HTTPS://JOURNALS.KU.EDU/REPTILESANDAMPHIBIANSTABLE OF CONTENTS IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANSREPTILES • VOL & AMPHIBIANS15, NO 4 • DEC 2008 • 28(2):189 312–313 • AUG 2021 IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS CONSERVATION AND NATURAL HISTORY TABLE OF CONTENTS TailFEATURE Bifurcation ARTICLES in a Tokay Gecko, Gekko . Chasing Bullsnakes (Pituophis catenifer sayi) in Wisconsin: geckoOn the (Linnaeus Road to Understanding the Ecology and 1758), Conservation of the Midwest’s with Giant Serpent ......................Notes Joshua M. Kapferon 190 the . The Shared History of Treeboas (Corallus grenadensis) and Humans on Grenada: NaturalA Hypothetical History Excursion ............................................................................................................................ of the Species in RobertIlam, W. Henderson 198Nepal RESEARCH ARTICLES . The Texas Horned Lizard in Central and Western Texas .......................Tapil P. Rai Emily Henry, Jason Brewer, Krista Mougey, and Gad Perry 204 . The Knight Anole (Anolis equestris) in Florida Department of Environmental ............................................. Science, Mechi MultipleBrian J. Camposano, Campus, Kenneth Bhadrapur L. Krysko, Municipality-8, Kevin M. Enge, Jhapa, Ellen M.Nepal, Donlan, and and the Michael Turtle Granatosky Rescue and 212 Conservation Centre (TRCC), Arjundhara Municipality-9, Jhapa, Nepal ([email protected]) CONSERVATION ALERT . World’s Mammals in Crisis ............................................................................................................................................................. 220 . More Than Mammals ...................................................................................................................................................................... 223 he Tokay Gecko. The (“DowGekko Jones gecko Index” ),of Biodiversitywith a maximum ............................................................................................................................... total ............ 225 Tlength to 395HUSBANDRY mm is one of the largest living geckos; it lives on trees and. Captive rocks Care in of the tropical Central Netted rainforest Dragon ....................................................................................................... (Kästle et Shannon Plummer 226 al. 2013). In Nepal, the species occupies a narrow strip in PROFILE the upper Terai and. Kraig in Adler:the lowA Lifetime midlands Promoting ofHerpetology extreme ................................................................................................ eastern Michael L. Treglia 234 Nepal (Rai et al. 2002; Kästle et al. 2013). Based on global distribution andCOMMENTARY threats, it is listed as being of Least Concern (LC) in the IUCN. The Red Turtles List Have of Been Threatened Watching Me ........................................................................................................................ Species (Lwin Eric Gangloff 238 2019); however,BOOK Kästle REVIEW et al. (2013) noted that the Tokay Gecko is perhaps .a Threatenedrecent immigrant Amphibians of the to World Nepal, edited where by S.N. Stuart,it is M. Hoffmann, J.S. Chanson, N.A. Cox, rare. It is listed under R.Appendix Berridge, P. Ramani, II in andCITES B.E. Young (CITES .............................................................................................................. 2021). Robert Powell 243 The principal threats to Tokay Geckos are collection for tra- Fig. 2. A pair of Tokay Gecko (Gekko gecko) eggs glued to a wooden beam CONSERVATION RESEARCH REPORTS: Summaries of Publishedin Pandau, Conservation Ilam Research District, Reports Nepal. ................................. Photograph by 245 Tapil P. Rai. ditional medicine NATURALand the pet HISTORY trade RESEARCH(Caillabet REPORTS 2013), :as Summaries well of Published Reports on Natural History ................................. 247 as habitat destruction NEWBRIEFS and wanton ............................................................................................................................... killing (Rai et al. 2002; ....................................................... 248 Kästle et al. 2013). EDITORIAL Pardafas, aINFORMATION Nepali newspaper, ............................................................................................................................... reported the ...................... 