In the last four decades, dugong (Dugong dugon) aggregations have been rarely reported from the geographically isolated, vast seascape of the Andaman Islands, India. The Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, hunting, coastal development, and habitat loss are the major causes of this change in the social system of dugongs in …
PANJIM: Claiming that inclusion of Goa region of Western Ghat in the World Heritage Site of UNESCO will put the place on par with other unique sites across the World, the State Government has given its green signal to the proposal to include State’s 755 sq kms protected area on …
Climate is one of the main drivers of species distribution. However, as different environmental factors tend to co-vary, the effect of climate cannot be taken at face value, as it may be either inflated or obscured by other correlated factors. We used the favourability models of four species (Alytes dickhilleni, …
A ‘life map’ of biodiversity showing the organisation of terrestrial life on Earth has been updated after more than a century. The original map, drawn up by British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace in 1876, was the first attempt to depict the myriad ways life has evolved on the world’s continents. …
Mammals could be at greater risk of extinction due to a higher frequency of extreme conditions such as cyclones and droughts spurred by climate change, scientists have warned. Researchers from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) have mapped out land mammal populations, and overlapped this with information of where droughts …
A mass stranding of whales has been found on the coast of North Andaman Island, but rescue operations were not possible given the large size of the mammals, wildlife officials today said. Around 40 Short Finned Pilot Whales that normally live in the deep sea were found lying near Elizabeth …
For proper management of a wildlife reserve, it is essential to get estimates of occurrence, abundance, density and biomass of herbivores that in turn determine the density of carnivores. The Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Wildlife Sanctuary (BRT WLS) is a critical conservation region as it is a living bridge between the …
Delay in the hibernation emergence date of female Columbian ground squirrels in Canada over 20 years is related to climatic conditions other than increasing temperature, and as years of later emergence are associated with decreased individual fitness, plastic responses to climate change may be associated with declines in population viability.
Two biggest cargo carriers affirm that they will not ship mammals and non-human primates, as activist pressure mounts to stop research-animal airlifts.
The Japanese river otter has been designated as extinct now that none has been seen for more than 30 years, according to a report released Tuesday by the Environment Ministry. Long categorized as an endangered species, the river otter is the first mammal to be declared extinct since the ministry …
The area around forests has had several human-animal conflicts Solar fences will henceforth secure human settlements and farmlands in the three forest divisions of Wayanad from wild animal raids that have lead to several man-animal conflicts in recent years. Solar fences will be installed along a length of 300 km …
We conducted detailed resurveys of a montane mammal, Urocitellus beldingi, to examine the effects of climate change on persistence along the trailing edge of its range. Of 74 California sites where U. beldingi were historically recorded (1902–1966), 42 per cent were extirpated, with no evidence for colonization of previously unoccupied …
The Forest Department is all set to conduct a bird census in the Biligiriranganathaswamy Tiger (BRT) Reserve forest in November, after a gap of 15 years. The Biligiriranganabetta is a unique hill where the Eastern and Western Ghats meet. It is home to more than 1,000 varieties of plants. Twenty-four …
Interest in forecasting impacts of climate change have heightened attention in recent decades to how animals respond to variation in climate and weather patterns. One difficulty in determining animal response to climate variation is lack of long-term datasets that record animal behaviors over decadal scales. We used radar observations from …
The destruction of great swaths of the Brazilian Amazon has turned scores of rare species into the walking dead, doomed to disappear even if deforestation were halted in the region overnight, according to a new study. Forest clearing in Brazil has already claimed casualties, but the animals lost to date …
The proportion of organisms exposed to warm conditions is predicted to increase during global warming. To better understand how bats might respond to climate change, we aimed to obtain the first data on how use of torpor, a crucial survival strategy of small bats, is affected by temperature in the …
The Guassa area of Menz in the Central Highlands of Ethiopia is an Afro-alpine ecological community with an indigenous resource management system. The local community harvest different resources including collecting grass and firewood from the Guassa area. Cattle and other livestock are also grazed in the Guassa area, especially during …
The Red list of threatened species, prepared by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), has listed 132 species of plants and animals as Critically Endangered, the most threatened category, from India. Plants seemed to be the most threatened life form with 60 species being listed as Critically Endangered …
When faced with rapidly changing environments, wildlife species are left to adapt, disperse or disappear. Consequently, there is value in investigating the connectivity of populations of species inhabiting different environments in order to evaluate dispersal as a potential strategy for persistence in the face of climate change. Here, we begin …
The Lakshadweep group of islands, one of the most biologically diverse and fragile environments in India, is under pressure from population, urbanisation, development of tourism, unregulated construction, pollution, and land use changes. A study on the state of the environment of the union territory, conducted by the Kerala State Council …
A survey of hunting and consumption of wild animals among the Sherpas community in and around Singhalila National Park was conducted. Rate and pattern of hunting of animal species, their importance to respondents, hunting techniques, and reasons for hunting were studied.
