فهرست مطالب

Journal of Wildlife and Biodiversity
Volume:5 Issue: 3, Summer 2021

  • تاریخ انتشار: 1400/07/07
  • تعداد عناوین: 8
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  • Narjes Okati *, Mohsen Shahriari Moghadam, Fatemeh Einollahipeer Pages 1-20
    Increasing the presence of mercury (Hg) and arsenic (As) in aquatic ecosystems as two unnecessary and dangerous elements in the environment has raised many concerns around the world. This research aimed to evaluate associated risks of Hg and As in four fish species (Lethrinus crocineus , Otolithes ruber, Rhabdosargus haffara, and Epinephelus coioides) that are generally consumed by the people residents in the Coast of the Oman Sea in Iran. The maximum of the mean Hg and As concentrations were 0.38 ± 0.014 and 0.94 ± 0.124 µg g-1 wet weight (ww) for Orange-spotted grouper (Epinephelus coioides), respectively. Target hazard quotient (THQ) values of Hg for Epinephelus coioides and Tiger tooth croaker (Otolithes ruber) were higher than 1 for children and adult groups, but all THQ values of As were below 1 . The lifetime cancer risk (CR) for inorganic As was above than 10-5. Estimation of health risks of Hg and As showed that there are no consumption limits for children and adults due to the amount of As in fish tissue, but the consumption of Epinephelus coioides and Otolithes ruber for both children and adult groups indicated the potential risk for them.
    Keywords: toxic elements, Fish, Oman Sea, Risk Assessment, Bioaccumulation
  • Fatemeh Fakharzadeh *, Mahboubeh Sadat Hosseinzadeh Pages 21-34
    Bufotes sitibundus spreads from Greece eastwards through Turkey, to Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon. It is also reported from Iraq and Iran and is distributed through the Caucasus and Russia to Kazakhstan. Formerly, this species was considered Bufotes viridis with three subspecies, but recent molecular studies have changed the name of the taxon. However, with respect to the patchy distribution range of the species, species distribution models (SDM) are useful methods to predict and identify the potential distribution and suitable habitat for the species. In this study, 62 coordinates of B. sitibundus with 30 variables including six informative bioclimatic environmental variables, namely Bio1 (annual mean temperature), Bio2 (mean diurnal range), Bio4 (temperature seasonality), Bio15 (precipitation seasonality), Bio16 (precipitation of wettest quarter), Bio19 (precipitation of coldest quarter and water vapor pressure (kPa), solar radiation (kJm-2 day-1) for each month of the year, were analyzed. Results show that the solar radiation of the seventh month, the water vapor pressure of the third month, and bio19 (Precipitation of Coldest Quarter) have the highest contribution in distribution patterns of the B. sitibundus. It seems that B. sitibundus is a flexible species and can adapt to different habitats, different altitudes, and different environmental conditions. Therefore, the distribution range of this species is likely to be larger than what has been reported so far.
    Keywords: species distribution models, bioclimatic variables, distribution, Bufotes viridis complex
  • Mosissa Erena *, Taye Dega Pages 35-51
    This study explored the patterns of wildlife products used by the local communities around ‎Jorgo-Wato Protected Forest and its future impacts on the conservation of the forest. Data were ‎collected from households located within a 3 km radius around the forest. Incidences of ‎resource use encountered along the transects revealed that livestock grazing (6.59±3.80/km), ‎debarking trees for beehive preparation (5.8±0.77/km), logging large trees over coffee ‎plantation (5.41±0.35/km), girdling trees (4.66±0.33/km), poaching (4.02±3.32/km), and timber ‎production (3.41±1.10/km) were identified as destructive resource use patterns in the area. ‎However, the use of alternative sources of energy has a positive impact on the future ‎conservation of the Jorgo-Wato Protected Forest. A significant negative relationship (r (9) = -‎‎0.971, p < 0.05) was recorded between fuelwood consumption and distances of households from ‎the forest. The alternative sources of energy use could have a positive impact on the sustainable ‎use of forest and non-forest products.  However, a significant positive (r (9) = 0.900, p > 0.05) ‎relationship was recorded between the mean number of livestock and mean annual income per ‎household (r (9) = 0.930, p > 0.05) which could be attributed to their contribution as sources of ‎income to reduce human pressure from resource extraction. Since the wildlife resource extraction ‎system has not yet been reported from the study area, the finding of this study could provide baseline ‎information for Oromia Forest and Wildlife Enterprise to implement wildlife laws and policies ‎in the area. ‎
    Keywords: Forest products, Local people, Protected area, natural resource
  • Hançer Çakıroğlu *, Fethi BENGIL, Yıldırım Oner Pages 52-67
    It is important to prioritize natural and environmental issues in a balanced way with economic and social issues, when addressing the development progress of the Turkish Defense Industry, which has a high potential in the economy, with a socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable approach. Some approaches for a firm's responsibilities concerning society have typically excluded defense companies from their research, mainly on ideological grounds. On the contrary, the managers of defense companies have concerns that their companies imply to operate in socially responsible ways. Additionally, wildlife and biodiversity are well known that wildlife and biodiversity are under the direct and indirect impact of human activities. Current knowledge on biodiversity points out the requirement of further efforts and resources to increase the understanding and develop more effective conservation strategies. A framework for integration of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and wildlife conservation could increase the effort on this purpose, especially for less studied regions. This research aims to outline managers' characteristics and perceptions as decision-makers of CSR activities in the Turkish Defense Industry and propose a framework for integration between wildlife conservation and the Turkish Defense Industry's CSR. Results highlighted that demographic characteristics and company structure do not impact managers' CSR view as considerably as expected.
    Keywords: Business management, Orientation, Perception, Conservation management, Integration
  • Eve Bohnett *, Kossi Fandjinou, Bilal Ahmad, Siraj Mammo, Dave Hulse, Thomas Hoctor Pages 68-88
    Researchers are challenged to understand the distribution of biodiversity on the landscape or determine if community-level assemblages respond to landscape variability. Canonical ordinations and multispecies occupancy modeling are often utilized and differ in their analytical scale and technique. Community-level data for carnivores (n=18) from camera trapping data (n=60) were tested for their collective response to covariates (distance to villages, roads, plantations, streams, and also topographic variables for elevation and slope) in Bukit Barsan Selatan National Park. Redundancy analysis (RDA) results confirmed that the carnivore community responded to the anthropogenic covariates, with carnivore detections being higher in areas at a high distance from roads and plantations medium distance villages. Then, multispecies occupancy models (MSOM), a comparatively finer temporal scale analysis that incorporated imperfect detections, were compared to RDA. We fit four models (full, anthropogenic, natural, and null) that were mainly inconclusive. In some MSOM models, the carnivore community did respond to environmental covariates, although the coefficients did not show a consistent response between seasons or years. These results indicate that RDA was able to detect broad-scale covariate effects that were not able to be modeled by MSOM and that these scaling and imperfect detection issues should be considered when attempting to understand landscape community diversity.
    Keywords: Biodiversity, carnivores, community ecology, multi-species occupancy, redundancy analysis
  • Ali Zarei, Fatemeh Tabatabaei Yazdi*, Sakineh Rajaee Pages 89-99

