The North American terrapin, the red-eared slider, has globally recognized invasive status. We built a new extensive database using our own original and literature data on the ecology of this reptile, representing information on 1477 water bodies throughout Eurasia over the last 50 years. The analysis reveals regions of earliest introductions and long-term spatio-temporal dynamics of the expansion covering now 68 Eurasian countries, including eight countries reported here for the first time. We established also long-term trends in terms of numbers of terrapins per aquatic site, habitat occupation, and reproduction success. Our investigation has revealed differences in the ecology of the red-eared slider in different parts of Eurasia. The most prominent expression of diverse signs of invasion success (higher portion of inhabited natural water bodies, higher number of individuals per water body, successful overwintering, occurrence of juvenile individuals, successful reproduction, and establishment of populations) are typical for Europe, West Asia and East Asia and tend to be restricted to coastal regions and islands. Reproduction records coincide well with the predicted potential range based on climatic requirements but records of successful wintering have a wider distribution. This invader provides an excellent and possibly unique (among animals) example of wide alien distribution, without the establishment of reproducing populations, but through the recruitment of new individuals to rising pseudopopulations due to additional releases. Therefore, alongside the potential reproduction range, a cost-effective strategy for population control must take in account the geographical area of successful wintering.
The habitat of a species can be defined as that portion of a multidimensional hyperspace (defined by any number of habitat factors) that is occupied by a given species (Whitaker et al. 1973). Data pertaining to interspecific niche partitioning by snakes has lagged behind that of other vertebrate groups, notably lizards and birds (Schoener 1977;Toft 1985). Descriptions of the preferred habitat is currently available for very few snake species (Reinert 1993) therefore, snakes are not well represented in studies of habitat selection. This is partly due to their secretive nature. They are difficult to locate and sightings are probably biased in favor of habitats where they are most visible. Measures of habitat suitability need to evaluate micro-habitat usage and animal movement patterns (Gurnell et al. 2002). Studies on some snake species suggest that individual snakes do actively select a preferred portion of their environment (Reinert 1984;Weatherhead & Charland 1985;Burger & Zappalorti 1988;Weatherhead & Prior 1992) and the habitat selection is influenced by complex biotic and abiotic factors (Reinert 1993). Although some species are highly specialized and can exploit a narrow range of habitat, most taxa utilize a broader range, at least occasionally (Heatwole 1977). Thus, it is also important to understand why species shift among habitat type.The State of Goa is located along the central west coast of India, lying between latitude 14 0 51'-15 0 48'N & 73 0 41'-74 0 20'E, with an area of 3702km 2 . The forests of Goa have been classified into various types which include the west coast tropical evergreen, cane brakes, wet bamboo brakes, west coast semi-evergreen, moist bamboo brakes, lateritic semi-evergreen forest, slightly moist teak forest, southern moist deciduous forest, southern secondary moist mixed deciduous forest, south Indian sub-tropical hill savannah woodland, southern sub tropical hill forest, lateritic scrub and dry tropical river rain forest OPEN ACCESS | FREE DOWNLOAD
Freshwater turtles symbolize a key component of biodiversity in aquatic ecosystems. Of the 356 living species of turtles and tortoises in the world, 34 species are recorded from India. The number of freshwater turtle and tortoise species found in the state of Goa, however, is debatable. No study specific to the Goa region has been carried out on freshwater turtles. Therefore, baseline data on diversity and distribution of freshwater turtles is scanty. The present study was conducted to address this lacuna in knowledge, which will further aid in identifying threats to the population of freshwater turtles and in devising appropriate methods for their conservation. The diversity and distribution of freshwater turtles was investigated in 186 sites in Goa from June 2012 to May 2015. A total of 337 specimens of two native and one introduced species of freshwater turtles belonging to three families—Trionychidae (Indian Flap-shell Turtle Lissemys puncata), Geomydidae (Indian Black Turtle Melanochelys trijuga) and Emydidae (Red-eared Slider Trachemys scripta elegans)— were identified. Melanochelys trijuga (52.23%) was the most widely and abundantly distributed species, and was recorded from 132 sites. L. punctata (46.88%) was recorded from 113 sites, while T. scripta elegans (0.89%) was rare and was recorded from only two sites. While Melanochelys trijuga is generalized in habitat selection, making it the widely distributed species in the State of Goa, L. punctata is more specific in habitat selection thus restricting its range to coastal, middle-level plateau and the foothills of Western Ghats.
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