Seasonal variations in the diversity of Amphibians and Reptiles in Western Terai arc landscape, India

Abstract

Amphibian and reptiles are weather sensitive, poikilothermic group of animals, and their occurrence varies with the change in seasons. Present study was conducted in Ramnagar Forest Division of Uttarakhand state of India. Ramnagar Forest Division is the western part of Terai Arc Landscape which is an important ecoregion of the world. Sampling was done with Visual Encounter Surveys along with other methods, in all the seasons of a year. A total of 47 species of herpetofauna was recorded in the study, including 10 species of frogs, 13 species of lizards, 20 species of snakes and 4 species of testudines. The maximum number of herpetofauna species was observed during monsoon season, while the least number species were found in winters. The general pattern of herpetofauna species richness that observed in Ramnagar Forest Division was, found to be highest in monsoons, which then started decreasing in autumns and a rapid decrease was noticed in pre-winter and reached minimum in winters. In springs it started rising again and continue to rise in summers to reached maximum in monsoons

Temporal variation, habitat heterogeneity and anthropogenic stressors influencing wildlife communities in an oxbow shaped wetland of lower Ganges floodplain, Bangladesh

“…In rainy season, the aquatic environment of the baor was more ancillary for amphibian and reptiles (Fig. 2B) (Mehra et al 2021). Diversity index showed the highest diversity value for rainy season (H=4.280, Ds=0.981) and species was more evenly distributed in this season (E=0.651).…”