HTTPS://JOURNALS.KU.EDU/REPTILESANDAMPHIBIANSTABLE OF CONTENTS IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANSREPTILES • VOL & AMPHIBIANS15, NO 4 • DEC 2008 • 28(2):189 326–328 • AUG 2021
IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS CONSERVATION AND NATURAL HISTORY
TABLE OF CONTENTS
AFEATURE New ARTICLES Elevational and Locality Record . Chasing Bullsnakes (Pituophis catenifer sayi) in Wisconsin: of theOn the RoadAssam to Understanding the EcologyLeaf and Conservation Turtle, of the Midwest’s Giant Cyclemys Serpent ...... Joshua M. Kapfergemeli 190 . The Shared History of Treeboas (Corallus grenadensis) and Humans on Grenada: (Geoemydidae),A Hypothetical Excursion ...... from the DarjeelingRobert W. Henderson Hills 198 in RESEARCH ARTICLES the Central. The Texas Horned Lizard Himalayan in Central and Western Texas ...... Biogeographic Emily Henry, Jason Brewer, Krista Mougey, and Gad PerryProvince 204 . The Knight Anole (Anolis equestris) in Florida ...... Brian J. Camposano, Kenneth L. Krysko, Kevin M. Enge, Ellen M. Donlan, and Michael Granatosky 212 Avantika Thapa, Pujan Pradhan, Mukesh Thakur, Bheem Dutt Joshi, Lalit Kumar Sharma, and Kailash Chandra CONSERVATION ALERT Zoological Survey of India, Prani Vigyan Bhawan, M-Block, New Alipore Kolkata, West Bengal, 700053, India ([email protected]) . World’s Mammals in Crisis ...... 220 . More Than Mammals ...... 223 . The “Dow Jones Index” of Biodiversity ...... 225 he Assam LeafHUSBANDRY Turtle (Cyclemys gemeli Fritz, Guicking, suggested the existence of seven species (Guicking et al. 2002; TAuer, Sommer,. Captive Wink, Care ofand the CentralHundsdörfer Netted Dragon 2008) ...... is one Stuart and Fritz 2008). Distributions Shannon Plummer are226 not clearly defined of only two speciesPROFILE in the genus Cyclemys known to occur in at this time (Fritz et al. 2008); however, based on morphol- India (Aengals et al.. Kraig2018). Adler: Only A Lifetime one Promoting or two Herpetology species ...... were rec- ogy, locality records of the Michael Assam L. Treglia Leaf 234Turtle include Assam ognized (Iverson 1992) until analyses of mtDNA sequences (Fritz et al. 2008; Basumatary and Sharma 2013), Meghalaya COMMENTARY . The Turtles Have Been Watching Me ...... Eric Gangloff 238
BOOK REVIEW . Threatened Amphibians of the World edited by S.N. Stuart, M. Hoffmann, J.S. Chanson, N.A. Cox, R. Berridge, P. Ramani, and B.E. Young ...... Robert Powell 243
CONSERVATION RESEARCH REPORTS: Summaries of Published Conservation Research Reports ...... 245 NATURAL HISTORY RESEARCH REPORTS: Summaries of Published Reports on Natural History ...... 247 NEWBRIEFS ...... 248 EDITORIAL INFORMATION ...... 251 FOCUS ON CONSERVATION: A Project You Can Support ...... 252
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Fig. 1. An Assam Leaf Turtle (Cyclemys gemeli) from the Avon Grove Tea Estate, Darjeeling, West Bengal, India, at an elevation of 1,444 m asl. Photographs by Avantika Thapa and Pujan Kumar Pradhan.