251 FOCUS ON CONSERVATION: A Project You Can Support ...............................................................................................tion (from bifurcations to hexafurcations) 252 is the result of pre- arrest of two lizard smugglers with eight live Tokay Geckos in vious injury rather than developmental tail deformity (Lynn Kathmandu, Nepal; they presumably were selling them as a 1950) and also has been reported in several lizard families source of drugs to treat AIDS (Pardafas Reporter 2020). (Barr et al. 2020). Tail bifurcation in a Tokay Gecko was At 0715 h on 18 September 2020, Terisa Tamang Front Cover. Shannon Plummer. recordedBack Cover.by Gogoi Michael et Kern al. (2018) in Kaziranga, Assam, India; observed a Tokay Gecko with a bifurcatedTotat et velleseque tail audanton a mowooden however,Totat et velleseque this observation audant mo is the first record from Nepal. ceiling about 3.5 m above the floorestibus in inveliquo Pandau, velique a ruralrerchil area estibusBased inveliquo on veliquethat report,rerchil I visited Pandau on 20 September in Mai Municipality-7 of Ilamerspienimus, District, quos eastern accullabo. IlibusNepal erspienimus, quos accullabo. Ilibus aut dolor apicto invere pe dolum 2020aut dolor and apicto observed invere pe dolum two Tokay Geckos (an adult and a juve- (26°46'51.7"N, 87°48'32.3"E; fugiatiselev. maionsequat222 m asl;eumque Fig. 1). nile)fugiatis and maionsequat a pair of eumque eggs glued on a wooden beam (Fig. 2) Caudal autotomy is a major defensemoditia mechanism erere nonsedis in ma 13 sectiatur lizard nearmoditia where erere nonsedis the gecko ma sectia with- the bifurcated tail had been seen. ma derrovitae voluptam, as quos tur ma derrovitae voluptam, as families (Downes and Shine 2001).accullabo. Abnormal tail regenera- I also found two adults about 5 m away in a wooden shed. A survey of the surrounding area confirmed that Tokay Geckos inhabited a dozen wooden houses. The presence of adults, juveniles, and eggs suggests that they are breeding naturally (Fig. 3). The inhabitants of Pandau describe Tokay Geckos feeding on insects attracted to lights and House Mice (Mus musculus). Kästle et al. (2013) mentioned Tokay Geckos feed- ing on young mice and Bucol and Alcala (2013) recorded Tokay Geckos preying on juvenile rats (Rattus sp.) in the Philippines. Local residents also indicated that predation on Fig. 1. A Tokay Gecko (Gekko gecko) with a bifurcated tail from Pandau, Tokay Geckos by Bengal Monitors (Varanus bengalensis) is a Ilam District, Nepal. Photograph by Terisa Tamang. common sight and one of the factors decreasing the popula- Copyright is held by the authors. Articles in R&A are made available under a 312 Reptiles & Amphibians ISSN 2332-4961 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license. RAI REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS • 28(2): 312–313 • AUG 2021 Fig. 3. An adult (left) and a juvenile (right) Tokay Gecko (Gekko gecko) from Pandau, Ilam District, Nepal. Photographs by Tapil P. Rai. tion. Bengal Monitors are largely diurnal generalist predators and Flora). 2021. Appendices I, II and III. Valid from 14 February 2021. that prey on invertebrates, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, <https://cites.org/eng/app/appendices.php>. Downes, S. and R. Shine. 2001. Why does tail loss increase a lizard’s later vul- and mammals (Kästle et al. 2013; Karunarathna et al. 2017). nerability to snake predators? Ecology 82: 1293–1303. https://doi. As Tokay Geckos are rare and distributed sparingly in eastern org/10.2307/2679990. Nepal, this documentation of reproduction in Ilam is a prom- Gogoi, M., S. Kundu, J. Goswami, D. Saikia, and N. Pandey. 2018. First record of tail bifurcation in Tokey Gecko (Gekko gecko) from the Kaziranga, Assam, ising record for Nepal. India: a field observation. International Journal of Experimental Research and Review 15: 5–8. https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12625. Acknowledgements Kästle, W., K.R. Rai, and H.H. Schleich. 2013. Field Guide to Amphibians and I thank Terisa Tamang for providing the photograph of the Reptiles of Nepal. ARCO-Nepal e.V., München, Germany. Karunarathna, S., T. Surasinghe, D. Dissanayake, M. Botejue, D. Gabadage, and Tokay Gecko (Gekko gecko) with a bifurcated tail. This work M. Madawala. 2017. Dietary habits and the predators of the Bengal Monitor was supported by the TK Co., Nepal. Varanus bengalensis in Sri Lanka. Biawak 11: 28–39. Lwin, K., T. Neang, S. Phimmachak, B. Stuart, W. Thaksintham, G. Wogan, P. Danaisawat, D. Iskandar, J. Yang, and B. Cai. 2019. Gekko gecko. The IUCN Literature Cited Red List of Threatened Species 2019: e.T195309A2378260. https://dx.doi. Barr, J.I., R. Somaweera, S.S. Godfrey, M.G. Gardner, and P.W. Bateman. 2020. org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2019-1.RLTS.T195309A2378260.en. When one tail isn’t enough: abnormal caudal regeneration in lepidosaurs and Lynn, W.G. 1950. A case of duplication of the tail in Plethodon. Herpetologica 6: its potential ecological impacts. Biological Review 95: 1479–1496. https://doi. 81–84. org/10.1111/brv.12625. Pardafas Reporter. 2020. Seven years later, a gang of lizard smugglers was caught Bucol, A. and A. Alcala. 2013. Tokay gecko, Gekko gecko (Sauria: Gekkonidae) again who supposed it to be an AIDS drug (in Nepali). Pardafas, 16 predation on juvenile house rats. Herpetology Notes 6: 307–308. December 2020, New Baneshwor, Kathmandu, Nepal. <https://pardafas. Caillabet, O.S. 2013. The Trade in Tokay Geckos Gekko gecko in South-East Asia: com/news/942529>. with a case study on Novel Medicinal Claims in Peninsular Malaysia. TRAFFIC, Rai, K.R., H.H. Schleich, and U.K.R. Yadav. 2002. Distribution and ethno- Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia. herpetology of Tokeh (Gekko gecko) in Nepal. Journal of the Natural History CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna Museum 21: 137–148. 313.