COMPARISON OF COMMUNITY STRUCTURE OF REPTILES BETWEEN A FOREST FRAGMENT AND AN INTACT FOREST
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Date
2016-05-12
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Kerala Veterinary and animal science university, Pookode
Abstract
The present study compared the community structure of reptiles in a forest fragment
to that of a continuous forest. The study was carried out in the Vythiri section of
South Wayanad Forest Division from June second week to September second week
2015. Diurnal quadrats, transects and time constrained searches were carried out to
describe the species assemblage. In total 80 person hours was spend in the
continuous forest and 70 person hours was spend in the forest fragment for sampling.
Species accumulation curves were plotted and diversity indices were evaluated for
both sites. Eight species and forty nine individuals were sampled from the
continuous forest while from the fragment merely three individuals belonging to two
species were found. Eutropis macularia (n = 18) was the most abundant species in
the forest followed by Calotes ellioti (n = 9). Cnemaspis aff. monticola was the only
shared species in the forest and forest fragment from quadrats and transects. Twelve
different habitat variables were measured from the sampling sites and five of the
variables differed significantly with respect to the study sites. Correlation analysis
revealed that canopy cover (-0.44) has a negative correlation and leaf litter depth
(0.41) have a positive correlation with abundance of reptiles in the forest. None of
the habitat variables correlated with abundance in the fragment. The long isolation,
small area and edge effects might have resulted in the local extinction of many of the
herpetofauna in the fragment.
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