Feeding Habit & Need of Conservation of Frog: Study from Nepal
Suman Sapkota Friends of Nature, Nepal
1 Nepal harbors about 60 species of anuras
Wide distribution from lowlands to remote and high Himalayas
About 11 endemic frogs 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 Hoplobatrachus crassus (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
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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
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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
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