Journal of Wildlife and Biodiversity
Volume:3 Issue: 3, Spring 2019

Since identification of species and populations of fish are essential in biodiversity, conservation and research on their biological characteristics, variation of body shape of different populations of Garra rossica from the southern and eastern Iran was investigated by traditional (meristic and morphometric characters) and geometric morphometric methods. A total of 113 specimens of G. rossica from four rivers in four basins were caught by electrofishing (May, 2018) and transferred to the laboratory for further analysis. Left sides of the specimens were photographed, then appropriate 13 landmark-points were selected and digitalized in tpsDig2 to extract body shape data. The obtained landmark configurations were superimposed by the General Procrustes Analysis to remove non-shape variations. Finally, Principle Component Analysis, Canonical Variate Analysis and Cluster Analysis were conducted in PAST and MorphoJ. Analysis of 12 meristic and 19 morphometric traits showed that populations differ significantly in 10 meristic and 15 morphometric traits (p<0.05). Also, analyzes of the geometric morphometrics shows that the studied groups are distinguished in the shape and size of head, body height, length of the caudal peduncle, and position of the dorsal fin. This study shows that different populations inhabiting different rivers have distinct body shapes.

About 930,000 Rohingya people were migrated in the Cox’s Bazar district of Bangladesh following the ethnic cleansing violence in the Rakhine State of Myanmar. They built their camps by clearing the natural forests and social forestry plantations which was one of the important natural habitat and corridor of critically endangered wild Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) in Bangladesh. The Rohingya people extensively collected timber and fuelwood for construction and cooking from the forests and destroyed nearly 2,000 hectares of forest land. As a result, in search of food and route for natural movement, E. maximus entered into the camps, destroyed the settlements and a severe human-elephant conflicts arose resulted in 13 refugees were killed and nearly 50 people were injured. Studies revealed that there are 48 E. maximus is roaming around the camps, and all most all the incidents occurred during the dawn time where male and children were the main victims. Government, aid agencies and NGOs are operating in the field to take on the state of affairs. They commenced to enhance consciousness, setting up 56 watchtowers and 30 volunteer elephant response teams to warn residents when elephants enter the camp. Reduction in demand of fuelwood through supplementing the alternative fuel, reforestation with native and fruit-bearing tree species, agroforestry practices, plantation of elephant preferred fodder species, ensure safe trans-boundary corridors, and non-forestry income-generating activities can reduce and mitigate the Rohingya and. E. maximus conflicts.

Caspian pond turtle, Mauremys caspica shows allometric growth and sexual dimorphism in the shell. Differences in allometric growth produce sexually dimorphic adults. Our results revealed that females are smaller than males that may be related to the risk of the predation, desiccation, and thermal stress. Allometric changes in shape of the shells are different between males and females. In females shape related characters such as plastral length (Pl1) and plastral fore and hind lobe width (PFLW, PHLW), gular, pectoral, abdominal and anal seam length (GSL, PSL, AbSL, AnSL) which represent width of  plastron and plastral length proportionally change with size (related to SCL2 as  index of size). The most remarkable changes related to size are right and left bridge length (RBr, LBr) in females but these changes have not effect on shell shape. For males character TL2 changes dramatically related to size (SCL2). Sexual dimorphism of the shell was also evident. ANCOVA indicated that the regression slopes of males and females differed significantly (p> 0.000) in 15 of the 24 characters examined.

Biodiversity is under threat worldwide. Many species of animals, birds and reptiles have experienced considerable decline in their populations within the past two centuries due to illegal trade, poaching and habitat destruction. The biodiversity in India is under threat due to growing wildlife crime. In this study a segment of mitochondrial 12S rRNA was used to develop an easy and standard protocol to identify a number of species from variety of samples. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was done after DNA extraction and quantification. PCR products were then sequenced bi-directionally and aligned to a database non reductant nucleotide sequence. It was then confirmed that the sequences aligned specifically to mitochondrial sequences from expected species of origin. Bioinformatics tools were then applied for phylogenetic and genetic diversity analysis. Result of this study showed that universal primer could amplify partial mitochondrial 12rRNA gene from all studied animals, birds and reptiles. Based on the sequences obtained, a Neighbour joining tree was constructed using K2P model. This molecular technique together with bioinformatics tools provides a reliable and fast method for species identification and taxonomic classification.

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 identified gastropods at the first point ‎belonged to 13 families, 16 genera, and 17 species, among which five species were observed only in this area: Cerithiopsis sp., Melampus castaneus, Haminoea cf vitra, Nassarius sp. and Umbonium  vestiarium. The gastropods had the highest species number at middle point belonging to 20 families, 28 genera, and 36 species and the number of 22 species (the highest species number) was observed only in this region. Except two species Cerithium sp.andFinella pupoides, other gastropod species of end point were also present in other regions. Gastropods of this region belonged to 7 families, 10 genera, and 12 species. Comparing this results  with other mangrove forests shows that  from the east to west the gastropods diversity has reducing trend; and the studied area is the most diverse region in Iran. This study recorded 13 new species from Iran that wasn’t reported before.

Today, the biggest threat to biodiversity in the world is the destructions of habitats subsequently occur after changing habitats and fragmentation of large habitats. These days the destructions of habitats are the biggest threat to biodiversity in the world which is occurred subsequently after changing habitats and fragmentation of large habitats. Due to the human's unplanned activities, especially the developmental plans in developing countries, many small habitats, which may be less important than non-protected species, are destroyed Corridors are important for designing conservation in fragmented ecosystems and reducing the harmful consequences of islanding phenomena. In this study, Arc GIS software was used to determine the habitat corridors of the 10 protected areas studied. Then, sensitive and hazardous points were determined for passing the animal species by studying the map of the study area and the corridors of the habitats. Considering the importance of connecting, building corridors and integrating ecosystems, Management methods suitable for protection, are essential for restoring connectivity between fragmented ecosystems in order to better protect the healthy environment and biodiversity.