By a Nicobar Bronzeback, Dendrelaphis

WWW.IRCF.ORG/REPTILESANDAMPHIBIANSJOURNALTABLE OF CONTENTS IRCF REPTILES & IRCFAMPHIBIANS REPTILES • VOL 15,& NAMPHIBIANSO 4 • DEC 2008 •189 25(2):145–147 • AUG 2018

IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS CONSERVATION AND NATURAL HISTORY

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FEATURE ARTICLES Predation. Chasing Bullsnakes (Pituophis on catenifer sayi a) in Wisconsin: Nicobar Frog, Amnirana On the Road to Understanding the Ecology and Conservation of the Midwest’s Giant Serpent ...... Joshua M. Kapfer 190 nicobariensis. The Shared History of Treeboas (Corallus grenadensis (Stoliczka) and Humans on Grenada: 1879), by a A Hypothetical Excursion ...... Robert W. Henderson 198 NicobarRESEARCH Bronzeback, ARTICLES Dendrelaphis humayuni . The Texas Horned Lizard in Central and Western Texas ...... Emily Henry, Jason Brewer, Krista Mougey, and Gad Perry 204 . The Knight Anole (Anolis equestris) in Florida (Tiwari ...... Brianand J. Camposano, Biswas Kenneth L. Krysko, Kevin M. Enge,1973), Ellen M. Donlan, and Michael from Granatosky 212 GreatCONSERVATION Nicobar ALERT Island, Republic of India . World’s Mammals in Crisis ...... 220 . More Than Mammals ...... 223 1 1 2* . The “Dow Jones Index”V. of BiodiversityRangasamy ...... , C. Sivaperuman , and Khan Ashaharraza ...... 225

1 Zoological SurveyHUSBANDRY of India, Andaman and Nicobar Regional Centre, Port Blair- 744 102, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India ([email protected]) 2Research Administrator, Indian Herpetological Society, Pune- 411 009, Maharashtra, India ([email protected]) *corresponding author . Captive Care of the Central Netted Dragon ...... Shannon Plummer 226

PROFILE . Kraig Adler: A Lifetime Promoting Herpetology ...... Michael L. Treglia 234 he Andaman and Nicobar Islands contribute substan- Siberut, Sumatra, Java, Bali, Indonesia (Diesmos et al. 2009), Ttially to the diversityCOMMENTARY of India’s flora and fauna, introduc- and peninsular Thailand through peninsular Malaysia (Taylor ing Indo-Malayan, Indo-Chinese,. The Turtles Have Been and Watching Oceanic Me ...... elements to 1962; Berry 1975; Frith 1977). Eric Gangloff 238 the biota (Das 1996;BOOK Gadgil REVIEW 1997). Young Czech naturalist- At 1446 h on 17 March 2018, during a visit to the Great explorer, Ferdinand .StoliczkaThreatened Amphibians (1838–1874) of the World made edited by the S.N. firstStuart, M. Hoffmann,Nicobar J.S. Biosphere Chanson, N.A. Cox,Reserve (7°09’58.8”N, 93°44’57.5”E), R. Berridge, P. Ramani, and B.E. Young ...... Robert Powell 243 systematic herpetological collection from these islands (Das we encountered an adult male Dendrelaphis humayuni

1999). At about the CONSERVATIONsame time, Blyth RESEARCH (1846) REPORTS: wrote the Summaries first of Published(total Conservation length Research ~900 Reports mm) ...... on the forest 245 floor amidst Bamboo account of the vertebrate NATURAL fauna. HISTORY RESEARCH REPORTS: Summaries of Published(Bambusa Reports onsp.) Natural leaf History litter ...... (Fig. 1a) 247 in the Campbell Bay  NEWBRIEFS ...... 248 The Nicobar Bronzeback EDITORIAL (INFORMATIONDendrelaphis ...... humayuni) is an National Park (Fig. 2). The...... snake struck 251 an Amnirana nico- uncommon, diurnally FOCUS active, ON CONSERVATIONarboreal snake: thatA Project is endemicYou Can Support ...... bariensis on the left flank before slowly 252 moving its grip toward to Great Nicobar Island, the southernmost and the largest the head (Fig. 1b). Although colubrids usually swallow frogs of the Nicobars (Vijayakumar and David 2006). Tiwari and alive and without constriction (Mori 1994), this frog was Biswas (1973) described the species on the basis of speci- dead before the snake began swallowing it. Total time from mens collected by Humayun AbdulFront Ali Cover. (Biswas Shannon and Plummer. Sanyal the initialBack Cover. strike Michael to completionKern was 15 min. Totat et velleseque audant mo Totat et velleseque audant mo 1977). Little is known about the naturalestibus inveliquohistory velique of this rerchil island estibus inveliquo velique rerchil endemic. The Nicobar Frog (Amniranaerspienimus, quosnicobariensis accullabo. Ilibus) is erspienimus, quos accullabo. IlibusAcknowledgements aut dolor apicto invere pe dolum aut dolor apicto invere pe dolum widely distributed across southeasternfugiatis Asia maionsequat (Frost eumque 2018) and Wefugiatis are maionsequatgrateful eumqueto Kailash Chandra (Director, Zoological has been recorded in northeastern moditiaIndia erere (Sen nonsedis 2004; ma sectiatur Sarkar Surveymoditia erere of nonsedisIndia) ma for sectia permitting- us to conduct a study at the ma derrovitae voluptam, as quos tur ma derrovitae voluptam, as and Ray 2006), the Nicobar Islandsaccullabo. (Das 1994), Borneo, Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve, Gernot Vogel (Society

