Urial Research Articles

Piecing Together Sha Po: Archaeological Investigations and Landscape Reconstruction by Mick Atha and Kennis Yip

Piecing Together Sha Po: Archaeological Investigations and Landscape Reconstruction by Mick Atha and Kennis Yip

Analysis of molecular genetic diversity of endangered Punjab urial (Ovis vignei punjabiensis) based on interleukin 2 gene sequences

Analysis of molecular genetic diversity of endangered Punjab urial (Ovis vignei punjabiensis) based on interleukin 2 gene sequences

Mick Atha & Kennis Yip . Piecing together Sha Po: archaeological investigations and landscape reconstruction. 2016. xviii+260 pages, numerous colour and b&w illustrations, 2 tables. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press; 978-988-8208-98-2 hardback £50.

Mick Atha & Kennis Yip . Piecing together Sha Po: archaeological investigations and landscape reconstruction. 2016. xviii+260 pages, numerous colour and b&w illustrations, 2 tables. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press; 978-988-8208-98-2 hardback £50. - Volume 91 Issue 359

Mick Atha and Kennis Yip, Piecing Together Sha Po: Archaeological Investigations and Landscape Reconstruction,

Piecing Together Sha Po est un ouvrage d’archeologie retracant les quelques 6 500 ans d’occupation humaine de Sha Po, un village cotier au nord-ouest de l’ile de Lamma a Hong Kong. Habitant l’ile depuis dix ans, les auteurs, Mick Atha et Kennis Yip, sont deux archeologues formes a York en Angleterre. Le premier enseigne sa discipline a l’Universite chinoise de Hong Kong tandis que la seconde est consultante professionnelle en archeologie. Y ayant mene de nombreuses fouilles, ils s’appuient su...

Predation of montane deserts ungulates by Asiatic CheetahAcinonyx jubatus venaticusin Central Iran

The Asiatic cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus venaticus), has disappeared in major parts of its mountainous habitats in west Asia. Asiatic cheetah is a critically endangered subspecies currently found only in central Iran. In this study, the feeding habits of Asiatic cheetah was investigated in two reserves in central Iran. Diet and prey selection of cheetah were assessed using two biomass models along with Jacob's selectivity index. We found no significant difference between biomass consumption based on each model between the reserves or between models inside each reserve. Over 90 % of species diet was composed of three medium-sized ungulates (i.e. 15–40 kg): wild sheep, wild goat and chinkara. Hares and other small mammals (less than 15 kg) made up the remainder of their diet. Asiatic cheetahs mainly preyed on wild sheep (Ovis vignei) which composed more than 50 % of consumed biomass. Wild sheep was identified as single staple prey, while chinkara (Gazella bennettii) was the most preferred prey despite its lower occurrence. Our study indicates that wild sheep, wild goat and especially chinkara are critical for persistence of Asiatic cheetah and must be particularly considered in conservation plans.

Морфологическая и молекулярная характеристика некоторых видов нематод семейства Protostrongylidae Leiper, 1926

