Antelope adaptations to counteract overheating and water deficit in arid environments

Many arid areas have very severe climates with extremely high summer temperatures,strong solar radiation,and a lack of drinking water during the driest season.Therefore,antelopes living in arid areas are forced to solve two main problems:avoiding overheating and maintaining water balance.Generally,there are physiological,morphological,and behavioral mechanisms for antelope adaptations to arid environments.Among the mechanisms,behavioral adjustments have a minimal cost and are activated first,while physiological mechanisms are the most energetically costly and involve adaptations to high temperatures when other mechanisms are insufficient.In previous publications,some examples of the antelope behavioral adaptations have been described only rarely,while in this review,we try to clarify all available information on the adaptations of antelopes living in arid areas to their native environments,paying particular attention to behavioral adjustments.Behavioral mechanisms,especially daily activity,diet and microclimate selection,and migrations,are so important and commonly used by antelopes in natural conditions,in which physiological mechanisms are usually not involved.Antelopes adjust their behaviors according to environmental changes so successfully that purely physiological mechanisms are discovered under laboratory conditions;for example,adaptive heterothermia or selective brain cooling phenomenon is difficult to observe in their natural habitats.This review provides a better understanding of the main behavioral mechanisms of antelope adaptations to arid environments and allows for the identification of the key factors for successful conservation of antelopes in their natural habitats.

CURRENT STATUS OF ANTELOPES IN CHINA

There are six antelope species live or once lived in China. they mainly occupy steppes, alpine meadows, grasslands and desert shrub-lands in north and northwest china. Among them, the saiga is pronounced extirpated in wild of the country, thePrzewalskt’s gazelle is now critically endangered. Mongolian gazelle and Tibetan antelope were once important game species, now their distributions are greatly reduced.

Population Density, Diversity and Abundance of Antelope Species in Kainji Lake National Park, Nigeria

Habitat degradation and fragmentation are eating deep into conservation areas and this is a serious threat to species diversity and abundance. Species like the antelopes have a sedentary and docile nature which makes them highly vulnerable to habitat degradation or human intrusion. The effect becomes complex as the remaining flora and fauna communities can be significantly impacted by changes in ecosystem structure and function. Population density, diversity and abundance of fauna species will either increase or decrease over time depending on the quality of the environment/habitat and the level of human interference or disturbance. Hence an updated checklist of species diversity and abundance is necessary to enable management and other stakeholders make pragmatic plans and policy towards sustainable species conservation. With the aid of a Global Positioning System (GPS), a 5 km transect was established per site and censured for Antelope species using the King Census method of enumeration. Descriptive statistics and ANOVA was used to analyze the data. Seven (7) species of Antelopes were recorded. Kobs (Kobus kob) were the most abundant (2019), while Reedbuck (Redunca redunca) was the least abundant with twenty-five (25) individuals. Kob is the most observed species in Oli Complex with 24.13%, ranking about 50% of kob in proportion. This was followed by roan antelope (Hippotragus equinus), and Red Flanked duiker, 4.02% and 3.63% respectively. Kobs had the highest density of 40.38 per square km followed by roan antelope (3.32) and RF duiker (2.36). Relative density followed a similar trend. The least encounter rate was observed in Sylvicapra grimmia (0.02) and increse further to Hippotragus equinus (0.4), Redunca redunca (0.06) and Alcelaphus buselaphus (0.09) respectively. It was low amongst Tragelaphus scriptus (0.2), and moderate, while it was very high amongst the kobs (5.0). The rate of encountering an antelope in the park is very high at a rate of 6.2 animals per kilometer. Species of antelopes are almost not found in other ranges due to anthropogenic activities around the park. These activities are fast entering into the core area of the park. Hence management should take effective measure to curb this fast-rising problem.

