A checklist of the vertebrates of Kerala State, India

Abstract

Abstract:Following the first publication on vertebrates of India (Blanford 1888-1890), a huge wealth of information has been compiled on the vertebrate fauna of various biogeographic zones of the country, especially the Western Ghats. The state of Kerala comprising of a land area of 38,863km 2 , 590km coastline, an intricate system of backwaters along the coast, tropical moist forests of the Western Ghats, the highly undulating terrain, and the tropical monsoon is a unique geographical and environmental entity rich in biodiversity. A regionspecific checklist that summarises and documents the current status of vertebrate diversity provides benchmark data for documentation and appreciation of biodiversity at regional level. Further, with the current rate of global biodiversity loss and concordant conservation efforts, the taxonomic community has a greater responsibility to make scientific information available to scientists, policy makers, politicians, research students and all relevant stakeholders, an attempt that has been made in the present paper. The State of Kerala has 1847 species of vertebrates in 330 families and 81 orders, of which 386 are endemic to the Western Ghats region (of the Western GhatsSri Lanka Hotspot), and 205 species as threatened. Six hundred and eighty species of vertebrates of Kerala have been listed in the various schedules of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, while 148 are listed in the different appendices of CITES.

Checklist of wild mammals of Shivapuri Nagarjun National Park, Nepal

“…A checklist is a crucial tool for the documentation and conservation of biodiversity (Nameer et al 2015). Understanding the diversity of flora and fauna in a protected area plays a vital role in the management of protected areas (Sirinivasalu et al 2004).…”

Odonata of Kattampally wetland, Kerala state, India

“…Like many other wetlands in Kerala, the Kattampally wetland is also facing many anthropogenic threats endangering its flora and fauna. Checklists of fauna provide a basis for management of any biological landscape ( Nameer et al 2015). Thus, the present study aims to document the diversity and seasonal abundance of odonates in Kattampally wetland in Kerala.…”

Database of amphibian vouchers and records available at the Kerala Agricultural University Natural History Museum in Thrissur and an updated checklist of amphibians of Kerala, India

“…Besides that, amphibian data suffer from biases due to the inconspicuous nature, unique biology & ecology of several species and the challenges in undertaking field studies in the forests at odd hours. According to Nameer et al (2015), 33% of the amphibians belong to various threatened categories of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Hence, documentation of amphibians is extremely important to win the Linnean shortfall which is considered as a basic flaw in biodiversity data (Hortal et al 2015;Ficetola et al 2019).…”