Journal of Animal Diversity Online ISSN 2676-685X Volume 2, Issue 2 (2020) Research Article http://dx.doi.org/10.29252/JAD.2020.2.2.1 On the distribution of Cantor's Kukri snake Oligodon cyclurus (Cantor, 1839) (Squamata: Colubridae) from Nepal Aklesh Kumar Sah1, Bivek Gautam2 , Santosh Bhattarai3* 1Central Department of Zoology, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal 2Biodiversity Research and Conservation Society, Kathmandu, Nepal 3National Trust for Nature Conservation-Biodiversity Conservation Center, Ratnanagar-06, Sauraha, Chitwan-44204, Nepal * Corresponding author :
[email protected] Abstract The distribution of Cantor's Kukri Snake Oligodon cyclurus has been poorly documented in its geographic range from Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand and Vietnam. We provide Received: 29 March 2020 confirmed locality records with notes on some aspects of natural history Accepted: 17 May 2020 information for O. cyclurus. Although the species is designated as Least Published online: 30 June 2020 Concern according to IUCN Red list of Threatened Species, the species is facing multiple threats like roadkills and vindictive killing. We suggest a more detailed inventory to better understand its biology, distribution patterns, population status and molecular identity to aid in a more comprehensive global conservation action. Key words: Reptile, Oligodon, distribution, natural history, Nepal Introduction and Ray, 1936 (Schleich and Kästle, 2002; Shah and Tiwari, 2004; Pandey, 2012; Globally, the genus Oligodon Fitzinger, Bhattarai et al., 2017a; Bhattarai et al., 1826 is comprised of 79 currently known 2018; Gautam et al., 2020; Rawat et al., species (Uetz et al., 2019; Nguyen et al., 2020). 2020). These snakes are primarily distributed in South and South-east Asia The earlier records of the Cantor's Kukri (Nguyen et al., 2020) and commonly snake, O.