فهرست مطالب

Journal of Wildlife and Biodiversity
Volume:4 Issue: 3, Summer 2020

  • تاریخ انتشار: 1399/04/11
  • تعداد عناوین: 10
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  • Amir Ansari * Pages 1-7
    Haftad-Gholleh protected area located in the central plateau of Iran host one of the mountainous vipers, Levantine viper (Macrovipera lebetina) which can be regarded as west and northeastern subspecies. Habitat destruction and illegal live trapping to extract venom can be considered as some of the most important factors which threats the species viability. To determine the most important factors which affect the species habitat use, I tried to use to modeling approaches of MaxEnt and Logistic regression focusing on the eight different independent variables and 15 locations of the species present. Both models with high validation criteria (AUC> 0.98) indicated that around one percent of the protected area can be regarded as a potential habitat for the target species.  Two distal factors acted in the reverse direction as distance from the Human related landuse (7 km) showed the highest priority while the distance from traffic roads indicated the lowest effect on the species habitat usage. Two other most important variables which affect the species habitat selection were distance to the water resources and altitude. The present work's outputs can be used in the species protection in Haftad-Gholleh protected area.
    Keywords: habitat modeling, Logistic regression, Macrovipera lebetina, MaxEnt modeling approach
  • Fethi BENGIL, Murat Ozaydinli *, Elizabeth Bengil Pages 8-17
    Interaction between fisheries and cetacean species has been one of the challenging issues in marine biology for the last three decades. Even though there have been some attempts to regulate legislations or mitigation action for their by-catch in certain regions, the bilateral effects of this interaction are not fully understood for the seas around Turkey. Therefore, interviews were carried out between March 2019 and February 2020, with 186 fishers from the coasts of the Turkish Black Sea and the Mediterranean. As a result of the interviews, fleet, and fishing characteristics of sampling groups were described for each sea region. Then, the interaction and attitude of fishers against to the cetacean species were presented and evaluated to provide a baseline for developing effective conservation and management strategies in Turkey. As a conclusion, it was pointed out that a higher dependency of cetaceans to fishery year by year for all regions. Regional differences were determined for the characteristics of the interaction. The fishery in the Black Sea, results in higher by-catch events for cetaceans, while cetaceans lead to higher damages on fishing gear and catch in the Mediterranean. Additionally, a notable phenological shift was observed between industrial and small-scale fisheries in the Mediterranean. Even though most of the fishers like cetaceans and accept sharing fish with them, results highlighted the requirement of a severe consideration to increasing their awareness in fishers from the Black Sea region as well as actions must be prioritized to reduce damage on fishing gears and mitigation of cetacean by-catch to deliver more effective conservation of cetacean
    Keywords: Conservation, ecological interactions, The Aegean Sea, The Black Sea, The Levantine Sea
  • Sobia Alyas *, Nureen Zahra, Muhammad Imtiaz Ahmad, Nimra Zahid, Ayesha Nisar, MuhammadMansoor Hafeez, Rabail Alam, Asia Parveen, Arif Malik Pages 18-23

    The aim of present study is to evaluate the anti-inflammatory, anti-pyretic ‎and analgesic activities of ethanol extract of Carica papaya L. on albino rats. ‎Plant of C. papaya L. is commonly used to treat ‎different diseases like fever, pain, and inflammation. A total of 144 albino rats ‎with an average weight of 160-200g were used in this study. Rats were divided into 4 ‎groups each group contained 12 rats. Anti-inflammatory activity was evaluated by ‎‎0.1 mL of 1% carrageenan extract that induces paw edema while analgesic activity ‎was investigated by acetic acid that induces abdominal writhing response where ‎antipyretic activity was demonstrated by yeast that induces pyrexia in rats. ‎In anti-inflammatory, antipyretic and analgesic activities, significant ‎results were shown at 400mg/kg, 50mg/kg and 400mg/kg doses respectively in ‎multiple comparisons. ‎The stem extract of C. papaya L. showed significant results as ‎compared to leaf extract in anti-inflammatory and antipyretic activities. The leaf ‎extract of C. papaya showed significant results as compared to the stem in analgesic ‎activity.‎

