Amphibian Species Assemblages In A Tropical Forest Of Bangladesh

Tropical forests are considered one of the most important biogeographic zones for amphibian species diversity. As a tropical country in Asia, Bangladesh implements different types of forest management practices in its forests, which might affect prevailing forest quality in the existing forest types. The current state of information on the impact of habitat alteration on amphibian species assemblages in Bangladesh is inadequate. To evaluate this, we conducted a study in Khadimnagar National Park (KNP) in north-eastern Bangladesh. We used a combination of several common amphibian study techniques in 15 pre-marked transects covering three major habitat types in KNP: forest edge, forest interior and swamp area. Twelve anuran species belonging to eleven genera and six families were recorded during the study period. Euphlyctis cyanophlyctis was the most abundant species, representing 51.7% of the recorded individuals, followed by Fejervarya spp. (18.9%); the remaining 10 species altogether recorded less than 30% of the total abundance. Duttaphrynus melanostictus, Kaloula pulchra and Raorchestes parvulus in particular occurred with very low abundance. Species richness, Shannon-Wiener diversity index, and evenness index value indicated that the amphibian species assemblage in the forest interior is more diverse than the forest edge and swamp area.