Objective of research: conducting morphological and molecular-genetic identification and studying phylogenetic relations between protostrongylids. Materials and methods: helminthological material was collected from wild (Capra sibirica, C. falconeri, Ovis vignei and O. ammon) and domestic hollow horned ruminants (C. hircus and O. aries), and land mollusks of the family Xeropicta in the piedmont and mountain area of Uzbekisan. The morphology of protostrongylids was studied using the methods of Boev (1975) and Anderson (1978). To identify the nematode type we used temporary preparations treated with glycerol. The first-stage larvae were investigated by examination of fecal samples from animals taking into account the length, tail form and body size. To study the morphology of the third-stage protostrongylid larvae the feet of infected mollusks Xeropicta candaсharica were separated and placed into the artificial gastric juice where the cap was destroyed and the infected larvae were eliminated. After determination of species belonging of mature and larval nematodes the material was stored in separate test-tubes with distilled water under the low temperature (- 20 ºС) or in 70 % Ethanol for the molecular analysis. We used microscopes ML 2000 with a digital camera and Olympus CX3. DNA extraction, amplification and sequencing were performed with an automated sequencer. Phylogenetic analysis was conducted using the software Clustal X 2.0. Phylogenetic trees were created by the Neighbor–Joining method. Nucleotide sequences ITS-2 regions of species Protostrongylus rufescens (EU018485), P. shiozawai (AB478249), Ortostrongylus macrotis (EU018483), Cystocaulus ocreatus (EU018481) and Umingmakstrongylus pallikuukensis (AY648409) received from the NCBI GenBank were used in phylogenetic analysis. Results and discussion: Four species of adult protostrongylid nematodes: Protostrongylus rufescens, P. hobmaieri, Spiculocaulus leuckarti and Cystocaulus ocreatus were determined. DNA from four species of mature protostrongylids and larvae was amplified by using ITS-2 regions. Amplificate dimension of nematodes P. rufescens and P. hobmaieri was 380 base pairs (b.p.), S. leuckarti – 388, C. ocreatus – 399 b.p. According to the results of phylogenetic analysis and comparison of nucleotide sequences, five protostrongylid species were found in animals of the Caprinae subfamily: P. rufescens, P. hobmaieri, Protostrongylus sp., S. leuckarti and C. ocreatus. The morphological and molecular-genetic analysis of detected nematodes enables the precise identification.

Short tandem repeat (STR) based genetic diversity and relationship of domestic sheep breeds with primitive wild Punjab Urial sheep (Ovis vignei punjabiensis)

In this study, short tandem repeat (STR) genotypes of 466 sheep from eleven domestic breeds located in Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America were compared with wild Asian Urial sheep and captive Mouflon type sheep to assess genetic diversity and relationship among them. Analysis of sheep breeds at 19 short tandem repeat (STR) loci revealed higher diversity in wild Punjab Urial sheep and domestic sheep from West Asia followed by Europe and Latin America as compared to South Asia, consistent with the history of sheep domestication. The average inter-individual allele sharing distance within breed was found to be lowest in South Asian sheep as compared to West Asian, European and Latin American sheep populations. The estimated global FST revealed 15.9% of total variation attributable to between breed differences. Investigation of genetic relationship by phylogeny revealed four distinct clusters; the first cluster formed by four South Asian sheep breeds, the second cluster formed by Iraqi and Bulgarian sheep breeds; the third cluster formed by Iranian, Austrian, Burkina Faso and Peruvian sheep breeds and the fourth cluster formed by Punjab Urial and captive mouflon type sheep. Principal components analysis revealed individuals from Punjab Urial sheep population being distributed close to the cluster of West Asian and East European sheep (Hamdani-Karakachanska-West Palminska) while being distinct from the cluster of four Indian breeds. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) was performed to assess the distribution of STR variation as a function of both breed membership and geographic origin, the results of which revealed the structure based on phylogeny to be evidently stronger than the structure based on geographic origin. Bayesian clustering of individuals without prior population information revealed the most appropriate K with nine genetic clusters. In conclusion, the present study showed the Punjab Urial sheep being genetically closer to West Asian and East European sheep breeds as compared to South Asian sheep breeds. The microsatellite based nuclear DNA variations, thus confirmed the wild Punjab Urial sheep did not share any recent common ancestry with Asian domestic sheep, as reported earlier based on mitochondrial sequence variations.

Mitochondrial DNA D-Loop diversity and evolutionary relationship of wild Punjab Urial sheep (Ovis vignei punjabiensis) with closely related taxa