    Keywords: analgesic, Anti-inflammatory, Anti-pyretic, Carica papaya L, dicleofenac, leaf, Paracetamol, stem
  • Maria Spena, Maria Foti *, Vittorio Fisichella, Antonietta Mascetti, Manuel Zafarana, Marco Colnaghi, Maria Grasso, Chiara Piraino, Franco Sciurba, Rosario Grasso Pages 24-36
    European stone curlew (Burhinus oedicnemus) is a Palearctic species with high conservation interest. This species nests on the ground, in open canopies with sparse herbaceous vegetation, and is typically found next to areas of intense agro-pastoral activity, where it feeds on invertebrates present in ruminant droppings. This study aimed to investigate the enteric, ocular, and oral bacterial flora of stone curlew and determine the possible occurrence of pathogenic bacteria. Furthermore, the study aimed to determine how epidemiological factors shape the bacterial flora. Fecal samples, cloacal, conjunctival and oral swabs from 61individuals of B. oedicnemus were taken in three different agro-pastoral areas of the southeastern Sicily. The presence of commensal and potentially pathogenic bacteria in the samples was evaluated by standard methods. The bacteriological analysis revealed the presence of 215 Gram – and 92 Gram + strains belonging to 23 different genera (12 families). Potentially pathogenic species including Salmonella enterica, Shigella dysenteriae, Staphylococcus aureus, and Enterococcus spp. have been identified. To our knowledge, this is the first study to determine the presence of potentially pathogenic bacteria in stone curlew living in a semi-natural habitat. Some of the detected bacterial species are potentially pathogenic not only for wild species but also for domestic animals and humans. Altogether, our results suggest that stone curlew from agro-pastoral areas are being colonized with commensal or potentially pathogenic bacteria from agricultural or human sources; the prevalence of bacteria is probably influenced by environmental and alimentary factors. B. oedicnemus can, therefore, be considered a good indicator of environmental contamination by bacteria deriving from human activities, which are potentially threatening stone curlew and other wild birds species‎.
    Keywords: Environmental contamination, Gram - bacteria, Gram + bacteria, Wild birds
  • Farahnaz Molavi *, Jamshid Darvish, Farhang Haddad, Maryam M. Matin Pages 37-46

    Recent studies have shown that the House Mouse (Mus musculus) has four subspecies in Iran. Although, these four subspecies have been recognized, the house mouse of east Iran showed high heterozygosity in various markers like allozymes, nuclear gene and mitochondrial gene sequences. Also, the taxonomy and diagnostic characters of mice populations in Iran and adjactment regions are poorly understood. In order to define clear characters for the subspecies described and identify the borders of Iranian subspeciese, thirty-one (31) populations were studied using three methods chromosomal morphology, morphology and molecular analysis of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene. Molecular analysis of the M. musculus samples revealed four clades: 1- clade M. m. isatissus (of Iran) and M. m. castaneus from (of India), 2- clade M. m. bacteriaus from eastern areas with higth intrasubspecies genetic distance, 3- clade M. m. domesticus in the Southern and western regions and 4- M. m. musculus in the northeastern region of Iran. Morphometric characters resulted in three groups that overlapped with each other. The morphological characters could not be separated M. m. isatissus and M. m. bacteriaus, from each other . Analysis of cytogenetic variables showed four clear groups better the molecular clads. In these methods, the central and eastern clades are two distinct groups that are well supported with difference in size of centromeric heterochromatin and their patterns. These results showed that cytogenetic studies are useful and easy methods for identify the diagnostic characters of Iranian subspeciese.

