Mountain Survey of Amphibians and Reptiles and their Conservation Status in Manaslu Conservation Area, Gorkha District, Western Nepal

• DOI: 10.3126/cs.v5i1.24297
• Publication Date: 2019-05-31T10:16:15Z
• Authors: Biraj Shrestha; Karan Bahadur Shah
• Keywords: Endemism

Aim The Manaslu Conservation Area (MCA), a geographically diverse protected area, is known for high diversity of flowering plants and endemism. However, information about status herpetofauna limited. This study aims to fill this gap by updating distribution the MCA.
 Location Sirdibas, Bihi Prok Village Development Committees (VDCs), Gorkha district, (MCA).
 Materials methods We used multi-prolonged strategy combining visual encounter survey (VES) along six transects (500m each) in VDCs, patch sampling (PS) two sites Ghap VDCs opportunistic observations (OO) trekking trails from Sirdibas document presence herpetofauna. conducted questionnaire using photo-elicitation technique (PET) (n=30) collect ethnoherpetological data.
 Key Findings prepared checklist 22 species amphibian reptile verification data VES, PS, OO literature review. Himalayan rock lizard, Laudakia tuberculata was common all sites. Hodgson’s racer - Elaphe hodgsonii first described area. abundance decreased with increasing elevation (r = -0.53, P < 0.01). There positive association between abundances temperature 0.49, revealed that stream frogs locally called ‘Paha’ (genus ‘Amolops’, ‘Chaparana’ ‘Paa’) were commonly consumed food presumed health benefits. may impose serious threat. recommend similar systematic describe region.