Zoology Blog by Dr Rahul Kait

   Pic : this place is known as Bhal Padhri which is located in District doda! You can always plan a tracking trip to this place! Alas such a scenic spot is yet not connected to the world by the moterable road Biodiversity means the variability among living organisms from all sources including inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part, this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystem (Convention on biological diversity, UNEP, 1992).  However, according to Global Biodiversity Strategy, WRI, IUCN & UNEP (1992) it is the totality of genes, species and ecosystem in region. Ambasht et al. (1994) states that Biodiversity is manifested at all levels of organisation, from cell to ecosystem and refers to variability of all kinds of living organisms inhabiting terrestrial, marine and fresh water ecosystem or in atmosphere.  While Hosetti (2002) described it as the library of l...

   Host parasite relationship is a strange inter-specific association where one organism called as parasite is benefitted and the other organism called as host is harmed, where host always wants to get rid of the parasite whereas the parasite never wants to leave the host.  There are various degrees of interdependence of parasites on the host, which depend on the nature of  parasite and the degrees of parasitism i.e. an obligatory parasite depends on the host all throughout life  where as facultative parasites depend on host for a particular stage of life cycle.  Among obligate parasites the degree of interdependence on the host also varies for example Staphylococci and Streptococci are obligatory parasites but they can reproduce in ex-situ environment i.e. outside the body of the host in nutrient media whereas Rickettsia, which have structure akin to bacteria show a small degree of metabolic activities outside the body of host but they can’t grow whereas t...

We find in nature that different organisms are linked to each other through various ways, such as through the food chain or food web, through sharing of the common resources like food, shelter and mate. Organisms interact with each other in many ways and these interactions have been categorised as inter-specific and intra-specific interactions.   Intra-specific Interactions: These are the interactions which take place between the individuals of same species.  Inter-specific Interactions : These are the interactions which take place between the organisms of different species. Inter-specific interactions may involve such relations where both the interacting individuals may get benefited and the association is non-obligatory or both the interacting individuals may get benefited and the association is obligatory, or one may get benefited and other remains unaffected or one may get benefited and other is harmed as such, such inter-specific interactions are called as Proto-cooperat...