    Keywords: Chromosomal variation, banding, Cytogenetic, Mice
  • Seyed Sahand Eisapoor, Afshin Mahmoodzadeh *, Tooraj Valinasab Pages 47-57
    It is reported on the results of a trawls survey to assess the amount of catch Per Unit of Area (CPUA) and also to determine the distribution pattern of grunts of demersal fishes as one the most important and commercial fish species in the north of Oman Sea. The catch per unit area CPUA as the main index was estimated. A CPUA and distribution change of this group was undertaken from 2003 to 2013. There was an annual monitoring survey during the years 2003-2013 by swept- area of the trawling area in the Oman Sea using R/V ʻFerdows-1ʼcovering into five strata (or sub-region) and four depth layers of 10-20, 20-30, 30-50, and 50-100 meters in the northern Oman Sea. The Results showed that central and eastern regions can be considered as main fishing grounds of this group of fishes with high abundance. However, the highest mean CPUA belongs to strata C & E (420.7 and 306.1 kg/nm2) and B (266.1 kg/nm2) as the main fishing grounds comparing to the other two covering strata A & D, respectively. The Results of depth layers density revealed the highest frequency was for the depths < 30 m (475.3 kg/nm2). As well as, CPUA had a descending trend by increasing the depth. The highest and lowest value belonged to the depths 20-30 and 50–100 m, respectively. Grunts (Haemulidae family) have economic importance in terms of the commercial catch in the Oman Sea. In the last decade, CPUA of grunts shows a decreasing trend which represents the significant decrease in fisheries resources.
    Keywords: Demersal fishes, Haemulidae, grunts CPUA, Oman Sea
  • Mojtaba Pouladi, Seyed Yousef Paighambari *, Russell Brian Millar, Manoochehr Babanezhad Pages 58-69
    The main purpose of this study was to investigate gillnet catch composition and biodiversity caught by 130, 140, and 150 mm (STR) mesh sizes during the fishing season. This research was conducted in the fishing ground of Bushehr County located in the Persian Gulf from autumn 2018 to spring 2019. Overall, 23 families including 36 genera and 43 species were identified. Spring season with 42 species and winter season with 32 species showed the highest and lowest species biodiversity, respectively. Carangidae family with 7 genera and 8 species, Scombridae family with 3 genera and 4 species, and Dasyatidae with 3 genera and 4 species were the families with the highest species biodiversity. Scomberomorus commerson and Thunnus tonggol with 23.45% and 21.84% in autumn, 20.15% and 25.85% in winter, 21.9% and 19.78% in spring showed the most abundance percentages, respectively. The 130 mm mesh size and spring season had the highest abundance, diversity, and the number of caught species in comparison with other mesh sizes and seasons. Two-ways ANOVA results showed that the effects of mesh sizes and seasons on the calculated metrics were significant (P0.05). The highest and lowest Jaccard (J) and Sørensen (S) seasonal similarities were between autumn and spring (J: 0.805, S: 0.892) and autumn and winter (J: 0.561, S: 0.719), respectively. The results of non-metric multidimensional scaling analysis showed that 130 and 140 mm mesh sizes had overlap in terms of the fish abundance and catch composition. Cluster analysis also showed the highest similarity between S. commerson and T. tonggol, and Euthynnus affinis and Scomberoides commersonnianus.
