Lutra 52(1)_Editorial_2009

Darwin

As dedicated naturalists, involved either professionally or on a voluntary basis, we are all acquainted with Charles Darwin’s extremely important insights, recorded 150 years ago in his famous publication ‘On the origin of species’. This anniversary is being commemorated all over the world this year – together with the 200th anniversary of his birthday. When looking at mammal species and populations from an evolutionary biological viewpoint, we still meet Darwin everywhere. Some species maintain themselves in our changing landscapes and biological communities without much difficulty, others are ‘struggling for their lives’ because the environment is changing faster than they can adapt. The Society for the Study and Conservation of Mammals contributes to the understanding of these processes. In fact, all of the topics handled in our journal can be linked, directly or indirectly, to aspects of evolutionary biology. Building this knowledge is the first step, the second step is to apply it to the management of mammal species for the benefit of their conservation. These are two main purposes of our society. In the current issue, two papers deal with methodological aspects of carrying out bat studies.....