I

Asiatic Herpetological Research

June 1995

Vol.

6, pp.

172-180

Amphibians and Reptiles of the Royal Chitwan National Park, Nepal

George R. Zug and Joseph C. Mitchell 2
1'Department of Vertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC, USA, 20560
2
Department of Biology, University of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia, USA, 23173
Abstract. -The Royal Chitwan National Park encompasses over 900 km 2 of grassland and forest in southcentral Nepal. This mixture of habitats provides the home for 1 1 frog species, two crocodilians, eight turtles,
checklist documents species occurrences and habitat preferences; species
ten lizards, and 24 snakes.

Aaccounts provide natural history observations for selected species of the park's herpetofauna.

Key Words: Nepal, Amphibia, Salientia, Reptilia, Crocodylia, Testudines, Lacertilia, Serpentes, checklist,
natural history

FIG. 1. Map of Royal Chitwan National Park. The Smithsonian camp was on the northeastern edge of thepark and adjacent to Sauraha. After Sunquist (1988: figure 1)

Introduction

rolling hills in front of the Himalayas andalong the Nepal-India border. The park is

The Royal Chitwan National Park
(RCNP) is a mixed grassland and forested

thearea in south-central Nepal, centered atSomeswar Hills, to the south by the Reu

approximately 27°30'N 84°20'E (Fig.

River, and to the east by the Hasta River.

1).

The park lies in the Siwalik Range of low© 1995 by Asiatic Herpetological Researchbordered to the north by the Rapti River, towest by the

Narayani River and|January 1995

Asiatic Herpetological ResearchVol. 6, p. 173

TABLE 1. A list of the known amphibians and reptiles of the Royal Chitwan National Park andneighboring areas. Habitat occurrence is noted by abbreviations within brackets and represents ourobservations or field notes associated with United Slates National Museum voucher specimens from the
Chitwan area; thus, data are not available for many species and the habitats listed for a species may notencompass all habitats occupied by that species. The habitats and their abbreviations are defined in the
Materials and Methods section. The type of voucher supporting each taxon's occurrence in the Chitwan area
follows the habitat categories in the brackets:*, specimen in a permanent collection/museum; s, sight and/or

photographic record or specimen examined in a nonpermanent collection; 1, literature record.

Salientia

Vol. 6, p. 174

Asiatic Herpetological Research

June 1995

Nearly a third of the park is a floodplain
valley floor (150-250 m elevation; Anon.,1985) covered by a mix of grasslands,
patches of hardwood forest, marshes, ponds
and small streams. The Churia Hills (250-separately in the Smithsonian Herpetological
Information Service series.

600 m), occupying the southeastern andOur visits to the park included a
premonsoonal survey in April 1985 and a
postmonsoonal one in November 1985.
Episodic collections by the staff of theSmithsonian-Nepal Terai Ecology Projectprovided additional vouchers andobservations. The headquarters' staff of theRoyal Chitwan National Park and the guides
and naturalist of Gaida Wildlife Camp
maintained synoptic collections ofamphibians and reptiles, especially snakes,
The
collected in and around the park.
fromthesources
specimens
precedingcentral third of the park, are covered largely

by sal forest. The climate is monsoonal
with heavy rains typically from June
through September, then becoming
progressively drier and drought-like throughApril;

May is a transitional month withincreasingly heavier rains. Total annual
precipitation averages about 230 cm. Daily
temperatures generally range from 5-30° C
in the cool, dry winter season (NovemberFebruary) through 16-40° in the dry
premonsoonal months (March-May) to 2034° during the monsoonal rains of June-

September (Bhatt, 1977; Gurung, 1983;
Sunquist, 1981).

The Royal Chitwan National Park was
established in the mid 1960s to provide apreserve for large mammals, particularly the
Bengal tiger and the Indian rhinoceros(Sunquist, 1981; Laurie, 1982; Sunquist
and Sunquist, 1988). Until the mid 1950s,
the Siwalik

Range and the encompassing

terai area were a high malaria area and had

low human density. The control of malariacarrying mosquitoes in the 1950s allowed
explosive human colonization. Fertile flood
plains became pastures and farmlands, andthe hill forests were cut for firewood and

The park is now
surrounded by human settlements.
The pastures and farmlands abut the parkand expose it to daily incursions by an
inadequately fed and fueled humanpopulation and their domestic animals.
local building materials.
totally

Materials and Methods

provide a primary data base for constructing
also
the herpetofaunal list of RCNP.
include taxa reported in the literature,
although we did not confirm the specificidentification of these taxa.