The taxonomy and systematics of wild sheep is complex with several classifications and revisions proposed on the basis of morphology, geographic distribution and chromosome number. Punjab Urial (O. vignei punjabiensis), an important sub-species of O. vignei is distributed in Pakistan and is classified under vulnerable category. The taxonomic status of this sub-species remains uncertain and the present study is an attempt to assess its mitochondrial DNA diversity and evolutionary relationship with closely related taxa. Analysis of mitochondrial DNA D-Loop of O. vignei punjabiensis revealed wide variations in the number and pattern of tandem repeats as compared to other Moufloniform wild sheep. With the exception of tandem repeat regions, a total of 117 sequences coveringan overlapping region of 748bp from nine wild and domestic sheep populations were analyzed. The nucleotide and haplotype diversity was low to moderate within different sheep populations and Punjab Urial sheep exhibiting a mean of 0.0043 and 0.829 respectively. The average pairwise differences within population varied from 0.67 (O. musimon) to 23.69 (Kachi) while the average differences between Urial sheep and other Moufloniform wild sheep populations was high indicating the distinctness of O. vignei. Bayesian and maximum likelihood phylogeny clearly established the divide between the lineages of O. vignei and O. orientalis populations. Also, the average pairwise differences between O. vignei bochariensis and O. vignei punjabiensis were significantly higher (P<0.01) despite both the populations being classified as sub-species of Urial type sheep. To compare O. vignei punjabiensis with Argaliform and Pachyceriform wild sheep, pairwise FST between populations were utilized to perform principal components analysis (PCA). PCA revealed clustering of Asiatic (O. orientalis), European (O. musimon) and Captive Mouflon type sheep together, while O. nivicola and O. canadensis clustered separately. O. ammon and O. vignei bochariensis were observed to be clustering together while O. vignei punjabiensis was located distinctly. The tests for selective neutrality indicated purifying selection in Punjab Urial sheep while Asiatic Mouflon appears to have experienced a strong population bottleneck in the recent past. Considering the declining population trend and loss in genetic diversity due to possible genetic bottleneck events, there is an urgent need to implement strong conservation measures for O. vignei punjabiensis in the region.

Infection levels of protostrongylid nematodes in definitive caprine and intermediate gastropod hosts from Uzbekistan.

Morphological analysis of lungworms collected among Caprinae from Uzbekistan resulted in the identification of four species of Protostrongylidae: Protostrongylus rufescens, Protostrongylus hobmaieri, Spiculocaulus leuckarti and Cystocaulus ocreatus. The following species were recorded as definitive hosts: Ovis aries, Ovis ammon, Ovis vignei, Capra hircus, Capra falconeri and Capra sibirica. The prevalence of P. rufescens reached 45.3%, followed by S. leuckarti and C. ocreatus with 31.7% and P. hobmaieri with 16.9%. The sex ratio ranged between 1:3.1 and 1:6.2, with P. hobmaieri showing the strongest predominance of females over males. The prevalence of infection of small ruminants with protostrongylid nematodes increased with the age of the hosts. Protostrongyles use terrestrial gastropods as intermediate hosts, and infective larvae were found in the species Vallonia costata, Gibbulinopsis signata, Pupilla muscorum, Pseudonapaeus albiplicata, Pseudonapaeus sogdiana, Leucozonella ferghanica, Xeropicta candacharica, Candaharia levanderi and Macrochlamys sogdiana. Xeropicta candacharica was the most abundant gastropod and had the highest prevalence of infection with protostrongylids. Adult X. candacharica had a significantly higher infection intensity than juveniles. The epidemiology of protostrongylid infections is dynamic and subject to considerable changes. Further characterization of the interaction of protostrongylid parasites with their terrestrial gastropods as intermediate hosts and Caprinae as definitive hosts is required to understand these processes and to monitor the effects of changing ecological contexts.

ENTREPRENEURIAL LEADERSHIP IN THE UNIVERSITY CONTEXT: REALITY OR MYTH? EVIDENCE FROM PAKISTAN

The purpose of thi s paper is t o ex amine the phenomena of entrepreneurial leadership in the context of Pakistani universities in an attempt to justify its role, value and applicability. In general, entrepreneurial leaders are vital to successful transformation of traditional universities into entrepreneurial ones. A comparative case study approach was adopted whereby 30 semi-structured interviews were conducted in six public and private universities. This study reveals that entrepreneurial leadership (EL) works at the operational level of university hierarchy instead of a top down approach. A ‘university push model’ is found more effective than a ‘government pull model’ whereby we propose a conceptual model indicating e nt re pre ne uri al ori e nt at i on as pre re qui si te f or c re at i ng entrepreneurial culture for the development of EL. Challenges are addressed to the implementation of EL in different sectors. The research contributes to our knowledge of entrepreneurial leadership, especially in the Pakistani context, where little real effort has been made so far

