Snakes of urban Delhi, India: An updated annotated checklist with eight new geographical records

Barhadiya, Gaurav; Ghosh, Chaitali

doi:10.17161/randa.v28i1.15269

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 7 publications

(7 reference statements)

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“…Elapids are in fact considered to have a high WR in which larger individuals forage on a variety of prey animals and occasionally consume snakes that exceed their own mass (Greene, 1983; Shine and Wall, 2007). Snake species that are commonly associated with human-dominated environments (Barhadiya and Ghosh, 2021; Kalki et al, 2021) showed a high relative importance in the diet of N. naja ( N. naja , 31%; Daboia russelii , 23.8%; and Ptyas mucosa , 11.9%). Whether the high proportion of ophiophagy results from actual preference or simply from N. naja feeding more often on particularly common animals in an urban environment remains unknown.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trophic Niche Partitioning between Sympatric Naja naja and Ptyas mucosa: Crowdsourced Data in Application to Community Ecology

Weiss

Kalki

2023

Journal of Herpetology

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Spectacled Cobras (Naja naja) and Oriental Ratsnakes (Ptyas mucosa) frequently share habitats and presumably occupy a similar trophic niche. We present a dietary synopsis of both species as well as niche metrics based on feeding events retrieved from crowdsourced data. Our analysis suggests a high importance of ophiophagy in the diet of N. naja, which occasionally feeds on mammals and frogs, but rarely on other taxa. Ptyas mucosa preyed most frequently on frogs and occasionally on snakes and mammals. The relative importance of shared prey items was generally high and confirmed overlap of their trophic niches. Interspecific trophic competition could serve as a noninvasive conservation tool. In particular, adult N. naja may avoid areas in which size-equivalent or size-superior P. mucosa are present, potentially offering new perspectives on common conservation practices for this medically significant snake. Methodological biases because of low detection probability of subterranean predation events and a bias in ophiophagous events in data retrieved from social media cannot be ruled out. Two key issues need to be considered when using crowdsourced data to assess trophic niche partitioning: 1) choosing an appropriate level of prey identification as a base for meaningful comparison and 2) ensuring relative spatial homogeneity of data origins over the common range. When considering the trade-off between data quality and quantity for comparative analysis, crowdsourcing is a valuable but supplementary resource for studies of niche partitioning in sympatric species. The presented data expand the known dietary spectrum of both snake species by 42 previously unpublished trophic interactions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trophic Niche Partitioning between Sympatric Naja naja and Ptyas mucosa: Crowdsourced Data in Application to Community Ecology

Weiss

Kalki

2023

Journal of Herpetology

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“…It is surrounded by agricultural farms, ridges, and other green areas and experiences regular snake occurrences in residential, recreational, educational, and industrial areas 10 . Unfortunately, snakes in Delhi have never received priority as compared to the other groups like mammals and avian fauna, therefore, no significant studies have been published on the occurrence of snakes in Delhi 13 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial and temporal assessment of snake encounters in urban Delhi, India

Barhadiya,

Purkayastha,

Saha

et al. 2024

Sci Rep

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Delhi, the capital city of India is, highly urbanized and surrounded by remnant forest, farms, ridges, and other green areas experience regular snake encounters in and around residential, institutional, and industrial areas. A total of 41 months of sampling from January 2019 to May 2022 was conducted wherein we, studied the snake assemblage in Delhi to determine the species composition, encounter frequency, seasonal activity patterns, and probable encounter sites in an urban setup. We documented 372 individuals belonging to 15 species from seven families out of 23 species found in Delhi. Snakes were found inside forests, public parks, homes, drain networks, streets, office buildings, and even in school-college buildings. The most recorded species being Ptyas mucosa (37.37%, n = 139), Naja naja (19.62%, n = 73), and Lycodon aulicus (13.44%, n = 50). The highest numbers of incidents were reported in the month of July (22.04%, n = 82) and August (19.89%, n = 74) during the peak monsoon season, for identifying high encounter sites, we used a geostatistical modeling tool, Ordinary kriging to identify places having more snake occurrences. We further used a statistical spatial method called average nearest neighbor distance to detect the pattern distribution of snake species. Spatial interpolation done through Ordinary kriging highlighted two areas having concentrated snake encounters. The results of the average nearest neighbor distance analysis showed three species having clustered and two species having dispersed distribution. The incidence of snake encounters was found to be highly seasonal and appeared to be associated mainly with monthly rainfall, temperature, and humidity. The findings of this study on snakes’ distribution patterns provide valuable insights into the conservation of these species. Understanding their habitat preferences and spatial distribution is crucial for the implementation of effective conservation strategies.

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Taxonomic Composition of the Oligodon arnensis (Shaw 1802) Species Complex (Squamata: Colubridae) with the Description of a New Species from India

Bandara

Ganesh²,

Kanishka

et al. 2022

Herpetologica

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Snakes of urban Delhi, India: An updated annotated checklist with eight new geographical records

Cited by 3 publications

References 7 publications

Trophic Niche Partitioning between Sympatric Naja naja and Ptyas mucosa: Crowdsourced Data in Application to Community Ecology

Trophic Niche Partitioning between Sympatric Naja naja and Ptyas mucosa: Crowdsourced Data in Application to Community Ecology

Spatial and temporal assessment of snake encounters in urban Delhi, India

Taxonomic Composition of the Oligodon arnensis (Shaw 1802) Species Complex (Squamata: Colubridae) with the Description of a New Species from India

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