Habitat selection by Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus) in Siran and Kaghan Valleys, Pakistan

Asiatic black bear is present in variety of habitats like broad-leaves and coniferous forests, extending form sea level to 4300m elevation and change their habitat for food purpose seasonally. The present study was conducted at Kaghan and Siran Valleys, District Mansehra, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan to assess habitat of black bear. Line transect method was used for observation of bear signs. Twelve meter circular radius plots were selected for the concern vegetation’s i.e. (trees, shrubs and herbs) and three to six plots were placed in each transect. At the result of sign survey, thirteen different categories of bear signs were recorded and encounter rate was calculated for each sign. A total of 1858 signs were observed during field surveys. Total (81%) coniferous species were recoded among trees, with the highest appearance of Pinus wallichiana (34.22%) and Spruce spp (27.76%), similarly broad leaves trees (18.56%) were also recoded from habitat plots. Most of the signs were encountered in bushy areas, whereas high number of Viburnum Spp (60.29%) was present. It is indicated that black bear prefers blend of Coniferous Trees, Viburnum and Ferns Species; probably because these plants provide enough food, protection, and meticulous shelter because more than 80% of habitat composed of these three species. Currently habitat destruction and increase in human population are the up-growing issues for wild animals (especially Asiatic black bear), which is highly sensitive to such problems. High levels of conservation efforts are recommended for the protection of black bear habitat and to avoid human interference in their territory.

Association of human disturbance and gastrointestinal parasite infection of yellow baboons in western Tanzania

Human disturbance is an ongoing threat to many wildlife species, manifesting as habitat destruction, resource overuse, or increased disease exposure, among others. With increasing human: non-human primate (NHP) encounters, NHPs are increasingly susceptible to human-introduced diseases, including those with parasitic origins. As such, epidemiology of parasitic disease is becoming an important consideration for NHP conservation strategies. To investigate the relationship between parasite infections and human disturbance we studied yellow baboons (Papio cynocephalus) living outside of national park boundaries in western Tanzania, collecting 135 fresh faecal samples from nine troops occupying areas with varying levels of human disturbance. We fixed all samples in 10% formalin and later evaluated parasite prevalence and abundance (of isotrichid ciliates and Strongylida). We identified seven protozoan and four helminth taxa. Taxa showed varied relationships with human disturbance, baboon troop size and host age. In four taxa, we found a positive association between prevalence and troop size. We also report a trend towards higher parasite prevalence of two taxa in less disturbed areas. To the contrary, high levels of human disturbance predicted increased abundance of isotrichid ciliates, although no relationship was found between disturbance and Strongylida abundance. Our results provide mixed evidence that human disturbance is associated with NHP parasite infections, highlighting the need to consider monitoring parasite infections when developing NHP conservation strategies.

Ekstraksi Fitur Tekstur dan Warna pada Kulit Katak Menggunakan GLCM dan Momen Warna

Anura is an order in the Amphibian class consisting of frogs and toads. Anura is very important in the ecosystem, especially its role as part of the food chain. Anura's main role is to maintain the balance of the ecosystem and as a bioindicator agent for changing environmental conditions such as water pollution, habitat destruction, disease and parasites, and climate change. This research applies digital image processing technology which is expected to assist in detecting types of frogs based on color and texture. This research uses 5 types of frogs, namely kongkang gading, kongkang poison, striped trees, small trees and flying trees with 20 images of each type of frog. This research uses the color feature extraction methods such Color Moment and texture extraction GLCM (Gray Level Co-occurance Matrix), then classified using K-Star. The results of the K-Star performance evaluation to classify the 5 types of frogs obtained the Accuracy (Acc) value of 0.93, Precision (Prec) of 0.94, Recall (Rec) of 0.93 and F-measure of 0.93. So that the classification results of frog species on texture and color feature extraction using the GLCM method and the Color Moment with the K-Star classification method have high performance and can work well.

Growth performance and prediction of carcass production of captive javan porcupine (Hystrix javanica)

Porcupines are unique mammals, their upper body is covered with hard hair resembling sharp cylindrical spines and belongs to the order Rodentia. It has long been used as a source of animal protein. Javan porcupine (Hystrix javanica) is an endemic animal on Java and its population is estimated to continue, due to habitat destruction, poaching, and its use without a conservation. Observations on the growth of young javan porcupines were carried out for 12 months in Small Mammal Captivity, Research Center Biology - Indonesian Institute of Sciences. This study aims to determine the growth performance of young porcupines in captivity based on number of births, namely singles, twins, and triplets. The young will be with their mother for 3 months, they will be placed in individual cages. Weighing porcupines is done once a week. The results suggest that porcupines continue grow until they are 12 months old and probably continued. The average weight gain of single born was 30.31 g/day; birth of twins 29.65 g/day, 29.72 g/day; and birth of triplets were 29.57 g/day, 28.14 g/day, and 29.79 g/day. Prediction of 12-month-old porcupine carcass production for single, twins, and triplets, respectively, was 6740.86 g; 6593.15 g; and 6470.50 g.

