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The present study aimed at predicting the potential habitat of Western Hoolock Gibbon (Hoolock hoolock) in the upper Brahmaputra River Valley, Assam, India, and identifying priority conservation areas for the species, taking canopy cover into account. We used the maximum entropy algorithm for the prediction of the potential habitat of the gibbon using its current distribution with 19 environmental parameters as primary predictors. Spatio-temporal analyses of the habitat were carried out using satellite-based remote sensing and GIS techniques for two decades (1998–2018) along with Terra Modis Vegetation Continuous Field product to examine land use land cover (LULC), habitat fragmentation, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and tree cover percentage of the study area. To identify the conservation priority area, we applied a cost-effective decision-making analysis using systematic conservation prioritization in R programming. The model predicted an area of 6025 km2 under high potential habitat, a major part of which was found to overlap with dense forest (80%), followed by moderately open forest (74%) and open forest (66%). The LULC change matrix showed a reduction of forest area in the predicted high potential habitat during the study period, while agricultural class showed an increasing trend. The fragmentation analysis indicated that the number of patches and patch density increased from 2008 to 2018 in the ‘very dense’ and ‘dense’ canopy regions of the gibbon habitat. Based on the conservation priority analysis, a 640 km2 area has been proposed to conserve a minimum of 10% of gibbon habitat. The current analysis revealed that in the upper Brahmaputra Valley most areas under dense forest and dense canopy have remained intact over the last two decades, at least within the high potential habitat zone of gibbons independent of the degree of area change in forest, agriculture and plantation.

Avifaunal survey of an Eastern Himalayan biodiversity hotspot area - Jeypore Reserve Forest was carried out from July 2007 to July 2009. Altogether 270 species of avian fauna belonging to 56 families were identified during the survey, of which 58 species were frugivorous, 34 omnivorous, 15 carnivorous, 22 picivorous, five grainivorous and 136 were insectivorous in nature. Of all the bird species recorded, 14 were globally threatened species, five were endemic to this region, 153 were resident common species, 87 resident rare species, 16 migratory common species and 14 were migratory rare species. The endemic species recorded in the study area were Anorrhinus tickelli, Sphenocichla humei, Pellorneum palustre, Yuhina bakeri and Heterophasia pulchella. The globally threatened species include two Critically Endangered, Gyps indicus and Gyps bengalensis, one Endangered, Cairina scutulata, four Vulnerable, Leptoptilos javanicus, Francolinus gularis, Columba punicea, Turdoides longitostris, and seven Near Threatened, Anhinga melanogaster, Arborophila atrogularis, Anorrhinus tickelli, Buceros bicornis, Sphenocichla humei, Pellorneum palustre and Ichthyophaga ichthyaetus.

Specimen based records of two vespertilionid bats namely Pipistrellus ceylonicus and Tylonycteris fulvida are provided for the first time from the state of Assam in northeastern India. Based on review of existing literature and examinations of museum specimens, we also furnish a checklist of the bat fauna of Assam with distribution, which includes 32 species in 17 genera.

Tropical forests have undergone repeated fragmentation and expansion during Pleistocene glacial and interglacial periods, respectively. The effects of this repeated forest fragmentation in driving vicariance in tropical taxa have been well studied. However, relatively little is known about how often this process results in allopatric speciation, since it may be inhibited by recurrent gene flow during repeated secondary contact, or to what extent Pleistocene-dated speciation results from ecological specialization in the face of gene flow. Here, divergence times and gene flow between three closely-related mosquito species of the Anopheles dirus species complex endemic to the forests of Southeast Asia, are inferred using coalescent based Bayesian analysis. An Isolation with Migration model is applied to sequences of two mitochondrial and three nuclear genes, and 11 microsatellites. The divergence of An. scanloni has occurred despite unidirectional nuclear gene flow from this species into An. dirus. The inferred asymmetric gene flow may result from the unique evolutionary adaptation of An. scanloni to limestone karst habitat, and therefore the fitness advantage of this species over An. dirus in regions of sympatry. Mitochondrial introgression has led to the complete replacement of An. dirus haplotypes with those of An. baimaii through a recent (approximately 62 kya) selective sweep. Speciation of An. baimaii and An. dirus is inferred to have involved allopatric divergence throughout much of the Pleistocene. Secondary contact and bidirectional gene flow has occurred only within the last 100 000 years, by which time the process of allopatric speciation seems to have been largely completed.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Coinfection of neurocysticercosis (NCC) and Japanese encephalitis (JE) has been advocated as more than a chance occurrence resulting in poor outcome. We undertook this study to determine whether the association of the 2 infections is more than a chance occurrence, to define the imaging characteristics of coinfections, and to explore the synergistic effect of NCC in JE. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixty-two patients with JE were studied by MR imaging and CT. CT was done in 53 and MR imaging in 53 patients. The diagnosis of JE was established by CSF JE virus immunoglobulin M capture (MAC) enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). NCC was diagnosed from imaging. A control group of 385 patients was evaluated by imaging for prevalence of NCC in the general population. RESULTS: A significantly high association of NCC with JE (19.3%) was observed in comparison with prevalence of NCC in control subjects (1.04%; P = .0003). JE lesions in coinfection were significantly asymmetric with lateralization to the side of the brain having the maximum NCC or a cyst with edema. The JE lesions in coinfections were more florid, with a significantly higher proportion of abnormal CT scans and more abnormal MR imaging. Coinfections were significantly more common in children. Significantly lower CSF MAC-ELISA units in patients with coinfection reflected low CSF IgM levels, suggesting altered immune status. CONCLUSION: In our series, there was a strong association between JE and NCC, and, thus, this coinfection was more than a chance occurrence.

