Species Composition and Abundance Estimates of Reptiles in Selected Agroecosystems in Southern Western Ghats, India

Home , Boiga beddomei, Common house gecko, Eutropis, Eutropis carinata, Eutropis macularia, Hemidactylus brookii

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Journal of Threatened Taxa Building evidence for conservaton globally www.threatenedtaxa.org ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Communication Species composition and abundance estimates of reptiles in selected agroecosystems in southern Western Ghats, India

Abhirami Mini Jayakumar & Paingamadathil Ommer Nameer

26 September 2018 | Vol. 10 | No. 10 | Pages: 12328–12336 10.11609/jot.3652.10.10.12328-12336

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Threatened Taxa Reptles in agroecosystems in southernJournal Western of Threatened Ghats Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 September 2018 | 10(10):Jayakumar 12328–12336 & Nameer

Species composition and abundance estimates of reptiles in

Communication selected agroecosystems in southern Western Ghats, India

ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) Abhirami Mini Jayakumar 1 & Paingamadathil Ommer Nameer 2 ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) 1,2 Centre for Wildlife Studies, College of Forestry, Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur, Kerala 680656, India 1 2 OPEN ACCESS [email protected], [email protected] (corresponding author)

Abstract: Species compositon and abundance of reptles in selected agroecosystems in Thrissur plains, near Palghat Gap, southern Western Ghats in India, was studied from January 2017 to May 2017. The agroecosystems surveyed were coconut, cashew & rubber plantatons, home garden, paddy feld, and botanical garden. Time-constrained visual encounter surveys of a total efort of 360 man-hours were done in the feld. Coconut and cashew plantatons reported the highest species richness with 11 species each, while the highest number of sightngs (159) were recorded from botanical garden. Bronze Grass Skink Eutropis macularia was the most abundant species in agroecosystems. Correspondence analysis was done to compare the reptlian diversity in the agroecosystems. The reptle fauna of home garden and paddy feld were found to be more distnct than the rest of the agroecosystems. A total of 17 species of reptles were recorded during the study, thus highlightng the signifcance of agroecosystems in actng as important bufer landscapes for reptles.

Keywords: Cashew plantaton, coconut plantaton, botanical garden, home garden, Important Bird Area, Kole wetlands, paddy feld, Ramsar site, rubber plantaton. Malayalam Abstract

DOI: htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.3652.10.10.12328-12336 | ZooBank: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:860DCCC7-66AB-4A46-A362-5EC56D844488

Editor: Pritpal S. Soorae, Environment Agency Abu Dhabii, United Arab Emirates. Date of publicaton: 26 September 2018 (online & print)

Manuscript details: Ms # 3652 | Received 14 July 2017 | Final received 02 August 2018 | Finally accepted 12 September 2018

Citaton: Jayakumar, A.M. & P.O. Nameer (2018). Species compositon and abundance estmates of reptles in selected agroecosystems in southern Western Ghats, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 10(10): 12328–12336; htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.3652.10.10.12328-12336

Copyright: © Jayakumar & Nameer 2018. Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License. JoTT allows unrestricted use of this artcle in any medium, reproducton and distributon by providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of publicaton.

Funding: Kerala Agricultural University.

Competng interests: The authors declare no competng interests.

Author Details: Abhirami M. Jayakumar is a PG research scholar, whose interest include taxonomy and ecology of reptles of Western Ghats. P.O. Nameer is a Professor and his research interest include the taxonomy, biogeography and ecology of the vertebrates except fshes.

Author Contributon: Both the authors contributed equally to the design of the study, feld work, morphometric data collecton, analysis and manuscript preparaton.

Acknowledgements: We thank Neelesh Dahanukar, IISER, Pune for his assistance with data analysis. Abhin M. Sunil, Bharath M. R., Habeel Sahal, Nibin Antony K., Francis Scaria, Al Ameen A., Sreekumar E. R., Prajeesh P., Syamili M. S., Dilgith Surendran and Amal U. S. assisted us with the feld work. The Dean, College of Forestry, Kerala Agricultural University is acknowledged for the encouragement and support. We also thank the anonymous reviewers and the Subject Editor for their critcal comments.