Meta-analysis evidence of maternal lineages in Chinese Tibetan sheep using mtDNA D-loop panel

The Tibetan sheep is an indigenous breed living in the entire Tibetan Plateau, and its origin and phylogenic relationships are still uncertain and controversial. In this study, we analyzed partial mtDNA D-loop sequences of 156 Chinese Tibetan sheep individuals from 12 distributed geographic ecotype populations. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that three maternal lineages (haplogroups A, B and C) were found in this breed and that Ovis vignei and Ovis ammon have possibly contributed to the original Tibetan sheep. The absence of haplogroups D and E in Tibetan sheep suggests that this breed did not originate in the Middle East, China.

A geo-statistical approach to model Asiatic cheetah, onager, gazelle and wild sheep shared niche and distribution in Turan biosphere reserve-Iran

Presence data for four mammals in the Turan Biosphere Reserve in Iran including the Asiatic cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus venaticus), the Persian onager (Equus hemionus onager), the wild sheep (Ovis vignei), and the gazelle (Gazelle Bennettii) were used to analyze and model their potential interaction, facilitation, habitat coverage and niche dimensions. A geostatistical approach using the spatial autocorrelation between the locality points, and their relationship with habitat resources and characteristics with application of remotely sensed maximum enhanced vegetation index (EVI) and surface temperature, elevation, aspect, vegetation cover and soil moisture was used to predict herbivores species niche. The potential suitable habitat of herbivores along with environmental variables was used to model the predator species (cheetah) niche. The model results were tested using fivefold cross validation by area under the curve (AUC) values on set of independent testing data and were compared to more commonly used models of generalized linear model (GLM) and MaxEnt. The results show that cheetah's potential suitable habitat has 61% overlap with wild sheep, 36% with onager, and 30% with gazelle. Onager habitat has 64% overlap with gazelle and 60% the wild sheep. Wild sheep on the hand, shares only 37% of its habitat with gazelle. The most prey and predator interaction exists between cheetahs and wild sheep, while onagers provides facilitation for gazelles and wild sheep by potentially providing extra water sources. Among the implemented modeling techniques, spatial GLM showed better performance over GLM and MaxEnt. We suggest that conservation effort should focus more on maintaining the population of wild sheep and onagers to support other species in the habitat.

Predator–prey relationships in a middle Asian Montane steppe: Persian leopard versus urial wild sheep in Northeastern Iran

Management controversies arise when both of the prey and predator in an ecosystem are species of conservation concern. We investigated trophic interactions between the endangered Persian leopard (Panthera pardus saxicolor) and a declining mountain ungulate, urial wild sheep (Ovis vignei), on a high-altitude steppe of Iran. During two consecutive photo-trapping seasons of 1,300 nights in total, a minimum population of four adult leopards (one female and three males) was documented. Scat analysis indicated that urial wild sheep was the staple of the leopard diet with 48.44 % of total biomass consumed. Remains of domestic livestock in leopard scats were negligible yet alarming (14.53 % biomass consumed), followed by wild pigs (8.13 %) and wild goat (1.26 %). Financial costs of leopard depredation to livestock breeders during our study period were comparatively lower than livestock–leopard conflict hotspots across Iran. Using distance sampling, urial density was 15.8 individuals km−2 (±SE 6.2), and a total biomass of 47,621.5 kg for wild ungulates in the study area was estimated. We estimated that the annual removal rate of urial by leopards during our study period was 9.4 % of the total urial population. We suggest that continuous monitoring of the leopard and prey populations to assess predation impact should be considered, particularly in areas where a single species comprises a remarkable proportion of the leopard diet. In the meantime, assessing probable conflicts with local communities is recommended as a parallel management action to ensure long-term human–leopard coexistence. Our findings will aid wildlife managers in prey-depleted arid environments of western Asia to identify susceptible wild prey populations to predation by large carnivores; hence, significantly contribute in development and implementation of effective conservation measures to mitigate management conflicts.

