Herpetology Notes, volume 7: 657-665 (2014) (published online on 12 November 2014)

The of the Yakassé-Mé village forest, a threatened rainforest of south-eastern

N’Goran Germain Kouamé1,*, Jean Christophe B.Y.N. Konan2, Abouo Béatrice Adepo-Gourène2, Germain Gourène2 and Mark-Oliver Rödel3,*

Abstract. We report on the fauna of the Yakassé-Mé village forest, south-eastern Ivory Coast. We recorded a total of 24 . These are typical for the rainforest and degraded rainforest habitats of this region. Some species which we expected, but were lacking from our records include the regional endemics Astylosternus laticephalus, viridigulosus, Morerella cyanophthalma, ghanensis. Although the Yakassé-Mé village forest is only a relatively small forest remnant, we urge for its future protection as it represents an important refuge for the forest fauna in the south-east of Ivory Coast, where only few forests persisted until today.

Keywords. Anura, assessment, conservation status, Côte d’Ivoire, Upper hotspot.

Introduction border, are amongst the most highly threatened African forests (Norris et al., 2010; Mayaux et al., 2013). They Whereas the amphibian fauna in Ivory Coast has been suffer from steadily increasing human encroachment, in intensively investigated in the forests in the West (e.g. particular logging, shifting agriculture and conversion Rödel and Branch, 2002; Ernst et al., 2006), the forest- of forests into plantations (Zadou et al., 2011). There is savannah mosaic in the Center (e.g. Lamotte, 1967; thus a clear need for basic faunistic studies. Some of the Barbault, 1967, 1972; Rödel, 2003; Rödel and Ernst, few remaining forests are possessed and managed by 2003; Adeba et al., 2010), as well as in the savannahs of villages. Published information on these village forests is the North (e.g. Rödel, 2000; Rödel and Spieler, 2000), sparse and difficult to access. The area around Yakassé- respective assessments for the eastern Ivorian forests Mé village, near Agboville, was covered by dense forest are rare (Assemian et al., 2006). This is troubling as the at least until 1965 (Schiøtz, 1967). Nowadays most of latter forests are not well known biologically, but seem the former rainforest has been converted into rubber and to be home for various endemic species, as implicated cocoa plantations (N.G. Kouamé, pers. obs.). We herein by some recent species discoveries (Rödel et al., 2009, aim to 1) provide an assessment of the species richness 2012). In addition the south-eastern Ivorian forests, and composition of the amphibian fauna of this village extending from Abidjan eastwards to the Ghanaian forest, and 2) add information on some little known species. Some data on one species, Hyperolius laurenti Schiøtz, 1967 have been published separately (Kouamé et al., 2014). As reptiles of this area are poorly known as well, we list our sightings in an appendix. 1 Jean Lorougnon Guédé University, Department of Biology and Physiology, , BP 150, Côte d´Ivoire. Material and Methods 2 Nangui Abrogoua University, Laboratoire d’Environnement et Biologie Aquatique, UFR-SGE, 02 BP 801, Abidjan 02, Study area. The village forest of Yakassé-Mé is Côte d´Ivoire. situated app. 55 km north-east of Abidjan, Ivory 3 Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Coast (05°45’32.8” - 05°47’10.4” N; 003°55’46.1” - Biodiversity Science, Invalidenstrasse 43, 10115 Berlin, Germany. 003°56′27.9’’ W; see Figure 1 in Kouamé et al., 2014). * Corresponding authors: [email protected], The lowland forest has a mean annual temperature of [email protected] 26°C; the mean annual precipitation is 2000 mm. The 658 N’Goran Germain Kouamé et al.