12328 Reptles in agroecosystems in southern Western Ghats Jayakumar & Nameer

INTRODUCTION sustaining reptle biodiversity, partcularly that of habitat specialists and endemic species. Nearly two-thirds of the terrestrial environment of the world is made up of managed ecosystems with natural, undisturbed habitats accountng for only a STUDY AREA meagre fve percentage. These managed ecosystems include agricultural systems, forestry systems, and The study was conducted in selected agroecosystems human setlements (Gamage et al. 2008). Herpetofauna in Thrissur District, southern Western Ghats, Kerala makes up 48% of the terrestrial vertebrates that are (10.53–10.550N & 76.27–76.280E, 20–70 m). The threatened by agroforestry and forestry actvites agroecosystems chosen included cashew, coconut & (Palacios et al. 2013). rubber plantatons, home garden, paddy feld, and Despite the fact that herpetofauna makes up half of botanical garden (Fig. 1). The study area chosen mostly vertebrate species, they are very much understudied in comes within the main campus of Kerala Agricultural their response to change in habitats from natural forests University in Kerala. The campus has a total area of to plantatons. The review done by Palacios et al. (2013) 391.44ha and is located very close to Peechi-Vazhani on the herpetofauna of agroecosystems on a global Wildlife Sanctuary. The major habitats include gardens, scale found just 27 studies pertaining to amphibians botanical gardens, plantatons of rubber, coconut, and reptles. Very few studies on the reptlian diversity plantain & cocoa, and orchards of mango, jackfruit, of agroecosystems have been done in southern India sapota & guava. The whole area must have been under too. Perhaps the only study on the reptles of human- forests about one and a half centuries ago and was modifed habitats is the one by Venugopal (2010), who subsequently converted mostly into rubber plantatons. studied the agamids of human-modifed habitats in the Later, in 1971, the land was handed over to the Kerala Western Ghats. Agricultural University (KAU), and the KAU developed In a tme when more and more forest areas are these areas into diferent land uses as explained above. being converted into plantatons and agricultural lands The 14-year mean minimum temperature is 23.30C and for meetng the growing needs of human populatons, the 10-year mean maximum is 31.90C. The area receives it is important to evaluate the reptle diversity in these southwest and northeast monsoons, the greater porton modifed ecosystems. It is important to assess whether of the rainfall, however, is received from the southwest these agroecosystems are capable of supportng and monsoon between June and September. The mean

