Project Report- September-2018
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Project report- September-2018 In June-September 2018, we starting searching all known and new localities with high potential of occurring fire salamanders in Kurdistan Province, western Iran. We did this field surveys helping some local people in order to make data collection more engaging and accessible for our volunteers. In the upcoming season (autumn and winter), our jobs presenting some educational programmes at schools for students when the time is not suitable for field work. We found fire salamanders in localities where it thought to be occupied by newt’s genus Neurergus before. Surveys of Salamanders occurrence in the rivers of Kurdistan Province, western Iran, at Sarvabad, Kamyaran, Marivan and Baneh resulted in the collection of specimens of salamanders, which is the first record of the species for Marivan. Our results also reject the occurrence of Neurergus microspilotus as it thought before, in Sarvabad Rivers and water ecosystems. All known records are mapped The Kurdistan’s salamander fauna consists of 2-3 species dependent on the taxonomic decisions. These include Neurergus microspilotus, Neurergus cf. derjugini and Salamandra infraimmaculata semenovi. Since Nesterovs expedition 1914, discovered Neurergus microspilotus from Ghorighaleh, Kermanshah, a series of records on distribution of the critically endangered Kurdistan spotted newt, Neurergus microspilotus (Nesterov 1916) has presented so far (Najafimajd and Kaya 2010; Schneider and Schneider 2011; Fadhil et al., 2013; Afroosheh et al., 2016). Recently a number of localities in northwestern Sarvabad district, in Zhiwar, Selin, Novin and Naw as known localities for N. microspilotus were recorded and a geographic analyses and convex polygon presented to provide the area of the species distribution range (Afroosheh et al., 2016). A yearly habitat surveys with particular reference to salamanders, conducted by our team members, examined these localities and searched for new localities in whole distribution range of this species. A vast fieldwork studies on range expansion, distribution and overall population status of this species has down by the authors during June to September 2017. About 15-20 streams have visited and surveyed during this time and added four to five localities herein as new, and removed four formerly known localities from species localities list provided by Afroosheh et al., (2016) as localities of other salamanders, Neurergus microspilotus. The presence of this species in some formerly recorded localities and many new records confirmed, mapped and documented in this study. Occurrence of this species from “Zhiwar, Novin and Selin” that their occurrence was contradicted to our expectation were confirmed in this study, since these localities are belong to fire salamanders (Salamandra infraimmaculata semenovi) and not to newts genus Neurergus. This species is reported as new for many territories of western Iran. Occurrence of this species from four to five localities from Marivan and Baneh were new to Salamandra infraimmaculata semenovi distribution range. The new records extended geographic range distribution of this species. Exact and in details examination of streams across the area has proved the occurrence of S. i. semenovi from “Zhiwar, Naw, Novin and Selin” localities that has recorded for Neurergus microspilotus before. Therefore, these localities are stand out as recorded habitats and localities for S. i. semenovi. Further investigations for salamanders of the province has revealed some more new localities in Marivan and Baneh districts, around Zariwar lake in the upstream of the lake basin. These new localities are presented in Table 1 and Figure 1. After Afrooshe et al., 2016, the updated geographic distribution map of this species present the known exact records at western Iran, based on provided records of available literatures and result of our surveys. The next phase of our study will be educating students at schools and places where the fire salamanders are available as the native amphibian species. The schools would be those located at the neighbor of habitats of fire salamanders especially those occurred at the localities presented at Figure 1 and Table 1. Figure 1- Recorded localities for Salamandra infraimmaculata semenovi at Kurdistan province, western Iran. Figure 2- Some reported localities for fire salamanders at Awraman. These localities previously known as Neurergus microspilotus localities (Afrooshe et al., 2016). Table 1. List of the visited localities for Salamandra infraimmaculata semenovi in western Iran R Observed localities Coordinates Zone Elevation Local Access 1 3908654N; 38s 1185 Sarvabad, downtown rivers 0624805E 2 3910799N; 38s 1840 Upstream of Hajikord region 0628392E 3 3910951N; 38s 1570 Upstream of Gwizamasoom region 0627574E 4 3911232N; 38s 1405 Cham Daliar 0624660E 5 3905360N; 38s 1350 Goshkhani 0629473E 6 3901376N; 38s 1200 Dagaga 0629800E 7 3914446N; 38s 1970 Hazarkhani 0625000E 8 3909073N; 38s 1580 Tarkhanabad 0628294E 9 3909198N; 38s 1240 Ebrahimabad 0623028E 10 3898751N; 38s 1350 Besaran 639990 E 11 3891448N; 38s 1300 Avihang 638201 E 12 3893320N; 38s 920 Naw 0623055E 13 3899345N; 38s 900 Selen 0621015E 14 3900688N; 38s 1150 Zhiwar 0620783E 15 3894993N; 38s 1200 Nowin 0624066E A typical fire salamander habitat at Dagaga Searching for fire salamanders at Sarvabad A typical habitat of fire salamanders at Kamyaran Searching for salamanders at the habitat Capture and examine fire salamander in nature by one of volunteers Visiting the fire salamander habitat at Sarvabad Visiting some habitats and discussing the matter and importance of fire salamanders with landowners and locals .