Current Status of Mammals and Reptiles at Hub Dam Area, Sindh / Balochistan, Pakistan

During the present study in 2012, a total of twenty four mammalian species were recorded belonging to 5 orders and 10 families; out of these, 8 species are less common, 2 species are rare, while 14 species are common in Hub Dam area. Twenty five reptilian species belonging to 3 orders and 12 families were also recorded from the area. Three species of mammalian Urial (Ovis vignei), Chinkara/Indian Gazelle (Gazella bennettii) and Jungle Cat (Felis chaus), one reptilian species Common Krait (Bungarus caeruleus) were recorded as rare from the study area during 2012. During the present study, nine mammalian species Wild Goat/Sindh Ibex (Capra aegagrus), Urial (Ovis vignei), Chinkara/Indian Gazelle (Gazella bennettii), Indian Hedgehog (Paraechinus micropus), Cape Hare (Lepus capensis), Little Indian Field Mouse (Mus booduga), House Shrew (Sorex thibetanus), Balochistan Gerbil (Gerbillus nanus) and Indian Gerbil (Tatera indica) and two reptilian Warty Rock Gecko (Cyrtodactylus kachhensis kachhensis) and Banded Dwarf Gecko (Tropiocolotes helenae) were recorded from the area. As regards threats to mammals and reptiles, these are affected by disturbance. Efforts are being made to conserve the important mammals and reptiles particularly in the protected area especially at Hub Dam.

The complete mitochondrial genome sequence analysis of Tibetan argali (Ovis ammon hodgsoni): Implications of Tibetan argali and Gansu argali as the same subspecies

The genus Ovis (Bovidae, Artiodactyla) includes six species, i.e. Ovis ammon, Ovis aries, Ovis canadensis, Ovis dalli, Ovis nivicola and Ovis vignei. Based on morphology, geographical location, habitat, etc., the species O. ammon is divided into nine subspecies. The near threatened Tibetan argali is distributed across the Tibetan Plateau and its peripheral mountains, and believed to be one of the O. ammon subspecies (O. a. hodgsoni). However, considering its morphological features and distributions, a question has been proposed by some researchers about the subspecies status of Tibetan argali. In this study, we employed complete mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) to explore the phylogenetic relationship and population genetic structure of Tibetan argali. The results revealed that the nucleotide composition, gene arrangement and codon usage pattern of the mitochondrial genome of Tibetan argali are similar to those of other caprines. Phylogenetic analyses showed that Tibetan argali was clustered with O. ammon. Interestingly, five Tibetan argali individuals and one of the three Gansu argali (O. a. dalailamae) individuals were clustered in the same branch, which is a sister group to other two Gansu argali individuals. Together with morphological characteristics, our results suggested that Tibetan argali and Gansu argali may belong to the same subspecies (O. a. hodgsoni) of O. ammon, rather than two different subspecies.

Impact of fencing on the conservation of wildlife habitat in a sub-mountainous open scrub forest

In Pakistan, Lehri/Jindi evergreen open scrub forest is a characteristic habitat of critically or locally endangered species including Punjab urial (Ovis vignei punjabiensis) and leopard (Panthera pardus), and the important game species desert hare (Lepus nigricollis), black francolin (Francolinus francolinus), grey francolin (Francolinus pondicerianus), see–see partridge (Ammoperdix griseogularis) and chukor partridge (Alectoris chukar). Four separate fenced enclosures were established to maintain captive Punjab urial population in a semi-wild state. Vegetation surveys were conducted through permanently laid quadrats to explore its impact on native flora in 1987–1992 before the fencing was installed and then 2003–2007 over a decade after the fencing was installed.