    Keywords: Fish, Catch composition, similarity, Diversity, Fishing gear
  • Dulan Jayasekara, Lakshika Keerthirathna, Dharshani Mahaulpatha * Pages 70-79
    Horton Plains National Park is home for three endemic and threatened agamid species in Sri Lanka; Ceratophora stoddartii, Cophotis ceylanica and Calotes nigrilabris. This study was conducted to estimate the population densities of these lizard species within HPNP in 2016 and 2017. Line transect surveys were carried out following the “Distance” method to obtain population counts. A total of 288 transects were surveyed in two different time periods of each year; Dry months and Wet months. The program “Distance 7.1” was used for density calculations. Highest population density was recorded for Ce. stoddartii in the wet months of 2016 and 2017 (32.91 ind/ha, n=77; 26.70 ind/ha, n=66). However, Ce. stoddartii density was relatively lower in the dry months of both years (2016: 19.79 ind/ha, n=58; 2017: 17.18 ind/ha, n=55). Lowest population density was recorded for Ca. nigrilabris in the wet season of 2017 (7.80 ind/ha, n=38). The population density of Co. ceylanica did not show much fluctuation throughout all four sampling periods was relatively lower when compared with other species. These results indicate that more conservation focus is required to protect these agamids that have low and declining populations when compared to past literature available. They are also facing the threat of illegal smuggling.
    Keywords: Cloud Forests, Lizard smuggling, Conservation, Distance method, Agamidae
  • Mandeep Kaur, Manish Joshi, Kiranmay Sarma, Syed Asrafuzzaman, Sanjaykeshari Das * Pages 80-90
    In India, the population of the Indian spiny-tailed lizard is extinct in many parts of its past distribution. Currently, the species is mainly confined to the desert areas of northwestern India. The present study was carried out from January 2014 to May 2017 in the Thar desert of Rajasthan (TDR) to know the population status and habitat suitability of the species and to assess the threats it faces. For this, the population was estimated through active burrow counting in selected 15mx15m quadrats. GIS-based weighted overlay analysis was used for habitat suitability analysis for which habitat and microhabitat information was collected through 'perambulation,' and 'quadrat sampling-time constrained'methods. Threats were documented using various methods viz. through vehicular surveys, perambulation, opportunistic searches, and by interacting with local people as well as forest staff. The species was recorded in six districts of the TDR. The overall density of the lizard was found to be 314.6±142.1 active burrows/ha in the study area. The maximum density was observed in the Jaisalmer district (362.5±102.3/ha) and the lowest in Jodhpur district (228.0±49.1/ha). Suitability analysis identified different potential habitat zones of the species in the TDR which are 1.71%, 13.49%, 59.51%, 10.65%, and 14.64% as most suitable, moderately high suitable, moderately low suitable, low suitable and unsuitable respectively. The majority of most suitable areas found to fall in the Jaisalmer district of western Rajasthan that needs to be protected immediately. The study also revealed the species had been continuously facing various threats in the TDR that lead to local extinctions.
    Keywords: Conservation, crucial habitats, GIS, local extinction, India
  • Kaushalendra Kumar Jha *, Radhika Jha Pages 91-111
    The vulture, an immensely invaluable service provider, has been reported to have plummeted to its lowest numbers in the recent past, causing serious concerns. Hence, a habitat study has become imperative for planning the conservation and recovery of this endangered species. Central India (Madhya Pradesh), one of the strongholds of the vulture and the study site, supports numerous vulture locations and individuals belonging to seven vulture species. MaxEnt based species distribution modeling was chosen for the prediction of habitat suitability, to identify the prediction-impacting environmental variables, and to compare the area expanse of different species. Predicted potential habitat distributions maps of all vultures together and seven vulture species have been prepared. The performance accuracy of all the models was in a very high range (average AUC= 0.938). Though 77% - 89% area is negligibly suitable to different species, Himalayan Griffon, Cinereous and Egyptian vultures had larger areas as compared to Long-billed, Eurasian Griffon, White-rumped and Red-headed vultures. Out of 23 variables used in the modeling, landuse-land cover (forest and waterbody), isothermality and precipitation seasonality were the prominent determinants of the distribution of all the species. Agriculture and elevation played a minimal role. The data generated in the study could be used for the planning of vulture recovery by conservation and reintroduction. The less suitable areas could also be used for the management of ecologically plastic species by modifying such landscape into agroforestry including animal husbandry.
    Keywords: Environmental predictors, Landscape management, Maxent model, Vulture distribution maps