We

To document the habitat occurrence ofthe herpetofauna, we use the following— river (R),habitat categories:
Aquatic

within and along the shore of rivers andmajor tributary streams; ponds and small
streams (P), streams of <2
width andmodifiedofwater,
by f, g,temporary poolsor h to denote location in forest/woodlands,
grasslands, or human-occupied sites; marsh(M), marshes adjacent to rivers or formed in—grasslands by small streams. Flood plainmgrasslands (G); woodlands (W),canopied forest patches on slightly elevatedhummocks scattered throughout theterai

Hills - sal forest (F). Human—commensal (C), living on, in, or
sites

grasslands.

immediately adjacent to human and domestic

animal buildings; agricultural areas (A),The following observations on

species composition and natural history of
the Chitwan herpetofauna derive from apastures, fields, and fence-row habitats.
These habitat occurrences are based
exclusively on our observations or fieldreport submitted to the Nepal Department of
National Parks and Wildlife Conservation in

The habitat occurrences are summarized inthe1986 (report's checklist used but uncited inSchleich, 1992:Table 1,
Schleich and Maskey, 1992:254, andSchleich, 1993). The report was designed
as a field guide for park visitors and thenotes associated with voucher specimens.

Table 1.

Maskey andtraining of park personnel; it included an
identification key, which will be publishedThe

following

species

accounts

represent those species for which we canprovide new or broader based observations.
Snout-vent length (SVL) in frogs, lizards,
and snakes is distance (mm) from tip of theVol. 6, p. 175

Asiatic Herpetological Research

June 1995.

FIG. 2. The Chitwan frogs Rana danieli (left; USNM 266838) and Rana syhadrensis (right;

USNM

266878).

snout to the cloacal opening; carapace length(CL) in turtles is the straight-line distance ofthe shell on the midline. Body weights (g)were taken with a Pesola scale. Statistics
were performed by a PC version of Statistix

A priori statistical significance was set
a = 0.05; means are followed by ± one

4.0.
at

standard deviation.

common.

We captured nine individuals,

only one of which was a B. melanostictus(32.1 mm SVL, 3 g). This latter individual
was discovered (November) beneath a
decomposing log in the forest. All B.
stomaticus occurred in human-modified
Recent metamorphs (9.4 ± 0.9
habitats.
mm SVL, n = 5) were captured (April) on a

mud bank of the Rapti River.
SpeciesAccounts

Rana
The herpetofauna of the Chitwan area
consists of 11 amphibians and 44 reptiles(Table1).

amphibians

At

this

or

terrestrial

time,none of thereptilesareconsidered threatened, and only the two
crocodilians are officially recognized as
endangered or threatened species.
Estimates of abundance are desirable,
but our field work did not coincide with theseasons of likely greatest activity for mostPremonsoonal conditions are
species.
drought-like, and these conditions suppress
the activity of most species except for a few

The postmonsoonal visit occurred
as day and night time temperatures were
declining, and over the two week visit,

cyanophlyctis.

The skittering

were the most abundant of the
Chitwan postmonsoonal amphibians; none
were seen in April. They occurred in a wide

frogs

variety of flood plain habitats from riverside
to the small ponds and streams in the terai

grassland and farmlands.

In late afternoon

and at night, numerous individuals sat at thewater's edge on the bank and in the water.

Human or animal movement along the shore
would send the frogs skittering outward on
the river in a semicircular path, some frogs
landing behind the disturbance, others ahead
and then repeating the escape or avoidance
reaction.

lizards.

lizards slowly disappeared. Nonetheless,our observations show the herpetofauna of
RCNP to be rich and diverse.

Frogs

(B.

Bufo. Neither of the two toad species
melanostictus, B. stomaticus) wereOf the R. cyanophlyctis captured (n =27), only a single female (55.2 mm SVL)
was sexually mature. The immature frogs

50.2 mm SVL; presumably
ranged 25.9
they all represent young of the year,
although derived from egg clutches laid at-different times during themonsoon rains.

This sample yields a regression, Mass =-9.0814 + 0.4184 SVL (r = 0.90).