Prevalence of bovine tuberculosis in zoo animals in Pakistan

Summary The study was carried out in zoo animals at Islamabad Zoo, Pakistan to know the prevalence of bovine tuberculosis. An overall prevalence of 3.3% was recorded in zoo animals with 3.6% in Bovidae, 3.2% in Cervidae and 0% in Equidae families. The positive animals included spotted deer (1/3; 95% CI = 0.84, 90.57), Chinkara gazella (1/5; 95% CI = 0.51, 71.64) and Blackbuck gazelle (1/30; 95% CI = 0.08, 17.22), while the negative animals were barking deer (0/4), hog deer (0/24), grey gorals (0/2), urial (0/9), mouflon (0/4), nilgai (0/5) and zebra (0/4). The results revealed significant association of live weight and number of calving with the positive tuberculin test, with 32% higher chances for females to show a positive test. Results also showed that odds of a positive test were 1.19 times higher when animal number was less than 10. The results of haematological parameters showed significant differences in total erythrocyte counts, hemoglobin, total leukocyte counts, eosinophil and basophil percentages between positive and negative animals.

Conservation of Tajik Markhor (Capra falconeri heptneri) and Urial (Ovis vignei) in Tajikistan and adjacent Afghanistan

Conservation of Tajik Markhor (Capra falconeri heptneri) and Urial (Ovis vignei) in Tajikistan and adjacent Afghanistan

Multi-spatial co-distribution of the endangered Ladakh urial and blue sheep in the arid Trans-Himalayan mountains

Large wild herbivores are important ecologically and economically, and maintaining their populations is a crucial management concern. The Ladakh urial Ovis vignei vignei is an endemic and endangered wild sheep inhabiting the arid Trans-Himalayan region of Ladakh, where its population is restricted to narrow tracts along two river valleys. The causes of this restricted distribution of the species are not understood. We asked if competitive exclusion by the more abundant wild ungulate, the blue sheep Pseudois nayaur, could explain the limited range of Ladakh urial. To explore this possibility we studied the occurrence patterns of these two species at multi-spatial scales (regional, landscape and habitat). We found that they occurred independently at the regional scale, but co-occurred at the landscape scale, facilitated by divergence in seasonal resource use at the habitat scale. Although the two species segregated along both habitat and diet axes during summer at the habitat scale, there is a high potential for competition during winter, the ‘pinch’ period, when they overlap in their habitat use due to altitudinal migration. Therefore, the presence of blue sheep seems to limit the population growth and range expansion of the Ladakh urial.

Re‐sequencing regions of the ovine Y chromosome in domestic and wild sheep reveals novel paternal haplotypes

The male-specific region of the ovine Y chromosome (MSY) remains poorly characterized, yet sequence variants from this region have the potential to reveal the wild progenitor of domestic sheep or examples of domestic and wild paternal introgression. The 5' promoter region of the sex-determining gene SRY was re-sequenced using a subset of wild sheep including bighorn (Ovis canadensis), thinhorn (Ovis dalli spp.), urial (Ovis vignei), argali (Ovis ammon), mouflon (Ovis musimon) and domestic sheep (Ovis aries). Seven novel SNPs (oY2-oY8) were revealed; these were polymorphic between but not within species. Re-sequencing and fragment analysis was applied to the MSY microsatellite SRYM18. It contains a complex compound repeat structure and sequencing of three novel size fragments revealed that a pentanucleotide element remained fixed, whilst a dinucleotide element displayed variability within species. Comparison of the sequence between species revealed that urial and argali sheep grouped more closely to the mouflon and domestic breeds than the pachyceriforms (bighorn and thinhorn). SNP and microsatellite data were combined to define six previously undetected haplotypes. Analysis revealed the mouflon as the only species to share a haplotype with domestic sheep, consistent with its status as a feral domesticate that has undergone male-mediated exchange with domestic animals. A comparison of the remaining wild species and domestic sheep revealed that O. aries is free from signatures of wild sheep introgression.