The herpetofauna of the Dindefelo Natural Community Reserve, Senegal

Herpetology Notes, volume 9: 1-6 (2016) (published online on 9 February 2016) The herpetofauna of the Dindefelo Natural Community Reserve, Senegal Camila Monasterio 1, *, aula Álvarez 2, Jean-François Trape 3 and Mark-Oliver Rödel 4 Abstract. The Dindefelo Natural Community Reserve was declared with the objective of protecting biodiversity in this region. So far it was relatively unexplored regarding its herpetofauna. The location of this reserve, together with its unusual varied topography and well-conserved mosaic of vegetation formations, promised this area to harbour a very distinctive herp community. The aim of our preliminary inventory was to report a first list of the herpetofauna found in this unexplored area of south-east Senegal. We found 16 species of reptiles (5 lizards, 9 snakes, one tortoise and one crocodile) and 10 species of amphibians. Two of those records, Dipsadoboa aff. weileri (Colubridae) and tychadena retropunctata (tychadenidae), are first country records. The Dindefelo Natural Community Reserve seems to be a promising area for further herpetological research. Keywords. Africa, faunistics, new records, West Africa. Introduction The number of studies on amphibians and reptiles from West Africa has been increasing during the past years, probably supported by the availability of comprehensive books (Rödel, 2000; Chippaux, 2001; Trape and Mané, 2006; Trape et al., 2012). However, more local studies are needed to fill gaps in our knowledge about the distribution of species and species richness. This also applies to south-eastern Senegal, which was only rarely 1 Cátedra Rui Nabeiro, Universidade de Évora (CIBIO/InBio), Casa Cordovil, Rua Dr. Joaquim Henrique da Fonseca, 7000-890 Évora, ortugal. 2 Instituto Jane Goodall España en Senegal (IGJE), Área de Investigación, Kédougou, Senegal. 3 Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), Laboratoire de aludologie et de Zoologie Médicale, B.. 1386, Dakar, Sénégal. 4 Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Invalidenstrasse 43, 10115 Berlin, Germany. * Corresponding author e-mail: camila@bio.ucm.es inventoried (e.g. Lamotte, 1969; Joger and Lambert, 2002; Trape and Mané, 2004). The south-eastern part of Senegal may be of particular interest concerning biodiversity. In 2010 the Dindefelo Natural Community Reserve (DNCR) was declared with the objective of protecting the biodiversity in this region. This reserve is located between two outstanding natural areas: the Niokolo-Koba National ark (Senegal) to the northwest, and the Fouta Djallon Mountain Range (Guinea) to the south. The location of the DNCR, together with its unusual varied topography and well-conserved mosaic of vegetation formations, makes it unique within Senegal. We expect this area to harbour an interesting composition of amphibian and reptile species and thus being a promising research area (compare Fernández-García et al., 2013). The aim of this paper is to report a preliminary list of the DNCR herpetofauna, which may serve as a baseline for future research as well as for biodiversity monitoring and management. Materials and methods Study area. The Dindefelo Natural Community Reserve (DNCR, 12º24 N 12º18 W, ca.13,150 ha) is located in the Kedougou region, the southernmost and

2 Camila Monasterio et al. Figure 1. Location of the Dindefelo Natural Community Reserve (RNCD) in Kedougou, south-eastern Senegal. most humid area in Senegal (Figure 1). Its sub-guinean climate is characterized by a dry and hot season from March to June, a rainy season from July to October, and a cooler dry season from November to February. Biogeographically the reserve is located between two ecoregions, the western Sudanese savannah and the Guinean savannah-forest mosaic. It comprises basal plains at ca.150 m a.s.l., and an east west oriented massif with steep slopes, gorges and rocky cliffs, surmounted by a laterite plateau at 400 450 m a.s.l. The latter forms the north-westernmost extension of the Fouta Djallon highlands, mainly located in Guinea. The combination of rough topography and biogeography results in four general vegetation formations: a) savannah in the drier and lower northern part of the reserve, with a more or less developed shrub and tree cover (S); b) semi-deciduous forest on the slopes of the rocky cliffs that surrounds the lower areas (SDF); c) gallery forest located along streams on the bases of the gorges (GF); d) vegetation of the laterite plateau where there is virtually no vegetation during the dry season, but a dense grass cover during the rainy season (L) (Fernández-García et al., 2013). Field work. The results presented herein are based upon records collected around the village of Segou (12º24 26 N, 12º17 01 W), which is located at the foothill of the Guinean mountains (Figure 1). All species were found within a radius of 3 km from the village centre between February 2013 and December 2014. All observations and photographs have been made by CM and/or A. Most encounters were opportunistic while carrying out an troglodytes verus monitoring work. This work entails 5-7 hours per day (starting ca 6:30 a.m.) of walking in the area in search for chimpanzee groups and their tracks. Further opportunistic observations were recorded while performing everyday activities around the village. Regarding amphibians we additionally performed nocturnal surveys between November and December 2013 along the creeks around Segou. These observations where outside the anuran breeding season and, therefore, activity was reduced (i.e. animals were not calling and most caught individuals were not adult). Species were identified either in situ by CM and A or based on photographs (JFT, MOR). Results We found 16 species of reptiles (5 lizards, 9 snakes, one tortoise and one crocodile) and 10 species of

