Agriculture is the greatest threat to terrestrial reptiles worldwide, affecting 74% of species assessed for the IUCN Red List. Reptiles are particularly sensitive to agriculture and habitat fragmentation, but are routinely understudied. The lack of published literature and data on reptile diversity in the agriculture landscapes of Pakistan requires immediate attention to understand their population statuses and inform land management. We aimed to generate new knowledge about response of reptiles to harvesting of crops, and how this varies between two management types (manual labour and mechanised farming) in District Chakwal, Pakistan. Reptiles were trapped monthly during late spring and summer in four treatment types selected in a single agriculture landscape. We also aimed to discover the use of different habitat elements by reptiles across fragmented landscapes that can be preserved to aid species conservation. Home range and movements of Oriental garden lizard (Calotes versicolor) were determined by radio tracking to determine how dragon activity area size (minimum convex polygons), daily movement rate, inter-day displacement distance and perch height varied according to animal sex, size and land use (i.e. farm vs. forest). The study also aimed to build local knowledge and capacity regarding land and wildlife management. A series of awareness workshops were conducted to assess farmers’ attitudes toward the ecological role of reptiles inhabiting these agriculture systems.
Results/Conclusions
A total of 128 reptiles from 10 species of squamates were collected including snakes (2), geckos (2), dragons (1), skinks (3), lactertid (1) and goanna (2). Targeted trapping nights could not be achieved, as the traps were stolen by the local nomads in both sessions (before and after harvesting). A total of 1354 locations were recorded from 32 individuals of Calotes versicolor in five months. Lizards were tracked before and after breeding season in seven different periods. Preliminary analysis infers that lizards movement reduced towards the end of their breeding season. Although C. versicolor appears to be maintaining populations in small forest remnants, their movement patterns are nonetheless being affected by fragmentation. Further analyses are currently underway and detailed results will be presented at the conference.The awareness workshops were held in the beginning and end of the project where local farmers were briefed about the aims of the project and the resulting future benefits. This helped in raising awareness among the farmers about ‘wildlife friendly agriculture’ and build their sense of place for the role of reptiles in ecosystem services.