Figure 1. Locaton map of diferent study locatons, Thrissur

Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 September 2018 | 10(10): 12328–12336 12329 Reptles in agroecosystems in southern Western Ghats Jayakumar & Nameer annual rainfall is 2803.4mm. The mean number of (CCA), a multvariate constrained ordinaton technique rainy days per year is 112 (Manohar et al. 2017). The (Legendre & Legendre 1998). A triplot of observatons paddy feld selected was located at the Kole Wetlands in grouped for plantaton types, species, and eigenvectors central Kerala, which incidentally is a Ramsar site and an of environmental variables was ploted to understand Important Bird Area (IBA) (Islam & Rahmani 2004, 2008). the species distributon along the plantaton types and environmental variables. A scree plot of eigenvalues and cumulatve inerta explained by each canonical axes METHODS was ploted to understand the contributon of each axes. The signifcance of the canonical axes was tested using The method followed was tme-constrained visual permutatons test (Legendre et al. 2011). Statstcal encounter survey of a two-hour duraton in each of the analysis was performed in PAST 3.19 (Hammer et al. agroecosystems in the morning (08:00–10:00 hr) and 2001). evening (19:00–21:00 hr). Each locaton was covered on foot and whenever a species was sighted, observatons such as the name of the species, the number of sightngs, RESULTS AND DISCUSSION tme, and GPS locaton were recorded following Ishwar et al. (2001). At each agroecosystem, the survey was A total of 594 sightngs of 17 species (Table 1) was carried out for fve days. Thus, the total efort spent encountered from the agroecosystems during the study during the entre course of the study was 360 man period, with an average pooled encounter rate of 1.27 -hours. Additonally, micro-habitat parameters such as reptles/man-hour. The species richness was the highest canopy height, canopy cover, leaf liter depth, leaf liter in coconut and cashew plantatons, with 11 species cover, shrub cover, herb cover, and number of fallen each (Table 2; Images 1–14). The abundance of the logs were recorded at each of the agroecosystems. reptles, however, was greatest in botanical gardens (159 Liter depth was measured using a steel scale (Elora) sightngs). Bronze Grass Skink Eutropis macularia was and canopy height was measured using Haga altmeter the most encountered species in the agroecosystems (Durga Enterprises). The rest of the measurements were of Thrissur District with 220 sightngs, followed by visually estmated (see Vasudevan et al. 2001; Kanagavel (Murray’s) House Gecko Hemidactylus cf. murrayi et al. 2013). Weather data like maximum temperature, totalling 87 sightngs. minimum temperature, and relatve humidity for the The variaton in the number of sightngs of the study period was obtained from the Kerala Agricultural reptles between day and night are given in Fig. 2. As University Weather Staton located in Thrissur District, expected, it can be seen that most of the reptles were Kerala. The study was carried out from January to May more actve during night hours. Out of the six species 2017 in the pre-monsoon season. of geckos seen during the study, all four species of For confrming the identfcaton of the species, Hemidactylus geckos, as well as Cyrtodactylus cf. the following literature were consulted: Das (2002), collegalensis, were nocturnal in habit. The Day Geckos Whitaker & Captain (2004), Mahony (2011), Agarwal & Cnemaspis spp., however, as its common name suggests, Karanth (2015), Agarwal et al. (2016), Lajmi et al. (2016). were observed mainly during morning hours. Among The distributon range of the species was verifed using skinks, Ristella cf. beddomii was primarily a nocturnal Ganesh et al. (2013) and Palot (2016). species, while Sphenomorphus dussumieri was spoted only during day hours. Eutropis macularia, E. carinata, Statstcal Analysis and the agamid lizard Calotes versicolor were observed Chi-square analysis of associaton was performed to during both morning and night hours. Calotes versicolor understand whether the reptle fauna had a preference was observed to be sleeping when spoted during night for any plantaton types (coconut, cashew, rubber, home hours. All the seven species of snakes observed were gardens, botanical gardens, or paddy felds). Paterns spoted during night hours (Fig. 2). of relatonship between species abundance across There was a signifcant associaton between nine environmental parameters (canopy cover, canopy plantaton types and abundance of diferent reptle height, liter depth, liter cover, shrub cover, herb cover, species (chi square = 1006.3, df = 80, P < 0.0001), maximum temperature, minimum temperature, and indicatng that the reptle fauna had a diferental relatve humidity) in diferent plantaton types were preference for the plantaton type. The complex patern investgated using canonical correspondence analysis of reptle species distributon across the plantaton types

12330 Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 September 2018 | 10(10): 12328–12336 Reptles in agroecosystems in southern Western Ghats Jayakumar & Nameer