Fig. 1. A Nicobar Bronzeback (Dendrelaphis humayuni) swallowing a Nicobar Frog (Amnirana nicobariensis) in the Campbell Bay National Park, Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve, Great Nicobar Island, India. Photographs by V. Rangasamy.

Fig. 2. Map showing the study site where a Nicobar Bronzeback (Dendrelaphis humayuni) swallowed a Nicobar Frog (Amnirana nicobariensis) in the Campbell Bay National Park, Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve, Great Nicobar Island, India. for South Asian Herpetology) for valuable insights, and Anil Blyth, E. 1846. Notes on the fauna of the Nicobar Islands—Reptilia. Journal of the Khaire (Chairman, Indian Herpetological Society) for help Bombay Natural History Society 15: 367–379. Das, I. 1994. A checklist of amphibians and reptiles of the Andaman and Nicobar with the literature. Islands. Journal of Andaman Science Association 10: 44–49. Das, I. 1996. Biogeography of Reptiles of South Asia. Krieger Publishing Company, Literature Cited Malabar, Florida. Berry, P.Y. 1975. The Amphibian Fauna of Peninsular Malaysia. Tropical Press, Das, I. 1999. Biogeography of the Amphibians and Reptiles of the Andaman and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Nicobar Islands, pp. 43–77. In: H. Ota (ed.), Tropical Island Herpetofauna: Biswas S. and D.P. Sanyal. 1977. Notes on the Reptilia collection from the Great Origin, Current Diversity and Conservation. Elsevier Science Ltd., Amsterdam, Nicobar Island during the Great Nicobar Expedition in 1966. Records of the The Netherlands. Zoological Survey of India 72: 107–124. Diesmos, A., D. Iskandar, P.P. van Dijk, R. Inger, I. Das, and S.P. Vijayakumar. 146 RANGASAMY ET AL. IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS • 25(2):145–147 • AUG 2018

2009. Amnirana nicobariensis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2009: quadrivirgata. Journal of Herpetology 25: 160–166. e.T58281A89362139 (http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/58281/0). Sen, N. 2004. Further notes on state wise distribution of the amphibian fauna of Frith, D.W. 1977. A preliminary list of the Amphibia of Phuket Island and adjacent north east India. Records of the Zoological Survey of India 102: 105–112. mainland, Peninsular Thailand. Natural History Bulletin of the Siam Society Sarkar, A.K. and S. Ray. 2006. Amphibia. Zoological Survey of India, Fauna of 26: 189–199. Arunachal Pradesh, State Fauna Series 13: 285–316. Frost, D.R. 2018. Amnirana nicobariensis. Amphibian Species of the World: An Online Reference. Version 6.0. American Museum of Natural History, New Taylor, E.H. 1962. The amphibian fauna of Thailand. University of Kansas Science York (http://research.amnh.org/vz/herpetology/amphibia/Amphibia/Anura/ Bulletin 43: 267–599. Ranidae/Amnirana/Amnirana-nicobariensis). Tiwari K. K. and S. Biswas. 1973. Two new reptiles from Great Nicobar Island. Gadgil, M. 1997. Diversity – The Cornerstone of Life. The National Council for Journal of the Zoological Society of India 25: 57–63. Science and Technology Communication, New Delhi, Vigyan Prasar, Noida, Vijayakumar, S.P. and P. David. 2006. Taxonomy, natural history, and distribution and Sanctuary Magazine, Mumbai. of the snakes of the Nicobar Islands (India), based on new materials and with Mori, A. 1991. Effects of prey size and type on prey-handling behavior in Elaphe an emphasis on endemic species. Russian Journal of Herpetology 13: 11–40.

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