Ecological interactions: Patterns of host utilization by tropical butterflies

Structural complexity of ecological networks facilitate the functional robustness of natural ecosystems. Threatened by the human actions such as habitat destruction and climate change, species may be more or less prone to ecological perturbations depending on the nature of their interactions. We examined the host network of tropical butterflies from the Indian region to see their level of interconnectedness. We manually curated larval host utilization data for 1053 butterflies of India. About 98.8% of species that occur pan-India and 90.6% of species exclusive to the Western Ghats had known hosts whereas it was only 25.9% for species exclusive to north-east India. There were 2589 unique butterfly-host interactions comprising 519 butterfly species and their 1091 known hosts. However, nearly 30% of the species had only single hosts. The Fabaceae and Poaceae were the key host families that accounted for 32.8% of the interactions. There were clear host preferences and monocots hosted disproportionately more butterfly species and interactions. Vanessa cardui had at least 39 known hosts while Ochlandra travancorica supported 19 butterfly species. There were 2693 species-pairs and 4226 interactions among 469 butterflies due to shared hosts. Many butterfly species that have relatively few/unique hosts might be vulnerable in the context of habitat destruction and climate change. This work has great relevance to the ecology and conservation of butterflies in India.

Pollinators: Their Relevance in Conservation and Sustainable Agro-Ecosystem

Survival and reproduction of several wild plants and crops is mostly by insects pollinator, their recognition and importance have been increased in this climatic changing scenario, which affects the various aspects of their life cycle. According to an estimate, approximately 30,000 species of bees are known in entomology, and about 190 species of bees have been reported to be associated with pollination. There can be an established link between seed production and pollinator diversity, for the plants with a generalist pollination system. The increasing of human habitation affects insect pollinators in various ways, i.e. of habitat destruction, results in low availability of food sources, nesting, oviposition, resting, and mating sites. Pollinator availability restraints the geographical distribution of plant species, i.e. to develop an ecological niche of certain plant species. Failure of pollinator- plant interaction mutualism results in lower seed production and sometimes extirpation of plant population has been recorded. The declining pollinators’ population strengthens existing plant-pollinator interaction or allows new pant pollinator interaction to form. Maintaining the commercial and wild pollinator populations and preventing future shortages of pollination services, therefore, is extremely significant.

The Status and Threats of Birds: A Case Study of Birds in Nayapul to Ghandruk Area, Kaski, Nepal

The purpose of this study is to quantify species diversity of birds in the study area and to explore the biotic and abiotic factors affecting the bird population. This study was carried out by using the fixed point counting method. The study area was situated in Annapurna Rural Municipality of Kaski district. A total of 147 bird species belonging to 46 families and 14 orders were identified in the study area. It was found that Muscicapidae was the largest family and Passeriformes the largest order. Among the reported species, 50% were residents, 31% were full-migrants, 18% were altitudinal migrants and the remaining were 1% nomadic. Habitats of birds included the forest 68%, the scrubland 17 %, the grassland 7% and the wetland 6 % of the study area. Similarly, the rocky area and artificial area covered 1% of the total species. The results showed that most of the bird species i.e. 136 were least concerned, 4 of them were nearly threatened, 3 of them were endangered, 3 were critically endangered and only one species was vulnerable. The most important threats included hunting and trapping, killing for fun, shift in crop production, use of insecticides and pesticides, improved storage devices, habitat destruction, developmental activities, tourism, buried carcasses and predatory.

Invasion in An Omnivorous Food Web: The Impact of Roles and Different Trophic Levels

In the field of ecology, habitat loss and fragmentation are the two main characteristic forms of habitat destruction and the main drivers of species extinction, resulting in the gradual loss of biodiversity. So far, many scholars have made some progress in the theoretical research of the spatial food web, but research on the effect of introducing an invasive species in an omnivorous food web is very rare. In order to explore the impact of invader on the persistence of species in omnivorous food webs, we constructed a model framework to describe the patch occupation of each species in omnivorous systems. Our model results show that invasive species is a prey of species in omnivorous food webs is easier to invade than invasive species is a predator of species in original omnivorous food webs on habitat loss and fragmentation. One conclusion also can be drawn is that when an invasive species is a prey of species in omnivorous food webs, no matter what trophic level the invasive species is invade, it is more successful. But when invasive species is a predator of species in different trophic levels on omnivorous food webs, they show different coexistence patterns. The invasion of a species has little effect upon the stability of original omnivorous food web for habitat loss and fragmentation, and will only make the original omnivorous food web more stable and more complicated. Therefore, we have proved that the omnivorous food web is stable and is not easy to destroy this ecological fact. Some examples to illustrate the reliability of our model results are discussed.

Effects of habitat destruction on coevolving metacommunities

Habitat destruction is a growing threat to biodiversity and ecosystem services. The ecological consequences of habitat loss and fragmentation involve reductions in species abundance and even the extinction of species and interactions. However, we do not yet understand how habitat loss can alter the coevolutionary trajectories of the remaining species or how coevolution, in turn, affects their response to habitat loss. To investigate this, we develop a spatially explicit model which couples metacommunity and coevolutionary dynamics. We show that, by changing the size, composition and structure of local networks, habitat destruction increases the diversity of coevolutionary outcomes across the landscape. Furthermore, we show that while coevolution dampens the negative effects of habitat destruction in mutualistic networks, its effects on the persistence of antagonistic communities are less predictable.