Journal of Wildlife and Biodiversity
Volume:5 Issue: 1, Winter 2021

This study aimed to estimate the tiger home range size and obtain information on the movement pattern of reintroduced tigers in the human-dominated Sariska Tiger Reserve. The observed extensive home ranges (100% MCP method) of tigresses ST3 (172.75 km²), ST9 (85.25 km²), and ST10 (80.10 km²) can be attributed to low prey base and very high anthropogenic forces. Similarly, the observed small home range of tigresses ST7, ST2, ST14, and ST8 viz. 16.59 km², 19.34 km², 36.58 km², and 43.04 km² respectively is due to high prey abundance in their respective areas. The high home ranges of subadult ST13 & ST15, respectively, up to 687.58 km² and189.46 km² is due to the initial exploration of their territory. After settling in their respective territories, ST13 in North of STR and ST15 in the south, their mean monthly home ranges respectively decreased to 61.37 km² and 47.67 km². The observed larger mean home ranges (based on 100% MCP method) of ST4 (85.40 km²) and ST6 (79.94 km²) as compared to young ST13 (61.369 km²), ST11 (57.63 km²), and ST15 (47.67 km²) may be due the reason of early occupancy of the respective areas by these old tigers. Non-expansion of the home ranges of any of the remaining four male tigers (ST4, 6, 13, and 15) after the killing of ST11male tiger in STR suggests non-exploratory behavior of already settled male tigers. The observed high average monthly displacement of the home range for sub-adult ST15 can be justified regarding its dispersal from the natal area to the south of STR. Exploring the southern part of the reserve and finally settling in a smaller area with minimum displacement of monthly home ranges can be other justification as well.

Critically endangered Asiatic Cheetah faces a dramatic decrease in its abundance and distribution in recent decades, entailing the necessity for more severe conservation activities for the species in its last remaining habitats in Iran. Proper management of the target species is highly dependent on knowledge about its distribution and habitat requirements. The Maximum Entropy modeling approach was applied to achieve the species habitat suitability models using data collected from 2001 to 2018. We found that the most contiguous patch predicted as a suitable one has been reported from the country's central parts, which constitute around one-third of the country's predicted suitable habitats. However, only 36.3% of these habitats were shown to be located inside the borders of the country's protected area network. Naybandan Wildlife Refuge and Touran Biosphere Reserve incorporate 9661.7 (12.6%) and 8291 (10.8%) km2 of suitable habitats, respectively where can be regarded as the most critical areas in the species conservation programs. Least Cost Path analysis suggested two corridors with 262.5 and 192.5 km length connecting northern and southern suitable patches. Designing new protected areas or local community conserved areas and extending current borders of the protected areas are necessary to connect northern and southern habitats and increase the species viability.

It is essential to measure biodiversity to determine the stability of a community of species. A good measure gives precise, reliable, and efficient information about the community structure. This study was conducted to evaluate the statistical properties and test some alpha diversity indices' efficiency through a bootstrap resampling. The available birds' data were being applied in some alpha diversity indices. Moreover, the Shapiro-Wilk test is being used to test the normality of the index. All indices analyzed have p-values higher than the alpha level of significance (α=0.05), indicating that the index's bootstrap sampling distribution is normally distributed. Mostly, all indices are consistently efficient at large sample sizes. The Menhinick richness index is more efficient in measuring birds' species richness since it has the smallest means squared error (MSE) values. Among the diversity indices studied in this paper, Simpson's diversity index generated smaller mean squared error (MSE) values; thus, it is a more efficient diversity index in measuring birds' diversity. The Shannon evenness index is more efficient among the five evenness indices in measuring species evenness of birds because it provides the smaller MSE values.

The natural increase in the European beaver population in Poland, noted after 1945, was unsatisfactory. In 1975, the population amounted to only 500 individuals and was not sufficient to guarantee the species' continued survival. Nearly the entire beaver population was confined to north-eastern Poland, and natural population dispersion was not observed. Beaver colonies were translocated to other Polish regions as part of the Program for the Active Conservation of the European Beaver in Poland, implemented in 1975, which saved the beaver population from complete extinction. Since the beginning of the 21st century, efforts have been made to manage the Polish beaver population by hunting without changing a protected species' status. The beaver population continues to increase uncontrollably, which results in costly conflicts as beaver activities infringe upon the intended use of the land by humans. The future status of the European beaver in Poland remains unclear.

