of vegetation along the Great Rift Valley escarpment, northern Ethiopia" "Raf Aerts, Pieter Moonen" "Understanding plant species distribution patterns along environmental gradients is fundamental to managing ecosystems, particularly when habitats are fragmented due to intensive human land-use pressure. To assist management of the remaining vegetation of the Eastern Afromontane Biodiversity Hotspot, plant species richness and diversity patterns were analyzed along the main elevation gradient (1,000–2,760 m) of the Great Rift Valley escarpment in northern Ethiopia, using 29 plots established at 100-m elevation intervals. A total of 129 vascular plant species belonging to 59 families was recorded. Species richness and diversity showed a hump-shaped relationship with elevation, peaking at mid-elevation (1,900–2,200 m). Beta diversity values indicated medium species turnover along the elevation gradient and were lowest at mid-elevation. Elevation strongly partitioned the plant communities (r = 0.98; P "