    Diet analysis is one of the most basic requirements for understanding species' ecological niches and determining their feeding relationships in an ecosystem. Pellets are common material for investigating diets. In this study, to investigate the diets and food niche overlap of coexisting raptors in NE Iran, a total of 344 pellets were collected during 2017–18. The pellets belonged to common buzzard (Buteo buteo), long-legged buzzard (Buteo rufinus), little owl (Athene noctua), common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus), golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), and Eurasian sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) from the Binalud protected area. Analysis of prey percent frequency showed that the pellets were predominantly composed of the remains of rodents, followed by birds and reptiles. The most frequently captured rodents were jirds (Meriones libycus and M. persicus), followed by a vole (Microtus arvalis). Although the raptors generally utilized small mammalian prey, they showed species-specific preferences and seasonal variations in the share of prey species. According to three niche overlap indices, the largest food overlaps were found between long-legged buzzard with common buzzard, and golden eagle with common buzzard. The smallest food overlap was found between little owl and golden eagle. Seasonal comparison for common buzzard, common kestrel and little owl showed that richness in the prey items was the highest in summer, followed by autumn. In addition to providing valuable information in terms of raptors' food habits and biodiversity, the results of this study can be leveraged in conservation and management programs.

    Keywords: biodiversity, diet, feeding behavior, overlap index, pellets
  • Muammer Kurnaz, Mehmet Kürşat Şahin* Pages 100-119

    Acanthodactylus Wiegmann, 1834 is one of the most diverse and widespread lizard genus in the Palearctic realm. Here, we describe a new species, - Acanthodactylus ilgazi sp. nov. - from the Anatolian Peninsula. This new species ranges approximately 250 km north from the closest population of this genus in Turkey. Compared to other fringe-fingered lizards, the new species is phylogenetically close to A. robustus, A. tristrami and A. orientalis but it has some distinct morphological characteristics: reddish coloration under the tail, a sharp white or grayish stripe in the middle of the dorsum, and four plates in a row on the 4th finger. Moreover, phylogenetic molecular data, based on cyt b gene fragment, verifies that the new species is phylogenetically a member of the tristrami species group with 13.03%, 17.35% and 20.56 genetic distance respectively from A. orientalis, A. tristrami and A. robustus. Lastly, the known range of this species, located in Yazıhan, Malatya in Eastern Anatolia, is restricted by a dam, thus habitat loss endangers its continuity. Therefore, the conservation status of this species should be assessed immediately

    Keywords: Anatolian Peninsula, fringe-fingered lizard, phylogeny, new species, cyt b
  • Asaad Sarshar, Seyed Mahmoud Ghasempouri*, Mansour Aliabadian, Morteza Naderi Pages 120-137

    In this research, the genetic peculiarities of the common partridge (Alectoris chukar) have been investigated using a non-invasive sampling method and microsatellite markers in six loci. During 2014 and 2015, one hundred feather samples have been collected from four northwestern provinces of Iran. Our findings indicated that in Ilam, Kermanshah, and Hersin, two distinct subpopulations have diverged from other populations (Fst = 0.1). The highest diversity was recorded among the Kordestan populations, which can be related to the traditional culture of target species relocation, releasing in different places by the locals. The highest allelic frequency of 13.15 (and effective allelic frequency of 20) was recorded in Marivan subpopulation, which can be related to winter sampling along with the species' narrow migration routes to a warmer region. Because of this, the later subpopulation also showed deviation from the Hardy-Weinberg equation as well. Finally, two stepwise and two steps mutation models didn’t indicate any historical bottleneck, then the species currently face no serious threats.

    Keywords: Common partridge, genetic structure, genetic diversity, microsatellite markers