Clinical observation on the treatment of severe hand-foot-mouth disease with antelope horn powder combined with auricular point application

Objective:To explore the Clinical observation on the treatment of severe hand-foot-mouth disease with antelope horn powder combined with auricular point application.Methods:From July 2016 to June 2018,90 children were randomly divided into control group(n=30),treatment group(n=30)and control group(n=30).The control group was treated with routine western medicine,the treatment group 1 was treated with oral antelope horn powder on the basis of control group,the second group was treated with auricular point application on the basis of treatment group 1,and the time of symptom relief and clinical cure were observed in each group.Related immune function and related inflammatory factors,serum neuron-specific enolase(NSE),safety index.Results:In treatment group 1,the time of herpes regression,antipyretic,antispasmodic time and clinical cure time were shorter than those of control group,and the time of treatment 2 group was shorter than that of group 1(P<0.05).The levels of CD3,CD4 and CD8 were increased after treatment in the three groups,especially in the treatment group(P<0.05),and the levels of TNF-毩αand IL-2,IL-6,IL-10 were decreased after treatment in the three groups,especially in the treatment group(P<0.05).NSE decreased after treatment in three groups,especially in treatment group 2(P<0.05).Conclusion:The application of antelope horn powder combined with auricular point application can obviously improve the severe hand,foot and mouth disease,and the clinical curative effect is definite.It is worth popularizing and applying in clinical practice.

The Endangered Tibetan Antelope

The Tibetan antelope,commonly called chiru,or"Tsod"in Tibetan and"Zangingyang"in Chinese,is the only large mammal native to the Tibetan Plateau.It lives primarily in the Tibet Autonomous Region,Qinghai Province,and the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of China.Some.

A Mitochondrial Genome Sequence of the Tibetan Antelope(Pantholops hodgsonii)

To investigate genetic mechanisms of high altitude adaptations of native mammals on the Tibetan Plateau, we compared mitochondrial sequences of the endangered Pantholops hodgsonii with its lowland distant relatives Ovis ames and Capra hircus, as well as other mammals. The complete mitochondrial genome of P. hodgsonii （16,498 bp） revealed a similar gene order as of other mammals. Because of tandem duplications, the control region of P. hodgsonii mitochondrial genome is shorter than those of O. ames and C. hircus, but longer than those of Bos species. Phylogenetic analysis based on alignments of the entire cytochrome b genes suggested that P. hodgsonii is more closely related to O. ames and C. hircus, rather than to species of the Antilopinae subfamily. The estimated divergence time between P. hodgsonii and O. ames is about 2.25 million years ago. Eutther analysis on natural selection indicated that the COXI （cytochrome c oxidase subunit I） gene was under positive selection in P. hodgsonii and Bos grunniens. Considering the same climates and environments shared by these two mammalian species, we proposed that the mitochondrial COXI gene is probably relevant for these native mammals to adapt the high altitude environment unique to the Tibetan Plateau.

The roles of calving migration and climate change in the formation of the weak genetic structure in the Tibetan antelope(Pantholops hodgsonii)

Geographical barriers and distance can reduce gene exchange among animals,resulting in genetic divergence of geographically isolated populations.The Tibetan antelope(Pantholops hodgsonii)has a geographical range of approximately 1600 km across the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau,which comprises a series of tall mountains and big rivers.However,previous studies indicate that there is little genetic differentiation among their geographical­ly delineated populations.To better understand the genetic structure of P.hodgsonii populations,we collected 145 samples from the 3 major calving regions,taking into consideration their various calving grounds and mi­gration routes.We used a combination of mitochondrial sequences(Cyt b,ATPase,D-loop and COX I)to inves­tigate the genetic structure and the evolutionary divergence of the populations.Significant,albeit weak,genetic differentiation was detected among the 3 geographical populations.Analysis of the genetic divergence process revealed that the animals gradually entered a period of rapid genetic differentiation approximately 60000 years ago.The calving migration of P.hodgsonii cannot be the main cause of their weak genetic structure because this cannot fully homogenize the genetic pool.Instead,the geological and climatic events as well as the coupling vegetation succession process during this period have been suggested to greatly contribute to the genetic struc­ture and the expansion of genetic diversity.