Habitat and Altitudinal Distribution of Two Lizard Species of Genus <i>Takydromus</i> from the Northeast Asia (Far East of Russia, Republic of Korea)

Abstract

The paper discusses biotopical and altitudinal distribution of Takydromus amurensis Peters, 1881 and Takydromus wolteri Fischer, 1885 inhabiting the north-eastern Asia. These species demonstrate in this area the changes of biotopical preference. T. amurensis prefers to occupy the forest zone less actively than in the southern part of range, 46 vs. 91%, respectively. T. wolteri avoids open spaces and partially enters the forest zone (7%). Both T. amurensis and T. wolteri actively inhabit the light forest zone (15 and 17%, respectively) and anthropogenic region (39 and 76%, respectively), the zone being optimal for their inhabitancy. In the southern part of natural habitat (Republic of Korea), the light forest zone plays an important role in their biotopical distribution (9% T. amurensis and 36% T. wolteri ), though it is less preferred when compared to north-eastern part of the range. Two sites in the forest zone with weakly anthropogenic disruption (one in Russia and the other in Republic of Korea) were revealed, where species symbiotopy was observed. In both cases, T. wolteri was a predominant species. For the first time the altitudinal distribution data for lizards of genus Takydromus has been presented, in particular, for Russia. T. amurensis was found in the range of 11 – 633 m a.s.l. and T. wolteri — 14 – 321 m a.s.l. Maximal amplitude of altitudinal distribution of studied species has been indicated for the light forest zone. On the territory of Korea, T. wolteri has been found to have wider range of vertical distribution 4 – 424 m a.s.l.