The Herpetological Journal

pp. 318-325

Authors: Animesh Ghose, Jiban Chandra Deb, Kwaku Brako Dakwa, Jay Prakash Ray & AHM Ali
Reza5

Abstract: Tropical forests are considered one of the most important biogeographic zones for amphibian species diversity. As a tropical
country in Asia, Bangladesh implements different types of forest management practices in its forests, which might affect
prevailing forest quality in the existing forest types. The current state of information on the impact of habitat alteration
on amphibian species assemblages in Bangladesh is inadequate. To evaluate this, we conducted a study in Khadimnagar
National Park (KNP) in north-eastern Bangladesh. We used a combination of several common amphibian study techniques
in 15 pre-marked transects covering three major habitat types in KNP: forest edge, forest interior and swamp area. Twelve
anuran species belonging to eleven genera and six families were recorded during the study period. Euphlyctis cyanophlyctis
was the most abundant species, representing 51.7% of the recorded individuals, followed by Fejervarya spp. (18.9%); the
remaining 10 species altogether recorded less than 30% of the total abundance. Duttaphrynus melanostictus, Kaloula pulchra
and Raorchestes parvulus in particular occurred with very low abundance. Species richness, Shannon-Wiener diversity index,
and evenness index value indicated that the amphibian species assemblage in the forest interior is more diverse than the forest
edge and swamp area.

Keywords: Amphibian, species assemblages, abundance, diversity, habitat types, tropical forest