Wildlife and Biodiversity Conservation

Introduction:Abstract
Introduction:
Indian crested porcupine is awidely distributed rodent in
the subcontinent, inhabiting temperate scrublands,
grasslands, forests, Steppe Mountains, sandy deserts
(Gurung & Singh, 1996) and caves (Alkon, 1999; Harries
., 2008; Biswas&Shrotriya, 2011). It isageneralist forager,
exploiting awide variety of cultivated and wild plants and
consuming both hypogeal and epigeal plant tissues
(Gutterman, 1982; Alkon & Salt, 1985; Khan , 2000). It
has long beenrecognizedas forestandagricultural pests in
many countries (Prakash, 1976; Sharma & Prasad, 1992;
Khan ., 2000; Idris & Rana, 2001; Siddique & Arshad,
2004; Girish ., 2005; Chakrborthy 2007), as it
causes damage to forest plantations by feeding on roots
and bark of succulent plants, resulting in girdles in trees,
uprooting of nursery seedlings and planted saplings
(Ahmed & Chaudhry, 1977; Greaves & Khan, 1978), fruit
et
al
et al.
et al
et al et al.,
trees and agricultural crops (Khan ., 2000). In Iran,
is one of the important pests on reforestation in
westernoak forests (Khan ., 2014).Alkon&Saltz (1985)
stated that theporcupine in thedesertof highlandof Israel
fed intensively on cultivated potatoes. Gutterman & Herr
(1981) reported that the porcupines fed preferably on the
olderunderground bulbs.
There have been little studied on porcupine because
of their shy nature, nocturnal habits and tendency to live
in remote and inaccessible places and, as rodents are
unwelcome associates of mankind, serious pests of food,
fodderand plantation cropsandarecarriersof anumberof
diseases, so rodents have not attracted public attention to
the extentwhich isdesired and according to the literature,
porcupine is also considered as an economic pest. Hence,
the rationale forporcupine‘s diet studieswasdone to know
the importance of food in assessing its biological roles in
natural andcultivatedecosystems.
et al
H.indica
et al
Dietary habits of Indian Crested Porcupine ( )
were studied in the Pench Tiger Reserve India (dry tropical
forest), by the faecal analysis. The results of the study
suggest that the porcupines have a diverse diet and the tree
barks and seeds were the most consumed items. It was
followed by leaves, twigs, flowers and grasses. Seasonally,
barks (34.9%), twigs (17.2%), seeds (17.1%), leaves (9.4%),
grasses (8.7%), bones (4.9%) and roots (2.6%), stones and
others unidentif ied things (2.2%) and hairs of animals
(0.7%)were fed more inwinter thansummerwhere as seeds
(27.3%), barks (23.1%), leaves (11.7 %), grasses (9.9%), roots
(6.8%), twigs (6.7%), bones (6.03%), flowers (1.4%) and
stones/other things (0.8%), hairs (0.4%) were fed more in
summer than winter season. Only barks and twigs were
found to be signif icantly different seasonally. Furthermore,
the Berger-Parker index (d) of each seasonwas calculated to
ensure the variation in diet, by the species dominance in
each faecal matter group. Through this method, diversity in
food items of the porcupine reflected that the diet of
porcupine in summer season (2.2) was more diversif ied as
compared to the porcupine diet in the winter season (1.835).
Overall the diet of the porcupine comprises 92%vegetative
matter and remaining 6.3% comprises of animal matters
and 1.5% other materials (stones, threads, etc). Hence, it is
consideredasageneralist herbivore.

Pteropus giganteus commonly known as Indian flying fox, belongs to family pteropodidae of order megachiroptera (mammalian order). Family pteropodidae consists of 43 Genera and about 165 species which are distributed throughout the world. There are about 14 species of fruit bats, belonging to 8 genera, found in Indian subcontinent. Fruit bats play several major ecological roles such as pollination and seed dispersion. The Indian flying fox is widespread in Indian subcontinent. However, due to loss of habitats, scarcity of food sources, public disturbances and hunting, their population is declining day by day.
Thus a study has been carried out to find out the status of Pteropus giganteus in district Lakhimpur-Kheri of Uttar Pradesh with special reference to their habitat, distribution, population, feeding and breeding behaviour. Twelve roosting sites have been recognised during January 2010 to December 2011. Major threats which have been observed in the study area are electrocution, loss of their habitats and hunting for commercial purposes such as oil, leather and specimens for biological institutes. This work will establish the study area as an important habitat for the conservation of megachiropteran species. Hence, several recommendations have also been made for the required conservation of this species.

