Resource utilization patterns of reptiles in the Tropical Dry Mixed Deciduous Forest of Anaikatty Hills, Western Ghats, India.

Abstract

The western ghats is one of the 34 globally recognized biodiversity hot spots. Among the 506 species of reptiles reported distributed in India 165 are distributed in the Western ghats. The concept of a biotic community may be defined as tn assemblages of various organisms living together and interacting at all trophic levels. The present study was undertaken with the following objectives (1) to know the suitability of various techniques for sampling reptiles in tropical mixed dry forest (2) To study aspects of population of reptiles in the Anaikatty hills in terms of species richness, diversity and relative abundance (3) to understand the patterns of resource use by reptiles at various spatio-temporal level.