Table 1. Reptles of selected agroecosystems in Thrissur District

Common name Scientfc name Family IUCN status Image

1 (Murray’s) House Gecko Hemidactylus cf. murrayi Gekkonidae NE Image 1

2 Common House Gecko Hemidactylus frenatus Gekkonidae LC Images 2 & 3

3 Termite Hill Gecko Hemidactylus triedrus Gekkonidae NE Image 4

4 Day Gecko Cnemaspis cf. gracilis Gekkonidae Images 5 & 6

5 Kollegal Ground Gecko Cyrtodactylus collegalensis Gekkonidae NE Image 7

6 Dussumier’s Liter Skink* Sphenomorphus dussumieri Scincidae LC Image 8

7 Bronze Grass Skink Eutropis macularia Scincidae NE Image 9

8 Common Keeled Skink Eutropis carinata Scincidae LC Image 10

9 (Beddome’s) Cat Skink* Ristella cf. beddomii Scincidae LC Image 11

10 Oriental Garden Lizard Calotes versicolor Agamidae NE Image 12

11 Common Indian Krait Bungarus caeruleus Elapidae NE

12 Beddome’s Cat Snake Boiga beddomei Colubridae LC

13 Common Wolf Snake Lycodon aulicus Colubridae NE

14 Common Trinket Snake Coelognathus helena Colubridae NE

15 (Common) Vine Snake Ahaetulla cf. nasuta Colubridae NE Image 14

16 Russell’s Kukri Snake Oligodon taeniolatus Colubridae LC Image 13

17 Checkered Keelback Xenochrophis piscator Natricidae NE

Table 2. Species diversity and abundance of reptles in selected agroecosystems in Thrissur District Total

Home garden Rubber Garden Cashew Cashew Coconut Coconut Botanical Botanical Plantaton Plantaton Plantaton Paddy feld Paddy

Species Number of sightngs

1 Hemidactylus cf. murrayi 47 20 3 2 10 0 82

2 Hemidactylus frenatus 40 6 16 4 3 0 69

4 Hemidactylus triedrus 0 2 0 0 0 0 2

5 Cnemaspis spp. 10 1 8 3 19 0 41

6 Cryodactylus collegalensis 7 6 18 2 11 0 44

7 Sphenomorphus dussumieri 0 0 0 13 0 0 13

8 Eutropis macularia 21 45 82 2 70 0 220

9 Eutropis carinata 1 9 0 0 14 0 24

10 Ristella cf. beddomii 0 11 5 0 28 0 44

11 Calotes versicolor 16 11 9 3 3 0 42

12 Bungarus caeruleus 0 0 0 1 0 0 1

13 Boiga beddomei 1 0 1 0 0 0 2

14 Lycodon aulicus 1 1 0 0 0 2 4

15 Coelognathus helena 1 0 0 0 0 0 1

16 Ahaetulla cf. nasuta 0 0 1 0 0 0 1

17 Oligodon taeniolatus 0 0 0 0 0 3 1

18 Xenochrophis piscator 0 0 0 0 1 0 3

Total 145 112 143 30 159 5 594

Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 September 2018 | 10(10): 12328–12336 12331 Reptles in agroecosystems in southern Western Ghats Jayakumar & Nameer

Figure 2. Number of sightngs for each species of reptle recorded during morning and night hours

6 Bungarus caeruleus Coconut 5 Cashew Rubber Sphenomorphus dussumieri 4 Homegarden Botanical garden Kole 3

2 Canopy cover Herb cover Shrub cover Canopy height (m) 1 Li er cover Oligodon taeniolatus Cnemaspis sp. Li er depth (cm) Cryodactylus collegalensis Max. temperature Eutropis macularia Hemidactylus frenatus 0 Ristellacf. beddomii Min. temperature Ahaetullacf. nasuta Relave humidityCalotes versicolor 0.45 100 Boiga beddomei Hemidactyluscf. murrayi

canonical axis 2 canonical axis -1 0.40 Eutropis carinata 0.35 80 Hemidactylus triedrus Coelognathus helena -2 0.30 60 Lycodon aulicus 0.25 -3 0.20 40 0.15

-4 ( ) eigenvalue 0.10 20 0.05 -5 Xenochrophis piscator 0.00 0 ( ) contribuon % cumulave 123456789 canonical axis -6 -3.0 -2.5 -2.0 -1.5 -1.0 -0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 canonical axis 1 Figure 3. Canonical correspondence analysis triplot. Species are shown in red font and red circles. Observatons are grouped for plantaton type and a convex polygon was ploted to delineate observatons for each plantaton type. Eigen vectors of environmental variables are shown in black. Screen plot depictng the contributon explained by each canonical axis is shown in inset.

and environmental variables are depicted in the CCA diferent plantaton types were diferent with no overlap triplot (Fig. 3). The frst two CCA axes were signifcant for paddy felds, indicatng that paddy felds are not only (permutatons 999, trace = 1.047, P = 0.001; canonical distnctly diferent in the environmental parameters axis 1, eigen value = 0.4199, P = 0.001; canonical axis but has a diferent reptle fauna. Xenochrophis 2, eigenvalue = 0.2819, P = 0.001) and together they piscator was unique to the paddy feld habitat while explained 67% total inerta in the data. Both species Lycodon aulicus was more abundant in the paddy feld compositon and environmental parameters of the as compared to other habitats and both these factors

