Afsar Mian

Field evaluation of some bait additives against Indian crested porcupine (Hystrix indica) (Rodentia: Hystricidae)

This research study evaluated the effect of different additives on the bait consumption by Indian crested porcupine, a serious forest and agricultural pest, under field conditions. Different additives (saccharin, common salt, bone meal, fish meal, peanut butter, egg yolk, egg shell powder, yeast powder, mineral oil and coconut oil) at 2 and 5% each were tested for their relative preference, using groundnut-maize (1:1) as basic bait. All the additives were tested under a no-choice test pattern. For control tests, no additive was mixed with the basic bait. Saccharin at 5% concentration significantly enhanced the consumption of bait over the basic bait, while 2% saccharin supplemented bait resulted in a non-significant bait consumption. All other additives did not enhance the consumption of the bait material; rather, these worked as repellents. However, the repellency was lowest with the common salt, followed by egg yolk, egg shell powder, bone meal, peanut butter, mineral oil, fish meal and yeast powder, while coconut remained the most repellent compound. The present study suggested that groundnut-maize (1:1) supplemented with 5% saccharin was the preferred bait combination, and can be used with different rodenticides for the management of Indian crested porcupine.

DNA extraction protocols for molecular studies of Asiatic black bears

Abstract Optimization of DNA extraction and amplification techniques increases the reliability of genetic studies used to estimate population size and assess genetic diversity, particularly for non-invasively collected samples. We evaluated the effectiveness of 4 DNA extraction procedures—the Roboscreen and Qiagen kit methods and the Organic and Chelex methods, as applied to invasively and non-invasively collected samples from Asiatic black bears (Ursus thibetanus). We assessed effectiveness based on quantity and purity of the extracts by method, and their ability to amplify genomic DNA via polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of a single simple sequence repeat (SSR) marker. For each method, the greatest average DNA quantity and purity index (86.25%) was from blood, while muscle showed greatest DNA quantity and purity index using the Qiagen DNA extraction method. The Roboscreen kit and Chelex method provided a 57% and 58% PCR success rate, respectively, for hairs, demonstrating the value of such samples for molecular studies of Asiatic black bears.