Copyright is held by the authors. Articles in R&A are made available under a 326 Reptiles & Amphibians ISSN 2332-4961 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license. THAPA ET AL. REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS • 28(2): 326–328 • AUG 2021
(Praschag et al. 2009), Nagaland (Praschag et al. 2009), West Turtles and tortoises are severely threatened by unprec- Bengal (Pradhan et al. 2020), Uttar Pradesh (Das et al. 2012), edented habitat destruction and poaching for food and tradi- and southeastern Bhutan (Wangyal et al. 2012). The eleva- tional Chinese medicine (van Dijk et al. 2000; Praschag and tional extent of the species’ entire distribution is unknown, Ahmed 2021). Documentation of distributions is of critical but published records span a range of 70–1,300 m asl (Table importance for developing conservation strategies (Sharief 1). Herein we report the highest elevational record of the et al. 2021). The Assam Leaf Turtle has been mentioned as Assam Leaf Turtle from the Darjeeling Hills in West Bengal. a food item and as a cure for skin diseases in a study con- On 22 August 2020, during fieldwork in the Avon ducted among the Adi tribes residing in Arunachal Pradesh as Grove Tea Estate (26.93804°N, 88.19495°E), Darjeeling, well (Chinlampianga et al. 2013), and a study conducted in West Bengal, India, at an elevation of 1,444 m asl, we were Nagaland reported a shell of this species painted with enamel informed by local residents that a turtle had been rescued (Bhupathy et al. 2013). The current conservation status of from a road at night. We took photographs and morphomet- Near Threatened (NT) on the IUCN Red List (Praschag and ric measurements of the rescued individual, compared them Ahmed 2021) is based largely on evidence that the popula- to descriptions provided by Ahmed and Das (2010) and tion of this species is declining. In India, this species has been Fritz et al. (2008), and tentatively identified it as Cyclemys categorized as Schedule IV under The Wildlife (Protection) gemeli. The adult female (carapace length 22.8 cm, carapace Act, 1972 and is listed in CITES Appendix II (CITES 2021). width 16.0 cm, plastron length 16.5 cm, tail length 3.8 cm, forelimb length 10.1 cm, hindlimb length 7.6cm) weighed Acknowledgements 890 g (Fig. 1). The turtle had 11 pairs of marginal scutes We thank the Chief Wildlife Warden, Forest Department, and both the carapace and plastron were dark brown. Other West Bengal, for granting the necessary permission to under- than missing the digits of its left hindlimb, it appeared to be take field surveys for the research work. We are grateful to the in good health. The turtle was released into a nearby swamp staff of both the forest department of Darjeeling Directorate (26.937767°N, 88.194352°E), where it has been resighted at and the Wildlife Division-I for extending their support dur- least twice by local residents. ing fieldwork. We are grateful to Mr. Abhishek Gurung and The closest published locality record for this species is Mr. Sewak Gurung for passing on invaluable information. in Sittong, Darjeeling District, West Bengal (26.9480°N, We also thank Mr. Aditya Pradhan for his kind support and 88.3800°E) at an elevation of 580 m asl (Pradhan et al. 2020) guidance during the drafting of this manuscript. Dr. Kaushik and 56 km from the Avon Grove Tea Estate. We submitted Deuti for helping in identification of the species. Finally, we a photographic voucher to the Zoological Survey of India, acknowledge the National Mission on Himalayan Studies, National Zoological Collection (ZSI/WL/1903) and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change identity of the turtle was confirmed from photographs by Dr. (MoEFCC) for financial support Grant No. NMHS/2017- Kaushik Deuti. 18/LG09/02.
Table 1. Published localities with elevations for the Assam Leaf Turtle (Cyclemys gemeli).
Locality Elevation (asl) Source Jia Bhoroli River, Assam, India Approx. 70 m Fritz et al. 2008 Damra Village, Assam, India Approx. 50 m Praschag et al. 2009 Near Barni Hat, Meghalaya, India Approx. 75 m Praschag et al. 2009 Dimapur, Nagaland, India 150 m Praschag et al. 2009 Tuli Village, Nagaland, India 153 m Praschag et al. 2009 Orang National Park, Assam, India Approx. 60 m Baruah et al. 2011 Sershong, southeastern Bhutan 325 m Wangyal et al. 2012 Panbari, Assam, India 252 m Basumatary and Sharma 2013 Nishangada, Uttar Pradesh, India Approx. 100 m Das et al. 2012 Around Sendenyu Village, Nagaland, India Approx. 1,300 m Bhupathy et al. 2013 Arunachal Pradesh, India — Chinlampianga et al. 2013 Chittagong Hills, Bangladesh — Rahman et al. 2015 Sitong, West Bengal, India 580 m Pradhan et al. 2020 Avon Grove Tea Estate, West Bengal, India 1,444 m Present study
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Literature Cited 2008. Diversity of the Southeast Asian leaf turtle genus Cyclemys: how many leaves on its tree of life? Zoologica Scripta 37: 367–390. https://doi. Ahmed, M.F. and A. Das. 2010. Tortoises and Turtles of Northeast India: org/10.1111/j.1463-6409.2008.00332.x. Saving Them from Extinction! Survey, Assessment of Present Status and Conservation of Tortoises and Freshwater Turtles in Northeast India. (Draft) Guicking, D., U. Fritz, M. Wink, and E. Lehr. 2002. New data on the diversity of Technical Report, Aaranyak, HRCP 01/2010. Aaranyak, Guwahati, India. the Southeast Asian leaf turtle genus Cyclemys Bell, 1834. Molecular results (Reptila: Testudines: Geoemydidae). Zoologische Abhandlungen 23: 75–86. Aengals, R., V.S. Kumar, M. J. Palot, and S. R. Ganesh.2018. A Checklist of Reptiles of India. Version 3.0. Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, India.
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