The herpetofauna of the Dindefelo Natural Community Reserve, Senegal 3 Table 1. List of the reptiles and amphibians of the Dindefelo Natural Community Reserve found during this study and the habitat type in which the respective species has been recorded: tree and shrub savannah (S); semi-deciduous forest (SDF); gallery forest on the bases of the gorges (GF); grassland on the laterite plateau (L); * = first country record; 1 = complex of species, compare Zimkus et al. (2010); ² = compare Nago et al. (2009); 3 = compare Measey et al. (2007). Source of evidence used in identification noted as S: sight or : picture. Family Species Habitat Source Agamidae Agama agama (Linnaeus, 1758) S ( S Chamaeleonidae Chamaeleo senegalensis Daudin, 1802 S Gekkonidae Hemidactylus angulatus Hallowell, 1854 S ( S/ Scincidae Trachylepis affinis (Gray, 1838) GF S/ Varanidae Varanus niloticus (Linnaeus, 1766) GF Colubridae Dipsadoboa aff. weileri* (Lindholm, 1905) S Grayia smithii (Leach, 1818) GF Elapidae Naja melanoleuca Hallowell, 1857 GF S/ Naja nigricollis Reinhardt, 1843 S ( Lamprophiidae sammophis elegans (Shaw, 1802) S sammophis praeornatus (Schlegel, 1837) S Natricidae Afronatrix anoscopus (Cope, 1861) GF ythonidae ython regius (Shaw, 1802) GF Viperidae Echis jogeri Cherlin, 1990 S S/ Testudinidae Kinixys nogueyi (Lataste, 1886) GF Crocodylidae not identified, see text GF Arthroleptidae Arthroleptis sp. 1 S (river by the Bufonidae Amietophrynus regularis (Reuss, 1833) S (river by the A. maculatus (Hallowell, 1845) S (river by the Dicroglossidae Hoplobatrachus occipitalis (Günther, 1858) S (river by the Hyperoliidae Hyperolius spatzi Ahl, 1931 S (river by the Kassina cassinoides (Boulenger, 1903) S (river by the hrynobatrachidae hrynobatrachus francisci Boulenger, 1912 S (river by the cf. natalensis 1 (Smith, 1849) S (river by the tychadenidae tychadena retropunctata* (Angel, 1949) S (river by the. cf. schillukorum 2 (Werner, 1908) S (river by the. cf. mascareniensis 3 (Duméril and Bibron, 1841). pumilio (Boulenger, 1920) S (river by the S (river by the anuran amphibians (Table 1). The identification for the crocodile was not possible because the record was only based on a footprint by the riverside. otentially all three West African crocodile species could occur in the area (see Trape et al., 2012). Notes on selected species Dipsadoboa aff. weileri (Lindholm, 1905). We observed and photographed a green colubrid snake with a vertical pupil (Figure 2A). In West Africa, excluding vipers of the genus Atheris, all known green snakes with