Figure 1. Typical aspects of the habitats of the Yakassé-Mé village forest; a= logged forest in relatively good shape; b= gallery forest along stream; c= heavily degraded part of the forest (conversion into plantations); d= old cocoa plantation.

major rainy season lasts from March to July. This is and YA3) or on the periphery (YA4) of the village forest. followed by a drier period from August to September While the first site (YA1) was mainly characterized and a minor rainy season lasting from October to by small gallery forests (Figure 1a), the second site November (Eldin, 1971). Field work was done at the (YA2) comprised dense vegetation, characterized by end of the core rainy season from 9-29 July 2013. The large canopy gaps and thick shrubby undergrowth with rivers Mé and Mafou cross the northern part of the small streams (Figure 1b). YA3 comprised heavily area. The Yakassé-Mé village forest mainly consists degraded forest parts, especially visible at the forest of moist, evergreen rainforest on predominantly sandy edges, which were often in direct vicinity to cocoa and soil. The vegetation is typical for south-eastern Ivorian rubber plantations (Figure 1c). YA4 mainly consisted of forests (Béligné, 1994). Large parts of this forest zone small forest islands, not far from the village, subsistence have been logged. Other parts of the forest have been farming, and a mosaic of rubber and cocoa plantations converted into rubber and cocoa plantations. Most parts (Figure 1d). Only smaller, inaccessible parts of the forest of our survey area, covering app. 100 ha, are currently stands seemed to be rather undisturbed. In appendix 1 & under active logging activities (Figure 1). 2 we provide a list of all sites, a short habitat description, We surveyed four general areas, called YA1 (25 ha), and check list of species and individuals encountered. YA2 (40 ha), YA3 (15 ha) and YA4 (20 ha) in the A hand-held GPS receiver (Garmin 12XL) was used to following. They were either located inside (YA1, YA2 record the geographical positions of all study sites. Amphibians of the Yakassé-Mé forest, Ivory Coast 659

Field work, sampling effort and vouchers. Amphibians calculated 25 (sd: ± 0.95) amphibian species, the Chao 2 were mainly located opportunistically while surveying estimator estimated 24 (sd: ± 0.09) species for the study all available habitats by two people. Surveys were area. We hence recorded almost the entire (96% and undertaken during day and night. Our searching 100%, respectively) estimated species richness. techniques included acoustic, visual scanning of terrain The species richness at the different sites was: 18 and refuge examination (e.g. lifting logs, peeling away species in YA1, 9 spp. in YA2, 11 spp. in YA3 and 13 bark, scraping through leaf litter). We searched for spp. in YA4. More than one third of the encountered frogs on 20 days, each day for seven hours (08:00 h- forest species (9 spp., 37.50%; Table 1) tolerated 11:00 h & 18:00 h-22:00 h GMT). The sampling effort farmbush habitats (degraded forest). Eight species therefore was always 14 person-hours per day and thus (33.33%) were very closely associated with forest comparable throughout the survey and all habitats. We habitats. Seven species (29.17%) exhibited a strong used the daily species lists in order to calculate the preference for savannah and farmbush habitats and are sampling efficiency. As our sampling design provides normally not occurring in pristine forests. only qualitative and semi-quantitative data we calculated Half of the