Rana danieli{F\g. 2). Three juveniles(31-38 mm SVL) were found in the sal
The premonsoonal individual
forest.
occurredJune 1995

Asiatic Herpetological ResearchVol. 6, p. 176

beneath

a

log

(with

a

R

.

syhadrensis) beside a small stream; the two
postmonsoonal frogs were beneath logs on
or more from a small
the forest floor 10mstream. These individuals represent the first
R. danieli from Nepal and are a significant
westward range extension (700 km) fromthe Indian type locality in the Khasi Hills,

Rana limnocharis. Three species (R.
limnocharis, pierrei, syhadrensis) of thelimnocharis complex occur in Chitwan. Our
observations show R. limnocharis and R.
syhadrensis to be forest-floor species andsyntopic in sal forest. Two adult male R.
44.3
limnocharis (36.2
SVL, 3.0
8.5 g) were captured (November) beneath
logs; a few other individuals were seen in
the sparse ground litter of the sal forest.

mm

Turtles areuncommonly seen in the

park's waters, grassland, and forest. Whenthey are found, they become food for local

Our turtle sightings andvouchers derive mainly from shells on
kitchen middens or shells nailed to walls of
inhabitants.

local tea shops.

Indotestudo elongata.

Frazier (1992)

showed that this species is the only tortoise

Assam (Pillai and Chanda, 1977 ).

&Turtles&

Rana pierrei. A single immature male
mm SVL, 10.8 g) was discovered(46.0(November) sitting in the "lawn" of the SI

camp at night.

confirmed to occur in Nepal. Earlier reportsof Geochelone elegans and Testudo
horsfieldii are incorrect, usually
misidentifications.

We saw in several tea

houses tortoise shells nailed to the wall as
decoration. Our voucher is a shell salvaged
from a dog at the Smithsonian camp. Its
anterior end had been sawed off, attesting totortoises as local food items.

Melanochelys trijuga.

An adult female(215 mm CL; 1.2 kg) was found (Oct.) in
the grass bordering a rhino wallow next to apatch of riverine forest. She was judged tobe 7 yr old and had grown an average of
20.4 mm/yr (PL) since hatching. Dinerstein
et al. (1988) provided additional information

syhadrensis(Fig. 2). Of the
Chitwan frogs, R. syhadrensis wasabundant during both the pre- andon this female and on the occurrence of thispostmonsoonal surveys. Most individuals
captured were juveniles (41 of 42) with SVL<31 mm (18 - 30 mm SVL). Two recent
metamorphs (18 mm SVL) were captured(April) in the leaf litter along the bank of a

Lizards

Rana

small sal forest stream.

Most individuals

were captured (April & November) beneathforest-floor litter or in tree buttresses.

Rana tigerina. Two individuals, both

immature (44.7 & 63.3 mm SVL), were
found in or near rhino wallows withinriverine forest.

Tomopterna breviceps.

We saw no

individuals of this species during our pre-Theirsampling.
absence at these time supports Schleich andand postmonsoonal

Maskey's comment (1992) that Tomopterna
are active on the surface only during thebreeding season at the beginning of themonsoon.

species in Nepal..

Calotes versicolor. The garden lizard was
the most common of Chitwan lizards, andthe most readily observed reptile, owing totheir use of elevated forage and basking sites
on shrubs, trees, fence posts, etc. Adult
males (87.1 ± 6.8
SVL, 71.3 - 97.0=
mm. n 16; 22.5 ± 5.9 g, 8.8 - 30.3 g, n =16) averaged larger than adult females (77.9± 8.5
SVL, 66.7 - 87.0 mm, n = 7;
15.2 ± 6.2 g, 9.1 - 22.4, n = 5). Adults

mm

mm(21:1, adults:juveniles) predominated in the
premonsoonal sample and juveniles (2:4) inpostmonsoonal one. The presence ofgravid females in the premonsoon period
and juveniles in the postmonsoonal suggestthat most egg-laying occurs at the beginningTheof the monsoon in Chitwan.
postmonsoonal juveniles averaged 53.7 ±SVL (50.0 - 55.7 mm) and
25
presumably represent the size of thethemmJune 1995

FIG. 3.

Vol. 6, p. 177

Asiatic Herpetological Research

A possible defense mechanism; neural spines projecting through the median row of dorsal scales ina Bun,;arusfasciatus (USNM 267012) from the Royal Chitwan National Park.

season's cohort at the end ol
growing season.

first

Body temperatures of adults basking in
the mid morning (0800-0950 hr; April)=

averaged 35.3 ± 1.64° C (33.4 38.2, n11) compared to an average ambient
temperature (in shade) of 33.9 ± 0.86 (30.4
32.5, n = 5). The body temperature of a-single juvenile, captured in the shade, was
32.2° C, identical to ambient temperature

Hemidactylus. We observed three of thefour Chitwan geckos (Table 1). The rarityof//, flaviviridis, H. frenatus, and//.
garnotii and their exclusive commensal
occurrence suggest that these three species
In contrast, H. brookii isare exotics.
abundant both on human-made structuresand in some forested sites. We provided abrief review (Mitchell and Zug, 1988) of //.
brookii biology around the Smithsonian

bark of dead trees, in litter filled tree
Four //.
buttresses, and beneath logs.
53SVL) and two //.
frenatus (37SVL) were captured on
garnotii (52 55
the camp building during the H. brookii
survey; none were seen in the adjacentmm
mm

forest.