12332 Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 September 2018 | 10(10): 12328–12336 Reptles in agroecosystems in southern Western Ghats Jayakumar & Nameer could be correlated to the relatvely higher humidity dry forests (Vijayakumar et al. 2006), Eastern Ghats and temperature of paddy feld habitats and lower wet forests (Ganesh & Arumugam 2015; & Ramesh & canopy cover, canopy height, liter depth, liter cover, Arumugam 2016), and the Coromandel coastal plains shrub cover, and herb cover (Fig. 3). In general, species scrub forests (Ramesh et al. 2013) are available. The such as Boiga beddomei, Bungarus caeruleus, Calotes current paper provides a frst-hand data on reptle versicolor, Coelognathus helena, Hemidactylus frenatus, assemblage structure from a central Kerala plains site, H. cf. murrayi, H. triedrus, Sphenomorphus dussumieri, that too from the litle-studied Palghat Gap region. Lycodon aulicus, and Xenochrophis piscator preferred This documentaton is important as it highlights relatvely higher humidity and temperature and lower the signifcance of agroecosystems in conserving and canopy cover, canopy height, liter depth, liter cover, maintaining the reptlian fauna of the region, including shrub cover, and herb cover. As a result, these species some of the Western Ghats endemic species. mainly favoured home gardens and paddy felds in Kole Wetlands, followed by cashew and coconut plantatons and, rarely, rubber plantatons or botanical gardens. REFERENCES On the other hand, Ahaetulla cf. nasuta, Cnemaspis sp., Cryodactylus collegalensis, Eutropis macularia, Aengals, R., V.M.S. Kumar & M.J. Palot (2011). Updated Checklist of Indian Reptles. Southern Regional Centre, Zoological Survey of Eutropis carinata, Oligodon taeniolatus, and Ristella cf. India, Chennai. 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Image 1. Hemidactylus cf. murrayi Image 2. Hemidactylus frenatus

Image 5. Cnemaspis cf. garcilis (female) from homegarden Image 6. Cnemaspis cf. gracilis (male) from botanical garden

12334 Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 September 2018 | 10(10): 12328–12336 Reptles in agroecosystems in southern Western Ghats Jayakumar & Nameer

Image 10. Eutropis carinata

Image 9. Eutropis macularia

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ISSN 0974-7907 (Online); ISSN 0974-7893 (Print)

September 2018 | Vol. 10 | No. 10 | Pages: 12299–12442 Date of Publicaton: 26 September 2018 (Online & Print) www.threatenedtaxa.org DOI: 10.11609/jot.2018.10.10.12299-12442

Communicatons Inventory of prong-gilled mayfies (Ephemeroptera: Leptophlebiidae) of India with records of endemic taxa Urban biodiversity: an insight into the terrestrial vertebrate diversity of -- C. Selvakumar, Kailash Chandra & K.G. Sivaramakrishnan, Pp. 12389–12406 Guwahat, India -- Jayaditya Purkayastha, Pp. 12299–12316 First record of a coreid bug Anhomoeus fusiformis Hsiao (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Coreidae: Coreinae: Anhomoeini) from India Status of raptors in the Moyar River Valley, Western Ghats, India -- Sadashiv V. More & Hemant V. Ghate, Pp. 12407–12412 -- N.R. Anoop, S. Babu, S. Bharathidasan & R. Nagarajan, Pp. 12317–12327 The gilled mushroom Amanita spissacea (Amanitaceae): a new report for India Species compositon and abundance estmates of reptles in selected -- Hmar Lalrinawmi, John Zothanzama, Benjamin W. Held, agroecosystems in southern Western Ghats, India Josiah M.C. Vabeikhokhei, Zohmangaiha & Robert A. Blanchete, -- Abhirami Mini Jayakumar & Paingamadathil Ommer Nameer, Pp. 12328–12336 Pp. 12413–12417