Food and feeding patterns of great Indian one-horned Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) has been studied in Rajiv Gandhi Orang National Park. Altogether 75 species of grasses, 27 species of herbs-shrubs, 27 species of trees, and 9 species of aquatic plants species were identified as a food-plant species of Indian Rhino in the study area. Of the total 75 species of grasses, 48 species had a relative dominance of Saccharum spontaneumwas ranked as the highest relative dominance food-plant among grasses (relative dominance value, 8.45%), while theCyperus pilosusranked the lowest (relative dominance value, 0.08%). Among 27 herbs-shrubs species, three had a relative dominance of Diplazium esculentumwas ranked the highest relative dominance food plants among herbs-shrubs food plants (relative dominance value, 13.83%), while the Solanum viarum was ranked the lowest (relative dominance value, 0.66%). All tree species had a relative dominance of >1.0. TheDalbergia sissooranked the highest among all trees (relative dominance value, 7.94%), while theAnthocephalus cadambaranked the lowest (value, 1.19%). Grasses constituted 86.66% of the total annual diet of Rhino, while the aquatic and woodland species constituted only 13.34% of the total annual diet. Altogether 71 plants species were identified as the Rhino food plants at Rajiv Gandhi Orang National Park. Of which, grasses constituted the highest (42 species), followed by woodland species (trees, herbs-shrubs), (20 species) and aquatic plants (9 species). The grass speciesHemarthria compressacontributed a highest of 11.63%, while the aquatic plantPolygonum hydropiperwas the least of 0.01% in total annual diet. Out of total 42 food-plant species, 20 grass species had no selectivity. TheHemarthria compressawas the top ranking grass species that has been selected as food by the Indian Rhino. Altogether, 36 food-plants (24 grasses, 9 woodland species, and 3 aquatic species) were identified as the staple food that constituted 83.64% of the total annual diet. Study showed that ten top ranking food plants constituted 56.44% and 20 top ranking food plants constituted 72.19% of the total annual diet. Thus, the grass species alone have enough to provide food for Indian Rhino in Rajiv Gandhi Orang National Park. Soil licking and crop depredation by the Indian Rhino were common in the fringe villages in study area.

Anopheles dirus and Anopheles baimaii are closely related species which feed on primates, particularly humans, and transmit malaria in the tropical forests of mainland Southeast Asia. Here, we report an in-depth phylogeographic picture based on 269 individuals from 21 populations from mainland Southeast Asia. Analysis of 1537 bp of mtDNA sequence revealed that the population history of A. baimaii is far more complex than previously thought. An old expansion (pre-300 kyr BP) was inferred in northern India/Bangladesh with a wave of south-eastwards expansion arriving at the Thai border (ca 135-173 kyr BP) followed by leptokurtic dispersal very recently (ca 16 kyr BP) into peninsular Thailand. The long and complex population history of these anthropophilic species suggests their expansions are not in response to the relatively recent (ca 40 kyr BP) human expansions in mainland Southeast Asia but, rather, fit well with our understanding of Pleistocene climatic change there.

The Enterococcus flora of duck intestines consisted of E faecalis and E faecium in ducklings less than eight weeks old and E faecalis, E faecium and E gallinarum in ducks more than eight weeks old. The enterococci were resistant to several antibiotics; chloramphenicol and gentamycin sulphate were the only antibiotics of those tested which were moderately effective. All the Enterococcus species isolates were resistant to the macrolide and lincosamide antibiotics.