Predators, particularly those living in deserts, use two main foraging strategies, namely sit-andwait or wide foraging. The Moorish gecko Tarentola mauritanica, a gecko frequently inhabiting humanized habitats, has been repeatedly classified as a sit-and-wait predator. However, previous data on dietary composition in natural habitats suggest a wide foraging strategy for this species. This study...

A recent study reports striking similarities in the origin and spread of parthenogenesis in two distantly related animals of the Australian arid zone, suggesting that the loss of sex was driven by a very general selective force.

Rhodopechys sangineus phylogeny together with a group of Carduelini finches has been analyzed. Mitochondrial cyt b molecule has been used for species comparison and maximum likelihood and Bayesian methods have been employed in order to obtain a solid phylogeny. Compared Carduelini finches groups include: Greenfinches, “Arid-Zone” finches and Genera Rhodopechys and Pyrrhula species. Our results ...

Drought induced nepotistic behaviour in the Indian Black ibis (Pseudibis papillosa) inhabiting the arid zone of Rajasthan has been studied. The aim of the present study is to know about any breeding abnormalities induced in the Indian Black ibis by seasonal tragedy like drought. As such the nepotistic behaviour is not found in the Black ibis (Pseudibis papillosa) during normal season. Drought i...

Arid zone of Rajasthan, India, has its own importance, great diversity and specific characteristic with respect to endemic and large number of plants of economic importance and medicinal use. Out of these, three arid zone plants Gisekia pharnaceoides L., Gisekiaceae, Sericostoma pauciflorum Stocks ex Wight, Boraginaceae, and Trianthema decandra L., Aizoaceae, which are traditionally used for di...

estimated effective precipitation (pe) in dryland areas is an essential element of water resource management. itrepresents the amount of precipitation available in the crop root zone to meet the needs of evapotranspiration. thecurrent study compared different approaches for estimating pe in different climatic zones of iran. a two-layer soil–water balance (swb) model was adopted based on the pro...

Estimated Effective Precipitation (Pe) in dryland areas is an essential element of water resource management. Itrepresents the amount of precipitation available in the crop root zone to meet the needs of evapotranspiration. Thecurrent study compared different approaches for estimating Pe in different climatic zones of Iran. A two-layer soil–water balance (SWB) model was adopted based on the pro...

We investigated the importance of energy-conserving strategies for free-ranging Planigale gilesi in arid Australia. We monitored torpor use and basking behaviour using internal temperature-sensitive transmitters. Torpor was used every day; the maximum torpor bout duration was 18.2 h and the minimum body temperature was 10.5 C. Basking behaviour was observed during rewarming from torpor as well ...

Serum progesterone and estradiol-17β levels were estimated in Nili Ravi buffaloes (n=190) with and without fetal membranes retention in three agro-ecological zones of Punjab. The results showed that serum progesterone concentration was significantly higher (P<0.05) in buffaloes with retention of fetal membranes (RFM) compared to buffaloes without retention of fetal membranes (NRFM). The compari...