species (12 spp.) do not occur outside West the estimated species richness, and thus the sampling (defined as the area west of the Cross River in efficiency, with the Chao 2 and Jack-knife 1 estimators ; see Penner et al., 2011), and are often restricted (software: EstimateS, Colwell, 2005). These estimators to smaller parts of . Less than one third are incidence based, calculated with the presence/ (29.17%) of all recorded species only occur in the Upper absence data of the daily species lists (20 days of survey Guinea forest zone (forests west of the Dahomey Gap) work) for 24 amphibian species. To avoid order effects while only one species (Hyperolius laurenti, 4.17%) is we performed 500 random runs of the daily species endemic to a region from south-eastern Ivory Coast to lists. southern-central . After capture, frogs were determined to species level, According to the IUCN Red List, about one fifth of all measured, sexed and mostly released in their habitat. recorded species are threatened: three species are Near The nomenclature used herein follows the by Threatened (Afrixalus nigeriensis, Phrynobatrachus Frost (2014). Snout-urostyle-lengths of the living frogs alleni and P. phyllophilus), one is Vulnerable were taken with a dial calliper (accuracy ± 0.5 mm). (Hyperolius laurenti) and one, Hylarana occidentalis, Some vouchers were euthanized in a 1,1,1-Trichloro-2- is listed as Endangered (IUCN 2013; Table 1). methyl-2-propanol hemihydrate solution and thereafter preserved in 70% ethanol. Voucher specimens are Notes on selected species. Below we provide some deposited in the research collection of N.G. Kouamé additional data on selected species (for details on at the Jean Lorougnon Guédé University, Daloa, Ivory Hyperolius laurenti, see Kouamé et al., 2014). Coast. Afrixalus nigeriensis (Schiøtz, 1963) (Figure 2a) is a West African forest species found mostly in primary Results rainforest (Schiøtz, 1967, 1999; Rödel and Branch, We recorded a total of 24 frog species in the Yakassé- 2002), although it can be rarely encountered in degraded Mé village forest (Table 1). The records for Hyperolius forests as well (Hillers and Rödel, 2007). The species concolor and the reptile species (see appendix) are based reaches its western limit in (Hillers and Rödel, on observations only. For all other species we deposited 2007). This survey is the first recent confirmation of the vouchers at the Jean Lorougnon Guédé University, species’ presence in the eastern forests of Ivory Coast. Daloa, Ivory Coast. So far, it is not possible to reliably The waterholes and ponds where we detected Afrixalus determine species from the Arthroleptis poecilonotus nigeriensis in Yakassé-Mé were located in disturbed group based on morphological data alone (for a short forest parts next to a road. review of the taxonomic situation in West African Phrynobatrachus phyllophilus Rödel & Ernst, 2002 Arthroleptis spp. see Rödel and Bangoura, 2004). A list (Figure 2b) was described from the western part of the of recorded anurans with site records, known habitat Upper Guinean rain forest and has since been reported preference, distribution range and the current IUCN from forests in , Guinea, Liberia, and south- Red List category is given in Table 1. western Ivory Coast (Rödel and Branch, 2002; Rödel Based on the daily species lists we calculated our and Ernst, 2002; Rödel and Bangoura, 2004; Rödel et sampling efficiency. The Jack-knife 1 estimator al., 2004; Hillers et al., 2008). It lives in swampy parts 660 N’Goran Germain Kouamé et al.