The present study was performed to investigate Gastropods diversity in mangrove forests located at Chabahar Township, Sistan & Baluchestan, Iran. For this purpose some homogenous forest masses were isolated and field visits were done. In each mass, three vertical transects were selected at the site of water contact up to land contact and sediment sampling was conducted from first (in contact with the water), middle, and end points of each transect. Three samples were collected in triplicates and during four successive seasons. Of 2119 collected gastropod samples, 44 species were identified from 35 genera and 22 families, among which three species were identified up to family level, nine up to genus level, and the remaining up to species level. Among the species identified, Asseminea sp.2 and Asseminea sp.1 were the most abundant species with 41.49% and 30.77%, respectively. Species Cerithidea cingulata (11.04%)and Stenothyra arabica (6.09%) were in subsequent rankings. The identifie...

The exponential growth of the human population and their activity in the last decades have adverse effects on biodiversity. The main objective of this review was to present a compilation of works on causes of mortality of native wildlife in Europe, in the last decades linked to human activity. Here, a total of 130 peer-reviewed publications were reviewed for the period between 1942 to 2017 from thirty-eight countries. Sixty-five percent of the studies were focused on the bird’s species. Our results showed that the leading cause of mortality was due to traumatic origin, particularly collision with infrastructures and motor vehicles. Based on the papers analysed in the present study, it is possible to conclude that human development and its anthropogenic pressures have a negative effect on some species of wildlife, while the potential impact on the vast majority of other species is still unknown. This study provided an insight into the effects of the different anthropogenic pressures ...

This study was conducted to compare the morphological characteristics of Ponticola iranicus populations from the Anzali Wetland drainage (wetland and it's two draining rivers, namely Siahdarvishan and Pasikhan, Southern Caspian Sea basin). For this purpose, five specimens of P. iranicus from the Pasikhan River, ten from Siah-Darvishan River, and eight from the Anzali Wetland were collected. After anesthesia, fish were fixed into 10% buffered formalin and transferred to the laboratory for further study. A total of 22 morphometric traits were measured using a digital caliper. The data, after removing size, were analyzed for normality, and the significant data were selected and used for multivariate analysis, including Principle component analysis (PCA), Canonical variate analysis (CVA), and Non-parametric multivariate analysis of variance (NPMANOVA). The results showed a significant difference in inter-orbital distance, minimum width of the caudal peduncle, and eye diameter betwee...

The eastern Mediterranean has received many alien fish species, mainly due to climate change and human activities. The Lessepsian species Equulites popei (Whitley, 1932) had been previously recorded in the northern and southern parts of the eastern Mediterranean. It was first classified as Equulites elongatus. Later on, and based on DNA analysis. E. elongatus has been split into three different species and E. popei is one of them, and the Mediterranean specimens belong to E popei. This paper confirms that E. popei is present in the Syrian marine waters for the first time. This record fills the gap in the species distribution between north and south of the eastern Mediterranean.

Sun bear (Helarctos malayanus) is the smallest bear species and remains the least known bear ‎among the ursids. Reliable information on population and activity pattern of Sun bear has been ‎lacking, thereby creating difficulties for field managers and conservationists to develop ‎a management plan for their conservation. The study was an attempt to determine the habitat ‎preference and daily activity of Sun bear through camera trapping and other signs survey ‎methods. In the study, we had a combined trapping effort of 647 trap-nights with a total of 18 ‎independent images of Sun bear recorded between May 2014 and March 2016. Distribution of ‎bear signs per hectare was found to be highest in the Bamboo forest (0.398), owing to large ‎numbers of termite's mounds. The photo capture rate of Sun bear in Dampa Tiger Reserve was ‎found to vary by different habitats with high numbers in degraded forest landscape within the ‎Reserve. The variation was also influenced by the disturbance o...

Vindhyan gorges are spreaded in the south east part of Rajasthan. Geologically the Vindhyan gorge of Kekariya, Rajasthan is kept in Bhander group under Vindhyan supergroup having rocks of sandstone, shales and limestone. We studied the diversity of the avifauna of this gorge from 2013 to 2016 using line transect method. Total 82 species of birds were recorded during the present study. Out of these, 64 species were resident and 18 species were migratory. Birds showed their habitat preference for different parts of the gorge. Raptor birds dominated all other birds. Illegal woodcutting, over grazing and people's ignorance towards conservation were some of the threats identif ied to the gorge biodiversity. Abstract Introduction:

Urbanization is a phenomenon directly related with development. The outcomes of unplanned development appear as deformed and unsustained ecosystems. We studied the bird community composition of various habitats around an urbanized domain from year 2011 to year 2013.The birds of four different habitats namely Open cultivation, Urban, Aquatic and Parks and grassland patches were recorded using line transect and call note methods. Total 129 birds of 48 families have been recorded out of them 44 were migratory and 85 were resident. Urban habitat had least number of birds and open cultivation area had highest number of birds. The maximum numbers of birds were omnivorous guild followed by insectivorous and carnivorous guild.15 bird species among 129 were urban dependent, 24 species were urban semi-dependent and 89 were urban independent. Sorenson's biodiversity index was calculated to know the community overlapping but no considerable similarity was revealed besides between urban habitat and park and grassland patch habitat.