We assessed the distribution pattern and abundance of Petaurista philippensis in the state of Gujarat, India. Itis the only species of flying squirrel found in the western states of India. The species was distributed on a large geographic area with confined populations in the eastern dry and moist deciduous forest stretch with tall trees within the state. During the study period, 33 times flying squirrels were encountered at 14 sites in 7 districts, concentrated mainly in protected areas. The overall encounter rate was 0.50 individuals/km among which, the central districts of Gujarat showed the highest while the north-east districts showed the lowest abundance of P. philippensis. It was found to be a tree-dwelling species, positively associated with old-growth forests with tall trees. The abundance rates were found to be associated with forest degradation and hunting practices. Illegal hunting practices persists in some areas of Gujarat, may affect the population number and trend. Apart from forest degradation and fragmentation, hunting for domestic consumption, ethnomedicinal uses, traditions, and human-made forest fires were the major potent threats of flying squirrels as found during the present study.

This paper develops a GIS-based model to determine suitable locations for shipping paths within Malacca Strait by investigating the best air quality. The mathematical and geospatial approach is used to identify a reasonable relationship between air quality and Dugong's habitat location. Various factors with different levels of influence and degrees of importance were established as criteria. The chosen region of study, Malacca Strait, the world's second-busiest commercial shipping channel, undertakes several statistical and mathematical analyses of vessel transportation that focus on air quality concerning the main marine animal of Strait (Dugong), using the geographic information system (GIS) as a visualization platform. The distance from the maritime paths to the dugong home range is modeled based on NOx's factor as the primary air pollutant of shipping emissions from moving vessels in the sea. The results took into consideration the main negative environmental elements in shipping paths. The minimum calculated distance serves as a constraint to indicate where the dugongs' habitats cannot be located. The result is that too many parts of the probability of suitable Dugong habitat in the study area do not have a proper position that does not put it in conflict with shipping polluted zones. This research has successfully managed and developed a scientifically based method for understanding the relationship between wide life habitat and marine transportation by analyzing successful and non-successful present and future shipping.

Non-invasive sampling is one of the most authentic techniques for the genetic study of endangered and rare animal species. In the present study based on non-invasive samples, we give the preliminary genetic documentation of snake species by using cytochrome b (Cyt b) and cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) universal mitochondrial primers from Uttarakhand (UK), India. We sampled n=11 shed skin of unknown snake species from four different locations in Uttarakhand, India. The success rate of genomic DNA isolation, PCR amplification, and sequencing from collected samples was 100%. Afterward, in the genetics analysis, 8 out of 11 samples matched with Least Concern ver3.1 Rat snake species, two samples paired with Checkered keelback snake, and one sample matched with Indian cobra. Subsequently, 149 (Cyt b) and 207 (COI) species-specific fixed SNPs were observed. The obtained interspecific sequences divergences based on two mitochondrial loci among three snake species also show the high variability in the Uttarakhand snake population. The current study based on the non-invasive genetic sampling approach showed its importance in biodiversity conservation, especially those species which are under the endangered and critically endangered category. The genetic reference database of snake species helpful in species management, population, evolutionary-based study, and wildlife forensic in the future.

Human intrusions and disturbance on Amami-Oshima Island would impact the habitat and behavior of bats. Understanding bat fauna, distribution, and ecology in Amami-Oshima Island is helpful for their conservation. Acoustic surveys were conducted throughout Amami-Oshima Island (ca. 700 km2) from May 2018 to February 2020. Most locations with positive echolocation results were identified in the southern and western regions. Regional differences between positive and negative detections might reflect habitat quality. A consequence of the higher land use in open areas showed that Tadarida sp. flies and forages in such coastal regions and upland fields with few obstacles. Mosaics of forests and open areas should be maintained in the southern and western regions, and the forest quality of the northern part must be improved to provide food resources and open space for flying and foraging bats.