Table 1. Amphibian and reptile species recorded in the Yakassé-Mé village forest, with sites (see Appendix), general habitat preference, distribution range and IUCN Red List category for threatened species (IUCN 2013). S = savannah, FB = farmbush (degraded forest and farmland), F = forest, A = Africa (occurs also outside West Africa), WA = West Africa (defined as the area west of the Cross River in Nigeria), UG = Upper Guinea (forest zone west of the Dahomey Gap), E = Endemic to eastern Ivory Coast and Ghana, * = taxon comprise complex of several species, ** = records on this survey comprise several species (according to acoustics), LC = Least Concern, NT = Near threatened, VU = Vulnerable, EN = Endangered, NA = Not yet assessed by the IUCN.

Habitat Distribution IUCN Red Site List category S FB F A WA UG E

Arthroleptidae

Arthroleptis spp.** YA1, YA2, YA4 X X X (?) LC

Leptopelis spiritusnoctis YA1, YA3 X X X LC

Bufonidae

Amietophrynus maculatus YA1, YA3 X X X LC

Dicroglossidae

Hoplobatrachus occipitalis YA1, YA3, YA4 X X X LC

Hyperoliidae

Afrixalus dorsalis YA1, YA4 X X X LC

Afrixalus nigeriensis YA4 X X NT

Hyperolius concolor YA1 X X X LC

Hyperolius fusciventris YA1 X X X LC lamtoensis

Hyperolius laurenti YA2 X X VU

Hyperolius picturatus YA1, YA2, YA3, YA4 X X X LC

Phrynobatrachidae

Phrynobatrachus alleni YA1, YA2 X X NT

Phrynobatrachus calcaratus* YA1, YA2, YA3, YA4 X X X LC

Phrynobatrachus gutturosus* YA1, YA2 X X X LC

Phrynobatrachus latifrons YA1, YA3, YA4 X X X LC

Phrynobatrachus phyllophilus YA1 X X NT

Phrynobatrachus plicatus YA1, YA4 X X LC

Phrynobatrachus tokba YA4 X X X LC

Pipidae

Silurana tropicalis YA1, YA3 X X X LC

Ptychadenidae

Ptychadena aequiplicata* YA1, YA2 X X LC

Ptychadena longirostris YA1, YA4 X X LC

Ptychadena mascareniensis* YA3 X X X LC

Ptychadena oxyrhynchus YA3, YA4 X X X LC

Ranidae

Hylarana albolabris YA1, YA2 X X X LC

Hylarana occidentalis YA2 X X EN 1 Amphibians of the Yakassé-Mé forest, Ivory Coast 661

Figure 2. Afrixalus nigeriensis (a) and Phrynobatrachus phyllophilus (b) from Yakassé-Mé village forest.

of primary rainforest, and does usually not occur in Discussion secondary habitats. The Banco National Park so far was With a total of 24 amphibian species, Yakassé-Mé the easternmost known site of the species (Assemian et village forest seems to be one of the less diverse areas al., 2006). There it lives in syntopy with P. ghanensis compared to the species richness recorded for instance Schiøtz, 1964, often in closed forest under bamboo and on in Taï National Park (Ernst et al., 2006), Mont Sangbé moist leaf litter (Kouamé et al., 2008). Phrynobatrachus National Park (Rödel, 2003), Mont Péko National Park phyllophilus resembles P. ghanensis, which ranges from (Rödel and Ernst, 2003), or Cavally and Haute Dodo south-eastern Ivory Coast to southern-central Ghana. Classified Forests (Rödel and Banch, 2002), all situated The main distinguishing feature of P. phyllophilus from in the forest zone of western Ivory Coast. Compared P. ghanensis is the lack of a distinctive ventral pattern. to these and other West African areas with known This record is only the second from eastern Ivorian forests, thus confirming Rödel and Ernst (2002) who amphibian faunas such as south-western Ghana (Rödel already predicted a wider distribution in Ivory Coast. et al., 2005; Hillers et al, 2009) or south-eastern Guinea In Yakassé-Mé, the species preferred swampy areas of (Rödel et al., 2004), the Yakassé-Mé indeed ranks undisturbed forests. Males in Yakassé-Mé reached 15-16 among the areas of low amphibian species richness. mm SUL, females 18-21 mm; which is in the range of One survey that focused specifically on the amphibian western Ivorian populations (Rödel and Ernst, 2002). diversity of another eastern Ivorian forest documented Hylarana occidentalis (Perret, 1960) was so far 28 species (38 species estimated to occur; Assemian known from primary or nearly primary rainforests in et al., 2006). However, this site comprised a larger Ghana (Perret, 1977, 1983; Rödel et al., 2005), western area, including a wide range of habitats from more or Ivory Coast (Rödel and Branch, 2002), south-eastern less intact rainforest to completely degraded habitats Guinea (Böhme, 1994, Rödel et al., 2004), Liberia (Assemian et al., 2006). In our four sites we recorded (Hillers and Rödel, 2007), and Sierra Leone (Hillers & different subsets of the 24 frog and seven reptile species. Rödel, unpublished data). This is the first record closing The highest species richness at site YA1 (18 spp.) was the distributional gap between the records in the western most probably due to the fact that this area was less Upper Guinea forests and Ghana. altered and included more gallery forests. Only half of the encountered species are restricted to West Africa, or 662 N’Goran Germain Kouamé et al. smaller parts of this region, many of them being forest Acknowledgements. We like to acknowledge the local population specialists. The many species with wide distributional of Yakassé-Mé for their hospitality. We are particularly grateful ranges, and broad habitat tolerance, found in Yakassé- for the support and collaboration from Dou Paul Sombon, elder of Yakassé-Mé. We are indebted to the President of the Mé clearly reflects altered forest conditions, due to Jean Lorougnon Guédé University, Daloa, and the Prefect of deforestation and conversion of forests into rubber and Adzopé for providing us an authorization and a research permit cocoa plantations (N.G. Kouamé, pers. obs.). From to undertake this survey. We thank Gilbert Baase Adum for western Ivorian forests it is known that logging has a discussions. serious effect on the composition of anuran assemblages. Many forest specialists seem to be unable to prevail References in degraded forests, most probably due to an altered Adeba, P.J., Kouassi, P., Rödel, M.-O. 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2 forest.

