Journal of Wildlife and Biodiversity
Volume:7 Issue: 1, Winter 2023

The Indian State of Odisha has been the hotspot for extreme weather conditions such as heat waves, cyclones, severe droughts, floods,and extreme cyclones, throughout history. The state is witnessingnatural calamities at analarming frequency challenging sustenance of all sorts. There have been cases of 30 cyclones hitting the state in the last 11 years. Even though the coastline of Odisha constitutes 17% of the eastern coastline of India, it has witnessed damage and destruction of almost 35% of all cyclonic storms which crossed the eastern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Coastal Orrisahas been the battleground for survival from dreadful cyclones in all these cases. Wherever the cyclones make landfall there isasubstantive alterationin the dynamics of landscape and wildlife.On the third and fourth of May 2019 cyclone ‘Fani’ made landfall in Odisha’s coastalforest areascomprising Balukhand wildlife sanctuary and caused catastrophic destruction to its landscape and wildlife resources within only a few hours. The sanctuary previously considered to be an important physiological barrier to the nearby agrarian community because of its denseplantation for controlling soil erosion, turned into a barren land with most of the trees severely damaged.Many studies and strategies have been developed to safeguard the interestsof man and society during such extreme weather events. However, the formulationof proper strategies for the conservationof biodiversity and wildlife, which could have prevented lossand extreme damage to ecology considerably, hasnot been doneso far. The objectives of this paper are to (1) study the pattern of damage to the existing vegetation, (2) analyze the destructionof wildlife andvegetation, and (3) propose biodiversity management and mitigation measures and increase preparedness forsuch cyclonesin the coming future.

The distributional range of the edible dormouse mirrors the close relation of its biology with the community of broad-leaved tree species, mainly beech and oak, providing fattening forages and shelters. Biotopes with beech are more peculiar for the westernpart of the area, in eastern parts various broad-leaved forests with oak species are common, but they considerably overlap. This transition of habitats is obvious in longitudinaldirectionsover Europe and vertical directions in mountainous areas. In a row of places,the species can live in secondary or anthropogeniccommunities. The main factors of the species distribution are nutritionand the protective properties of biotopes;additional factors are revealed in several local niche-modelingstudies.Now thespeciesrange consists of three plots, different by climate and plant composition. The largest European plotembracing the territory from Great Britain and Spain on the west to the Vladimir, Ryazan,and Tambov Oblasts of Russia on the east includes mostly broad-leaved and mixed coniferous-broad-leaved forests with beech and oak. The Volga plot includesbroad-leaved and mixed forests with oak along the Volga and its inflows and plots of other communities. The third Caucasian-Asian plot includes the territory of Russia, Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, and Iran. This is mainly mountainous areas of the Caucasus, Talysh,and Thrace mountainsand adjacent territories, providing habitats with the most various tree compositionand many nut-bearing and fruit trees including from the Fagaceae family.Most of the distributional area is fragmented because of anthropogenic activity and phylogenetic history.

Snow leopards (Panthera uncia)are documented in the higher altitudes of South Asia. The snowleopard is recognized as showcase species in Pakistan. The snowleopardhas been delegated a fundamentally imperilled speciesin Pakistan by the IUCN. Itis vanishing from various areas of its immense assortment of habitats in Asia. The snow leopardlives in elevated zones,preferring mountainous edges, gorges, cliffs, and rough outthrust as its habitat. P. uncia has also been recorded in more rolling terrain and grassy areas. In Pakistan, the P. unciaoccupies relatively parched, elevated districts which include Swat, Dir, Kohistan, and the Chitral territory of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit Baltistan, and Neelam Valley. The fundamental threat to snow leopards is unlawful to trade in leopards, particularly skins, conflict with residents, as well as the absence of protection laws, the capacity to enforce rules, and lack of information. Different hazards include territory trouble, habitat deterioration, abatement of prey, exponential human masses development rate, mining, and neediness of the locals. Many networks are working in Pakistan for the conservation of this species,the main purpose of this review was to highlight the feeding preferences, the effect of climate on this important species, and the area of conflict between humans and snow leopards. The purpose of this review article was to highlight the conflicts with humans and also recommend conservation strategies.

