Introduction A well known microbiologist and I were talking recently about microbial diversity. He asked me, “Microbiologists are not concerned about endangered species, are we?” His attitude reflects the view of many microbiologists. Whereas botanists and zoologists, as well as the public at large, know that many plant and animal species are threatened with extinction, the question as it perta...

Wild primate populations, an unexplored source of information regarding emerging infectious disease, may hold valuable clues to the origins and evolution of some important pathogens. Primates can act as reservoirs for human pathogens. As members of biologically diverse habitats, they serve as sentinels for surveillance of emerging pathogens and provide models for basic research on natural trans...

Unambiguous identification of the sex of live birds is critical in numerous areas of avian research, including studies of alternative reproductive tactics, sexratio manipulation, and conservation biology (e.g. van Rhijn 1973, Snyder and Snyder 1989, Stamps 1990). However, identification of sex can be problematic for researchers dealing with young birds or sexually monomorphic species. Technique...

Translocation, the intentional release of captive-propagated and/or wild-caught animals into the wild in an attempt to establish, reestablish, or augment a population, is a commonly used approach to species conservation. Despite the frequent mention of translocation as an aid in threatened or endangered species recovery plans, translocations have resulted in the establishment of few sustainable...

The scaleshell mussel (Leptodea leptodon) historically occurred in 13 states in the eastern United States. Currently, the species is known from a few scattered populations within the Mississippi River basin in Missouri, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. Scaleshell inhabits medium-sized to large rivers with stable channels and good water quality. The abundance and distribution of scaleshell has decreased ...

Birds are the indicators of ecosystem health. Several environment variables affect diversity, distribution and migration birds. Kahundanda Pokhara Valley is one important hillscapes having different habitat types such as human settlements, forest, farmland, wetland open areas. This study revealed factors affecting diversity birds Kahundanda. The direct observation by “point count” method was ap...

The enforcement of wildlife laws and the captive breeding of threatened/endangered species requires the ability to identify individual animals. DNA profiles of a variety of large North American mammals, birds, and fish were generated using ten different oligonucleotide probes. The probes tested were four multilocus probes [33.6, 33.15, JE46, and (TGTC)5] and six 'human unilocus' probes [MS1 (D1...

Snow-fed River Pinder -a tributary of River Alaknanda in central Himalaya was explored for fish assemblages and habitat specificity. Altogether 27 fish species were reported from three orders, four families and nine genera. Cypriniformes order was dominating followed by Siluriformes and Salmoniformes. Shannon-Weiner diversity index (3.09 to 4.10) and Simpson index of diversity (0.81 to 0.92) of...