Appendix 31. Geographic position and short description of all study sites in the Yakassé-Mé village forest.

Site Longitude Latitude Habitat description

YA1a 003°56'08.5" 05°45'43.8" wide stagnant swamp inside a dense forested area; cocoa plantation; clearings

YA1b 003°56'20.3" 05°45'32.8" gallery forest partially degraded; bamboo vegetation; old cocoa plantation

YA2a 003°56ƍ27.8’’ 05°46ƍ08.4’’ predominantly small trees and shrubs (2-3 m); canopy cover about 80%; swift flowing stream covered by dense vegetation

YA2b 003°56ƍ27.9’’ 05°46ƍ10.5’’ old cocoa plantation in dense forest; shrubs, trees (3-5 m), canopy cover about 80%; swift flowing stream covered by dense vegetation; traces of recent human activity: palm wine extraction

YA2c 003°56ƍ27.4’’ 05°46ƍ11.1’’ as site YA2b

YA3 003°56'11.3" 05°46'07.1" roads; forest zone logged or still are under active logging; temporary ponds; grassland area; subsistence farming

YA4a 003°56'08.5" 05°46'34.5" disturbed forest; roads; subsistence farming; temporary ponds on dirt roads

YA4b 003°55'46.1" 05°47'10.4" roads; small forest islands not far from the village; subsistence farming; a mosaic of rubber and cocoa plantations

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1 Amphibians of the Yakassé-Mé forest, Ivory Coast 665

Appendix 2. Check list of amphibians and reptiles recorded from the Yakassé-Mé village forest with their site records (compare Appendix 1) and the total number of individuals of each species recorded during the present survey.

Species Sites # of individuals

Amphibia

Arthroleptis spp.* YA1a, YA1b, YA2a, YA2b, YA4a, YA4b ޓ 50

Leptopelis spiritusnoctis YA1a, YA1b, YA3 15

Amietophrynus maculatus YA1a, YA3 2

Hoplobatrachus occipitalis YA1a, YA3, YA4b 8

Afrixalus dorsalis YA1a, YA4b 17

Afrixalus nigeriensis YA4a 7

Hyperolius concolor YA1a 3

Hyperolius fusciventris lamtoensis YA1a 5

Hyperolius laurenti YA2a, YA2b, YA2c 14

Hyperolius picturatus YA1a, YA2b, YA3, YA4a 8

Phrynobatrachus alleni YA1a, YA1b, YA2a, Ya2b ޓ 50

Phrynobatrachus calcaratus YA1a, Ya1b, YA2a, YA3, YA4a ޓ 50

Phrynobatrachus gutturosus YA1a, YA2b, YA2c 10

Phrynobatrachus latifrons YA1a, YA1b, YA3, YA4a, YA4b ޓ 50

Phrynobatrachus phyllophilus YA1a 9

Phrynobatrachus plicatus YA1a, YA1b, YA4a 17

Phrynobatrachus tokba YA4a, YA4b 25

Silurana tropicalis YA1a, YA3 5

Ptychadena aequiplicata YA1a; YA1b, YA2b, YA2c 21

Ptychadena longirostris YA1a, YA4a 7

Ptychadena mascareniensis YA3 8

Ptychadena oxyrhynchus YA3, YA4a 6

Hylarana albolabris YA1a, YA2b, YA2c ޓ 50

Hylarana occidentalis YA2c 3

Reptilia

Agama agama YA3, YA4 5

Hemidactylus fasciatus YA4b 1

Trachylepis affinis YA1a, YA1b, YA4a, YA4b 7

Dipsadoboa brevirostris YA1a 1

Thelotornis kirtlandii YA1b 2

Naja melanoleuca YA1a 1

Python sebae YA2c 1

1

Accepted by Hendrik Müller