Feeding Habit & Need of Conservation of : Study from Nepal

Suman Sapkota Friends of Nature, Nepal

1 Nepal harbors about 60 of anuras

Wide distribution from lowlands to remote and high Himalayas

About 11 endemic thrive in Nepal

Three species categorized as Vulnerable in IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

Neglected species as they get less attention

2 Anurans are generalist in diet and feed upon wide variety of insects

Anurophagy is commonly seen in Bull frogs (Hoplobatrachus)

Friends of farmers as they feed on large groups of crop pests

Positive relationship between Snout Vent Length (SVL) and the prey weight they consumed

Hymenoptera groups are mostly preferred as anurans diet 3 Bull Frogs

Pianka’s Niche Overlap 0.89

Hoplobatrachus tigerinus (Indian Bull Frog) (Jerdon's Bull Frog)

Hoplobatrachus tigerinus Hoplobatrachus crassus

Average SVL of 80-90 mm Average SVL of 60-70 mm

Generalist in diet (12 out of 13 prey Generalist in diet (10 out of 13 prey category) category)

Levin’s Standardized Niche breadth Levin’s Standardized Niche breadth 4 0.294 0.366 14 *** Crop pest 12 Non - pest

10

8

6 *** Frogs consume a significantly *** greater number of crop pests than 4 *** non-pests (Mann-Whitney U-test = Mean number of prey Mean number * 55350.00, P = <0.001) 2

0

H. crasus H. tigerinus D. melanostictusE. cyanophlyctis M. syhadrensis

Fig 1: Mean (± SE) number of crop pests and non-pests consumed by the different frog species. The level of significance are from Mann-Whitney U-test (* = <0.05 and *** = <0.001) 5 Awareness approaches • Most of the local communities are unaware about ecological roles of frogs

• Dietary habit opens the new way

• Majority of Nepalese are farmers and frogs are friends of farmers

• Frog gives benefit without investment

6 Fig 2: Dietary niche overlap between five different frogs in western Terai of Nepal. The graph is obtained from NMDS in 3-D, Bray-Curtis Similarity Index was used and convex hulls is shown for different species. 7 Involvement

• Awareness programs via posters, community interaction and school camps in different places of Darchula, Achham, Jajarkot, Kanchanpur, Bardiya, Kailali, Dhangadi, Palpa, Kathmandu districts

• Talk program for undergraduate students of Zoology

• Poster presentation at various national and international conferences

8 9 Stories from Far-Western Nepal

10 11 Habitat Degradation

12 13 14 Way Forward • Ecological data on frogs

• Bioacoustics monitoring

• Support and fund for regular research

• Breeding behavior of endemic frogs

• Long term monitoring to collect data on effects of climate change and other fluctuations

15 SUGGESTION AND QUERIES ARE HIGHLY ANTICIPATED

TOGETHER FOR FROGS

16