Rapid Herpetofauna Assessment at Tumring REDD+Community Forests in Kampong Thom Province, Cambodia

Abstract

Many community forests are located in the area surrounding the Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary, which is currently managed by the local communities. Among those, eight community forests in Kampong Thom province have been included in the pilot project of Tumring REDD+. While these areas are likely to support a high diversity of wildlife, a limited amount of wildlife research and monitoring has been conducted for them, especially herpetofauna studies. To support Tumring REDD+-related work, research was conducted to collect information of herpetofauna species in the targeted eight community forests. Opportunistic searches for amphibians and reptiles and pitfall traps, were applied to collect data. Captured species were photographed and released back unharmed. A total of 36 herpetofauna species (16 amphibian and 20 reptile species) were recorded across all survey sites. Most of the recorded species from this survey are listed as of the Least Concern by the IUCN Red List. The most detected amphibian species were Microhyla fissipes and Eutropis macularia reptile species. In terms of diversity scores, the O’Kranhak community forest was identified as the site with the highest diversity for herpetofauna species, and this area was observed to contain more flowing streams and puddles than other studied sites. This good habitat condition supports more species and organisms’ ability to keep active even in the dry season. The lowest diversity score was at Prey Ang Taen Forest. This area was observed to be more degraded and isolated from other forest fragments. Illegal logging and wildlife hunting were observed as the main threats to these community forests. Our findings provide a species list of the herpetofauna in these studied community forests useful for supporting the development of long-term biodiversity monitoring and conservation. We recommend conducting further study and restoration of these community forests, preservation of swamps and streams, and tackling illegal logging and wildlife hunting in these areas.