Comparison of beach profles conducive for turtle nestng in Andaman -- Subramanian Narayani, Sasidharan Venu & Andrea Joan D’Silva, Pp. 12337 Notes –12343 Foraging habits of the Red Fox Vulpes vulpes (Mammalia: Carnivora: Canidae) in the Himalaya, India Short Communicatons -- Aishwarya Maheshwari, Pp. 12418–12421

A new record of the rare Hardwicke’s Woolly Bat Kerivoula hardwickii First record of Yellow-Rumped Flycatcher Ficedula zanthopygia (Hay, 1845) (Horsefeld, 1824) (Mammalia: Chiroptera: Vespertlionidae) afer 23 years (Aves: Passeriformes: Muscicapidae) in eastern India from a lowland rainforest of Sri Lanka -- Manaranjan Das & Subrat Debata, Pp. 12422–12424 -- Dinesh Gabadage, Gayan Edirisinghe, Madhava Botejue, Kalika Perera, Thilina Surasinghe & Suranjan Karunarathna, Pp. 12344–12349 Additonal feld records provide further resoluton of the distributon of the Water Monitor Varanus salvator (Squamata: Varanidae) in northwestern Alarming populaton status of the Grizzled Giant Squirrel Ratufa macroura Myanmar (Mammalia: Rodenta: Sciuridae) in Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary, -- Steven G. Plat, Myo Min Win & Thomas R. Rainwater, Pp. 12425–12428 the Western Ghats, India -- Kiran Thomas & Paingamadathil Ommer Nameer, Pp. 12350–12356 The frst record of The Blue Admiral Kaniska canace Linnaeus, 1763 (Nymphalidae: Lepidoptera) from Bangladesh Distributon and populaton status of Sambar Rusa unicolor (Mammalia: -- Amit Kumer Neogi, Md Jayedul Islam, Md Shalauddin, Anik Chandra Mondal & Cetartodactyla: Cervidae) from Aravalli landscape with Safayat Hossain, Pp. 12429–12431 a note on its frst record from Aravalli Hills of Haryana, India -- Paridhi Jain, Anchal Bhasin, Gautam Talukdar & Bilal Habib, Pp. 12357–12362 First record of Hislopia malayensis Annandale, 1916 (Bryozoa: Gymnolaemata) from freshwaters of India Delayed peracute capture myopathy in a Himalayan Ibex Capra sibirica -- Ananta Dnyanoba Harkal & Satsh Sumanrao Mokashe, Pp. 12432–12433 (Mammalia: Cetartodactyla: Bovidae) -- Umar Nazir Zahid, Latef Mohammad Dar, Umar Amin, Showkat Ahmad Shah, An extended distributon record of Western Ghats species Litsea oleoides Rashid Yahya Naqash, Dil Mohammed Makhdoomi, Shayuaib Ahmad Kamil & (Meissn.) Hook.f. (Lauraceae) from Matheran, Maharashtra, India Intesar Suhail, Pp. 12363–12367 -- Radha Veach & Gurumurthi Hegde, Pp. 12434–12438

Checklist of the avifauna of Sagareshwar Wildlife Sanctuary, Maharashtra, India Notes on Jasminum andamanicum N.P. Balakr. & N.G. Nair (Oleaceae) from -- Sharad Dat Apte, Vijay Bhagwan Tuljapurkar & Girish Avinash Jathar, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, India Pp. 12368–12375 -- P. Murugan & K. Karthigeyan, Pp. 12439–12441

The rediscovery of Rurk’s Cat Skink Ristella rurkii Gray, 1839 (Reptlia: Ristellidae) with remarks on distributon and natural history Miscellaneous -- Sumaithangi Rajagopalan Ganesh, Pp. 12376–12381 Natonal Biodiversity Authority Member Dietary assessment of fve species of anuran tadpoles from northern Odisha, India -- Syed Asrafuzzaman, Susmita Mahapatra, Jasmin Rout & Gunanidhi Sahoo, Pp. 12382–12388

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