Information on the dietary nicheis an integral and challenging part of conservation planning,and it is essential for understanding the status of a species in biological communities and conservation. In this study, to investigate the diet of little owls Athene noctua(Strigiformes: Strigidae) in northeastern Iran'sKhorasan Razavi Province,a total of 402pellets were collected during 2019-2020.The results indicated that during four seasons, the diets of the studied little owls (contained: 72.9% rodents, 12% insects, 10.1% eulipotyphla, 2.9% birds, and 2.1% reptiles). Rodents, included Muridae, Dipodidae,and Cricetidae families.Muridae had the highest percentages in the pellets (Mus musculus)and (Merionessp.)with48.2% and 33.1%relative abundance,respectively). Thepercentage of rodents in winter,with 82.8% was superior in comparisonto other seasons,and then in autumn with 77.3%,and in spring and summer with 62.9%. Simpson Biodiversity Indexwas 0.653 for the whole year.Springand winter had the highest (0.758), and lowest biodiversity index(0.542), respectively. The implication of the results of this studymightbeintheconservation and management programs, as well.

In the present study, it was hypothesized that micromorphology undergoes a specific evolutionary path at the time of species derivation. Many authors have suggested that the microstructure of the superficial surface of scales hasundergone important adaptations and hasfunctional value in snakes. For testing,this hypothesis, theskin micro-ornamentation of the snakes’genera PseudocerastesandEristicophiswasstudied usinga dino-lite digitalmicroscope and scanning electron microscopy.Skin samples from the dorsalpart of the head in these related vipers were photographed and compared with each other in terms of divergence time.This study demonstrates that microstructures show a progressionfrom an uneven honeycomb(a plesiomorphy)toa smoother and network-free(an autapomorphy) surface structure.

Molecular techniques such as DNA extractionand DNA sequencing are playing an important role in studying the genetic makeup ofthe plant and identifying the evolutionary relationship using DNA barcoding. Extraction ofDNA from plant tissue is often problematic, as many plants contain high levels of secondary metabolites that can interfere with downstream applications, such as PCR. Removal of these secondary metabolites usually requires further purification of the DNA using organic solvents or other toxic substances. In this study, we have focused on the DNA isolation process using three isolation techniques: the cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) method that uses the ionic detergent hexadecyl trimethylammonium bromide and chloroformisoamyl alcohol, BioFACT,and GeneAll methods on desert/rangeland plant includingHalocnemum. The quantityand quality of extracted genomic DNAs werecompared by employing the spectrophotometer, Nano-Drop, agarose gel electrophoresis,polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods,and molecular markerssuch as ISSR. Our results showedthat themodifiedmethod of CTAB provided the best results than the BioFACT and GeneAllmethods for extracting DNA from the tissues of Halocnemum. We present a safe and cost-efficient DNA purification procedure andrecommend using this CTABmethod to extract DNA from plant tissues and to use the young leaf for the highest DNA yields.

Reproductive aspects andlength-weight relationship were measured for the redbelly tilapia, Coptodon zilliiin the Shadegan International Wetland, southwest of Iran.A total of 1161 specimens(520 males and 641 females)werecollected from the wetland during the period from September 2015 to August 2016. Results showed thatthe fish’smean length ranged from 5.2-24cm while the mean weight ranged from 11-265g.The species indicated a positive isometric growth pattern with a ‘b’ value of 2.90and 2.95 for the males and females,respectively. The overall sex ratio(M/F) was 1:0.81. Adultfemales hadan average of180.5 eggs per cm of length. The result of the gonadosomaticindex analysis showed that the period from April toSeptember may be representing the spawning periodof C. zillii.Finally, the long period of spawning shows an effective factor in thereproduction of C. zilliiin the wetland, causing a high abundance of the species.