4 research outputs found

    Habitat Suitability Modelling of Endangered Kashmir Grey Langur (Semnopithecus ajax) in North Kashmir, India

    No full text
    Habitat Suitability Modelling of Endangered Kashmir Grey Langur (Semnopithecus ajax) in North Kashmir, India Zaffar Rais Mir1*, Junid Nazeer Shah2, Riyaz Ahmad3, Khursheed Ahmad1, Athar Noor4, Intesar Suhail5. 1Division of Wildlife Sciences, Faculty of Forestry, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology- Kashmir, 190025, Jammu and Kashmir, India. 2Natural Resources Conservation Section, Environment Department, Dubai Municipality, Dubai. 3Wildlife Trust of India, Noida, India,201301. 4Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, Uttarakhand India, 248007. 5Department of Wildlife Protection Jammu and Kashmir, India, 190001. Abstract: The Kashmir Grey Langur (Semnopithecus ajax), distributed along some parts of Pakistan, Nepal and India, is endangered [1] mainly due to habitat loss. Its distribution limits are still uncertain and need to be resolved in order to determine its true conservation status. Here, we studied the distribution and the status of this threatened species in North Kashmir, India (Area ~ 10000 km2). From April to July 2016, we surveyed several protected and non-protected forests to collect primary as well as secondary information pertaining to distribution and threats of Kashmir Grey Langur. Program ‘Maxent’ was used for modelling and mapping the current distributional range of the langur in North Kashmir. Rainfall, elevation, slope, aspect, human foot print and other climatic variables were used as environmental layers for running ‘Maxent’. Best model was selected on the basis of highest AUC value. Results indicated that Kashmir Grey Langur is distributed in all the protected areas of North Kashmir including some non protected areas with encounter rates ranging from 0.21 to 5.67 individuals/km. Langur probability distribution map was produced using presence point data and environmental variable raster data in the ‘Maxent’ program. The predictive map indicated probability values ranging from 0.0 – 0.87, indicating different levels of habitat suitability and hence different langur presence probabilities. Based on these considerations, we propose the extension of present distributional range of langur to Kashmir Valley. Key Words: Maxent, Langur distribution, Habitat suitability, Predictive modeling. References: 1. IUCN (2017) IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. http://www.iucnredlist.org/. Accessed 24 December 2017 *Email-Address: [email protected]

    The demise of a wonder: Evolutionary history and conservation assessments of the Wonder Gecko Teratoscincus keyserlingii (Gekkota, Sphaerodactylidae) in Arabia.

    No full text
    Effective biodiversity conservation planning starts with genetic characterization within and among focal populations, in order to understand the likely impact of threats for ensuring the long-term viability of a species. The Wonder Gecko, Teratoscincus keyserlingii, is one of nine members of the genus. This species is distributed in Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, with a small isolated population in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where it is classified nationally as Critically Endangered. Within its Arabian range, anthropogenic activity is directly linked to the species' decline, with highly localised and severely fragmented populations. Here we describe the evolutionary history of Teratoscincus, by reconstructing its phylogenetic relationships and estimating its divergence times and ancestral biogeography. For conservation implications of T. keyserlingii we evaluate the genetic structure of the Arabian population using genomic data. This study supports the monophyly of most species and reveals considerable intraspecific variability in T. microlepis and T. keyserlingii, which necessitate broad systematic revisions. The UAE population of T. keyserlingii likely arrived from southern Iran during the Pleistocene and no internal structure was recovered within, implying a single population status. Regional conservation of T. keyserlingii requires improved land management and natural habitat restoration in the species' present distribution, and expansion of current protected areas, or establishment of new areas with suitable habitat for the species, mostly in northern Abu Dhabi Emirate

    An integrative assessment of the diversity, phylogeny, distribution, and conservation of the terrestrial reptiles (Sauropsida, Squamata) of the United Arab Emirates

    Get PDF
    In the present study we use an unprecedented database of 5,535 distributional records to infer the diversity, ecological preferences and spatial distribution of the 60 species of terrestrial reptiles of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and use the 57 native species to test the effectiveness of the protected areas' network in conserving this unique vertebrate fauna. We infer a time-calibrated phylogeny with 146 species of squamates and 15 genes including all UAE terrestrial reptile species to determine the phylogenetic diversity (PD) and evolutionary distinctiveness (ED) of the native species and to compare it with the distribution of the hotspots of native species richness. The results of this study indicate that the sampling effort is remarkable, covering 75% of the country's territory representing nearly the entire climatic space of the UAE defined by the mean annual temperature and the total annual precipitation, as well as the multivariate climatic space defined by a principal component analysis (PCA). Species richness is highest in the northeast of the country, in a transitional area from sandy desert to the mountainous terrain of the Hajar Mountains. The highest PD of a single square cell of 10 arc-minutes grid is of 2,430 million years (my) of accumulated evolutionary history and the strong correlation between PD and species richness suggests that the raw number of species is a good surrogate to quantify the evolutionary history (i.e., PD). The species with the highest values of ED are those in families represented by only one species in the UAE. Finally, the assessment of the UAE protected areas shows that, despite their relevance in protecting the terrestrial reptiles, they do not offer adequate protection for some threatened species. Therefore, a reassessment of some of the protected areas or the creation of species specific conservation action plans are recommended in order to ensure the preservation of the unique diversity of UAE terrestrial reptiles.This work was funded by grant CGL2015-70390-P from the Ministerio de EconomĂ­a y Competitividad, Spain (cofunded by FEDER) to SC, and grant 2017-SGR-00991 from the Secretaria d’Universitats i Recerca del Departament d’Economia i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya to SC. PT was funded by Fundação para a CiĂȘncia e Tecnologia (FCT) through post-doc grant (SFRH/BPD/93473/2013), financed by Programa Operacional Potencial Humano (POPH) – Quadro de ReferĂȘncia Estrategico Nacional (QREN) from the European Social Fund and Portuguese Ministerio da Educação e CiĂȘncia. HT and MSR were funded by FPI grants from the Ministerio de EconomĂ­a y Competitividad, Spain (BES-2016-078341 and BES-2013-064248, respectively). JS was funded by the Czech Science Foundation (GACR, project number 18-15286Y) and the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic (DKRVO 2018/14, National Museum, 00023272). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript
    corecore