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Cloning And Conservation Of Biological Diversity: Paradox, Panacea, Or Pandora's Box?, Shaily Menon, Kamaljit Bawa, Leah Gorman
Cloning And Conservation Of Biological Diversity: Paradox, Panacea, Or Pandora's Box?, Shaily Menon, Kamaljit Bawa, Leah Gorman
Shaily Menon
The success of a Scottish team in cloning a mammal from an adult tissue cell has generated considerable speculation in the popular press about potential applications to conservation biology. Possibilities that have been mentioned include cloning endangered species and creating gene banks for the germplasm of rare species. Sensational or inaccurate reports might encourage the mistaken notion that cloning technology is more advanced or reliable than it actually is. More important, such reports might foster the myth that there is no longer an urgency to conserve endangered species or their habitats as long as we have frozen germplasm and cloning …
Effectiveness Of The Protected Area Network In Biodiversity Conservation: A Case-Study Of Meghalaya State, M. Latif Khan, Shaily Menon, Kamaljit Bawa
Effectiveness Of The Protected Area Network In Biodiversity Conservation: A Case-Study Of Meghalaya State, M. Latif Khan, Shaily Menon, Kamaljit Bawa
Shaily Menon
The North-Eastern region of India is significant for biodiversity conservation because of its floristic richness and high levels of endemism. Deforestation levels are high in the region due to anthropogenic pressures. We accessed various literature sources to create a database for Meghalaya state containing information on plant species, habit, altitudinal distribution, endemism, and endangered status. Information on the existing protected area network (type, extent, and altitudinal representation) was added to the database. The database was used to assess the effectiveness of the existing protected area network in conserving the floristic biodiversity of the state. Of a total of 3331 plant …
Biodiversity Monitoring: The Missing Ingredient, Kamaljit Bawa, Shaily Menon
Biodiversity Monitoring: The Missing Ingredient, Kamaljit Bawa, Shaily Menon
Shaily Menon
With mounting losses in biological diversity, inventorying and monitoring of biodiversity to assess the magnitude and rate of losses are emerging as dominant themes in conservation biology. Inventorying has been defined as the surveying, sorting, cataloging, quantifying and mapping of entities ranging from genes to landscapes1 and monitoring has been defined as the surveillance of the compliance with or deviation from a predetermined standard2. Renner and Ricklefs3 argued that rushed inventories will compromise scientific rigor and have little influence on decision making. More recently, Stork et al.4 argued that losses in biological diversity are so severe that inventorying and monitoring …
Lion-Tailed Macaques (Macaca Silenus) In A Disturbed Forest Fragment: Activity Patterns And Time Budget, Shaily Menon, Frank Poirier
Lion-Tailed Macaques (Macaca Silenus) In A Disturbed Forest Fragment: Activity Patterns And Time Budget, Shaily Menon, Frank Poirier
Shaily Menon
We describe the activity patterns and time budget of a feral group of lion-tailed macaques that were confined to a disturbed forest fragment of 65 ha and compare the results with those obtained for groups in protected forests. The degraded nature of the study site was reflected in low tree densities, low specific diversity, gaps in the girth distribution of trees, and frequent disturbance by humans. The study group of 43 subjects was twice as large as lion-tailed macaque groups in protected habitats. They spent the most time ranging (34.0%), followed by foraging (23.7%), feeding (17.9%), resting (16.0%), and other …