Animal Adaptations: Evolution of Forms and Functions

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Clarke, G. P., White, P. C. L. & Harris, S. Effects of roads on badger Meles meles populations in south-west England. Biol. Conserv. 86, 117–124 (1998). Although a large number of seasonally breeding rodent species are known, most studies have centred on the elucidation of pineal function in the control of reproduction in case of temperate zone animals ( Pevet et al., 1987; Hoffmann, 1981b; Pevet et al., 1986). Majumder, A. Prey Selection, Food Habits and Population Structure of Sympatric Carnivores: Tiger Panthera tigris tigris (L.), Leopard Panthera pardus (L.) and Dhole Cuon alpinus (Pallas) in Pench Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh (India) (Saurashtra University, Rajkot, 2011).

Roads also cause some species to respond by avoidance of habitat near high traffic roads at peak traffic hours 6, 7. This avoidance of roadside habitat could result in the road becoming a barrier to animal movement 8. In addition to the risk of local species extinction 9, mortality and barrier effects together alter wildlife movement 10, 11 leading to isolation of populations 12, 13. With the global road network growth projected at more than 60% 14, and rampant increase in worldwide vehicle ownership 15, these impacts are set to accelerate in magnitude. Avadh Saxena, the American Group Leader of Physics of Condensed Matter and Complex Systems Group (T-4) at Los Alamos National Laboratory The incidence of PAHs in a significant number of our day-by-day food substances represents a grave risk to humans. Human exposure to high concentrations of PAHs via food consumption may bring about injurious and harmful impacts [43]. Contaminants in food have been accounted for by numerous researchers and every one of the potential contaminants can be connected to an assortment of harmful impacts. Every adverse effect observed relies upon various components, like exposure intensity, rate or frequency, duration, route and dose, and/or concentration; subtleties of the individual like age and health status [44], [45], [46]. Most PAHs are capable of causing cancer that accounts for the significant effect of the risk characterizations. However, it is often hard to attribute a given health effect in epidemiological studies to a particular PAH compound since PAHs exist as a mixture of different PAH compounds [47]. In general, the higher molecular weight PAHs are more hydrophobic, toxic and recalcitrant [48].We present a framework to identify species and roads vulnerable to AVC as a function of road, traffic and species characteristics, using data from traffic simulations under different traffic heterogeneity and volume scenarios, and morphometry and behavioural data of six widespread large mammals of Central India. The study was conducted on a 60 km stretch of the National Highway 44 (NH 44) passing through the Pench Tiger Reserve (PTR) in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra states.

The antimalaria potential and insecticidal activity of A. boonei has been reported recently ( Iyiola et al., 2011; Oigiangbe et al., 2007). Plant extracts preparation: Fresh samples of the stem bark of A. boonei were air dried in the laboratory at room temperature and pulverized to fine powder. Exactly 400 g of the fine powder obtained was percolated in 1600 mL for 72 h after which it was filtered. The filtrate collected evaporated to dryness using a temperature-regulated water bath pre-set at 40°C to yield the extract concentrate. The extract was stored at 4°C prior to use. A. boonei De Wild (Apocyanaceae) is a medicinal plant used extensively in West and Central Africa for the treatment of malaria, fever, intestinal helminths, rheumatism, hypertension ( Terashima, 2003; Betti, 2004; Abel and Busia, 2005).Langevelde, F. & Jaarsma, C. F. Using traffic flow theory to model traffic mortality in mammals. Landsc. Ecol. 19, 895–907 (2004). Neha Saxena, a film actress who acts mainly Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu, Hindi language films The aqueous extract of A. boonei was formulated in distilled water corresponding to the dosages 100, 200, 400 and 800 mg kg -1 b.wt. of mice and the standard antimalarial Chloroquine (5 mg kg -1 b.wt. of mice) were also prepared. Barrientos, R. & Bolonio, L. The presence of rabbits adjacent to roads increases polecat road mortality. Biodivers. Conserv. 18, 405–418. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-008-9499-9 (2009). Erritzoe, J., Mazgajski, T. D. & Rejt, Ł. Bird casualties on european roads—a review. Acta Ornithol. 38, 77–93 (2003).

We photo-captured a total of 6043 photographs across 23 mammals, and 3624 images of our study species. The total sampling effort was 3024 camera-days at 216 camera trapping locations. Tiger and leopard were not considered for this analysis owing to low number of captures (n = 12 and n = 1 respectively) and larger home ranges as compared to the trapping area. The behaviour of animals, in terms of activity patterns in the vicinity of roads, was incorporated into the model in the form of AVC risk, which is the AVC probability under a specific hourly traffic volume for a species, multiplied by the activity (hourly detection probability) of the animal near the road. Haematological analysis: From the respective groups above, four mice were sacrificed from each of the groups on days 3, 8 and 14 post-infection and blood samples collected in heparinized sample bottles were submitted for haematological examination. We calculated AVC probability ( P h) under different scenarios of traffic heterogeneity on 2-lane and 4-lane sections of the road using Eq. ( 1). The exposure risk in seconds i.e., the time on the road for which an animal would be vulnerable to collision as a function of road width and P h was also calculated. Influence of animal activity on AVC risk

Mitigation of roadkill and barrier effects of rapidly expanding road networks requires identification of road sections that may cause animal mortalities and barriers to animal movement, and species most likely to be involved in AVCs 8. Studies that take into account road, traffic and landscape characteristics along with species presence, activity and movement characteristics 8, 25, 32 have been able to predict mortality and barrier hotspots across road networks. However, the interaction among risk factors contributing to roadkill and barrier effects to inform mitigation strategies is largely missing from such models. Moreover, mitigation for rapidly expanding road networks should also be informed by road and traffic characteristics such as road types, and projections of traffic growth 33 and traffic composition or ‘heterogeneity’ that is the proportion of different vehicle types in a traffic flow 8.

The extract prevented a drastic reduction in PCV, RBC and Hb values, features typical of the infection, malaria. This observation is supported by a report stating that anaemia is characterized by decreased values of RBC, Hb and hematocrit ( Aleksandro et al., 2009). In addition, we have also observed a decline in WBC counts in the different experimental groups of infected and treated mice when compared to experimental control mice. Table 4:Rico, A., Kindlmann, P. & Sedlacek, F. Barrier effect of roads on movement of small mammals. Folia Zool. 56(1), 1–12 (2007). Johnsingh, A. J. T. & Manjrekar, N. (eds) Mammals of South Asia (Universities Press, Hyderabad, 2015). Shepard, D. B., Kuhns, A. R., Dreslik, M. J. & Philips, C. A. Roads as barriers to animal movement in fragmented landscapes. Anim. Conserv. 11, 288–296. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-1795.2008.00183.x (2008). Hubbard, M. W., Danielson, B. J. & Schmitz, R. A. Factors influencing the location of deer-vehicle accidents in Iowa. J. Wildl. Manag. 64, 707–712 (2000).