4 Figure 2. hotographs of the species which were mentioned in the selected species section: Dipsadoboa aff. weileri (A), Arthroleptis sp. (B), tychadena retropunctata in dorsal (C1) and lateral (C2) view, and tychadena cf. schillukorum (D). a vertical pupil belong to the genus Dipsadoboa. This genus has never been reported from Senegal, Gambia, Mali and Guinea Bissau up to now, but five species are known from the Guinean forest block and gallery forest in adjacent savannahs: Dipsadoboa brevirostris (Sternfeld, 1908), D. underwoodi Rasmussen, 1993, D. unicolor Günther, 1858, D. viridis (eters, 1869) and D. weileri (Lindholm, 1905). However, according to Trape and Baldé (2014), the only Dipsadoboa species distributed in the Fouta Djallon is an undescribed species morphologically close to D. weileri from Central Africa. This species is characterised by a green dorsum (black in D. weileri), bright yellow supralabials, and a pale yellow belly. This colouration fits exactly our Dindefelo specimen. Two other green Dipsadoboa species are found in West Africa and Guinea, but both are known only from the rainforests of the south-eastern region of Guinea (Trape and Baldé, 2014; Böhme et al., 2011): Dipsadoboa unicolor is quite common but has pale blue supralabials in Guinea, and D. viridis is rare Camila Monasterio et al. and the pale yellow colour of its throat only marginally reach supralabials and does not contrast with the rest of the head as in D. aff. weileri (J.-F. Trape, unpublished). Arthroleptis sp. Our individuals of this species resembled A. poecilonotus eters, 1863, a species which has been described from southern Ghana (Figure 2B). Several other similar Arthroleptis species have been described from western Africa. However, all known species of the A. poecilonotus complex exhibit large intraspecific variability (see e.g. Figure 6 in Rödel et al., 2009), overlapping or even exceeding inter-specific variation in certain external characters. It is thus currently impossible to assign available names to the various populations (see Rödel and Bangoura, 2004, for a short summary). tychadena retropunctata (Angel, 1949). This frog was first described from the Nimba mountains in southeastern Guinea (Angel, 1949; Guibé and Lamotte, 1957, 1958) and subsequently recorded from further localities in south-eastern Guinea and the Loma mountains in Sierra Leone (Lamotte 1971; Rödel et al., 2004). It has also been recorded from the Boké region in northeastern Guinea, where it was found in large numbers in gallery forest surrounded by hilly savannah (Hillers et al. 2006). Our record represents the first of the species from Senegal (Figure 2C) and enlarges its distribution further to the north. So far very little is known about the distribution and the biology of the species (Rödel, 2000). It seems to prefer mid-altitude savannah, grasslands, and gallery forests, the latter potentially used during the dry season (Rödel et al., 2004). tychadena cf. schillukorum (Werner, 1908). A complex of morphologically similar frogs has been recorded from dry savannahs and mountain grasslands, ranging from Senegal east to southwestern Ethiopia and southern Somalia, north to Egypt, south to Malawi, central Mozambique, southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo and western Angola (Rödel, 2000; Channing, 2001; Baha El Din, 2006; Channing and Howell, 2006; Nago et al., 2006). The frogs found in DNCR (Figure 2D) differ morphologically from e.g. those of the endjari National ark in northern Bénin (Nago et al., 2006). In order to clarify the taxonomic situation of frogs of this group, specimens with tissue samples from the entire range are needed. Discussion We herein report for the first time on the herpetofauna of the Dindefelo Natural Community Reserve where we recorded 26 amphibian and reptile species. As the

The herpetofauna of the Dindefelo Natural Community Reserve, Senegal 5 main focus of the field work was not amphibians and reptiles and the area which was sampled was only a small part of the entire reserve, this species list already indicates that the DNCR is a very promising area for future herpetological research. Based on faunal lists of similar West African habitats (e.g. Lamotte, 1969; Joger and Lambert, 2002; Rödel et al., 2004; Trape and Mané, 2004; Hillers et al., 2006), we believe that a complete species count will be twice to three times the number we are presenting in this preliminary report. In particular the snake community will be much more diverse. We herein recorded two species for the first time from Senegal, Dipsadoboa aff. weileri and tychadena retropunctata. Moreover, two further species, Cophoscincopus senegalensis Trape, Mediannikov & Trape, 2012 (listed for Senegal as Cophoscincopus cf. greeri in Joger and Lambert, 2002) and Afronatrix anoscopus (Cope, 1861), are known in Senegal only from Dindefelo (see Trape et al., 2012 for C. senegalensis and Trape and Mané, 2006 for A. anoscopus). This would mean that at least four species in Senegal are known only from the DNCR area. Kassina cassinoides, reported herein for the second time from Senegal, likewise is only known from a nearby locality in the country (Böhme, 2005). In summary the DNCR seems to be an area which certainly deserves more attention from herpetologists. Future research should aim to fill the gaps in our species list by, e.g. searching amphibians during the rainy (= breeding) season and focusing on the forested and hilly parts of the area for reptiles. 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