Scincella sikimmensis. Three adultScincella (31 - 35
SVL) were foundbeneath logs or litter in the riverine and sal

mmforest. The two Mabuya (M. dissimilis, M.
macularia) appear to be more open-habitat
denizens, e.g., at the forest edge or alongtrails in the grassland, although amacularis was found beneath a log with a S.
sikimmensis.

M.

SnakesSnakessuffer

the

same

level

of

camp.

persecution in the Chitwan area as in mostrural communities, i.e., death when seen.

Female //. brookii mature at 43 mm
SVL, males at 42 mm. They are active at

The local population is primarily Hindu,
although some of the original Chitwan
residents, Tharu, remain. There is nonight in the forest and on buildings. During
the day, forest individuals hide beneath theevidence of either culture practicing
tolerance of snakes, and the Tharu areJune 1995

Asiatic Herpetological ResearchVol. 6, p. 178

reported to eat pythons (but no other snake
species) and varanid lizards.

A.
H.
Savitzky(personal
communication & in lecture) called ourAmphiesma stolata. Two males (387 &440 mm SVL, 19 & 22 g) were found deadon unpaved streets in Sauraha in April.

mechanism.

attention

to

this

novel

antipredator

He has also discovered thatdrainage ditch. Children had killed both ofseveral other species of kraits show thisspecialized behavior and have a specialized
epaxial musculature and suture zones in thevertebral scales to effect the extrusion of the
sharp neural spines when grasped by athem and tossed them on the street.

predator.

Lycodon aulicus. A female (181 mm
SVL, 2 g) was discovered in soil beneath arotting stump in November. Possibly, she
was preparing to hibernate.

Naja naja. A single individual was seenat midday (1300 hr) basking (approx. 1.2 m
above the ground) on a large clump of

Villagers said that smaller one was found ina house and killed and the other one in aelephant grass beside a game trail in thegrassland.

Oligodon arnensis.

An adult male (662mm SVL, 17.1 g) was captured at 2100 hr(April) crossing a path in the Smithsoniancamp. To avoid capture, it flattened its headby the lateral extension of the proximal endsof the jaws and struck repeatedly with themouth open. The strike behavior was abluff, because it did not bite even though its

Comments
The known Chitwan herpetofaunaconsists predominantly (>75%) ofwidespread Indian-Oriental (as defined by
The
Leviton and Swan, 1962) taxa.
exceptions are either Himalayan or

mouth contacted a plastic bag several times.

Indochinese-Himalayan taxa. Rana danieli,

Also it coiled several times in a three minute

R. pierri, R. syhadrensis, and Scincellasikimmensis represent the Himalayanelement and they are predominantly low-to
moderate elevation species confined to thesouthern face of the Himalayas and its

head was flattened and heldbody, and it struck laterally
several time from this posture. Its tail wasinterval; theclose to thepartially coiled but never in the defensive
posture described for other Oligodon species

Daniel (1983) reported
body inflation and head flattening in thisspecies. This individual inflated its body(Greene, 1973).

only slightly. Its body temperature was
27.8° C, compared to 29.2° C ambient air
temperature, suggesting that it had emerged
recently from its daytime retreat.

Bungarus fasciatus. An adult female(1570 mm SVL) was killed in theSmithsonian camp (April) one evening.
Presumably during the human attack, shevoluntarily extruded 36 neural spines
through the vertebral scales (Fig. 3). Neuralspines are exposed in this individual atvertebral scale 1 1 (counting posteriorly fromthe parietal scale), 136-139, 142-157, 172178, 181, 184-189, and 190-191. Several

mmabove the scalespines protrude 3
surface, and in other instances, vertebral
scales are slit longitudinally but the neuralspines do not project presently above or
through the scale.

foothills. Indotestudo, Elachistoon, Boiga
ochracea, and Trimeresurus albolabris sharea similar Himalayan distribution as thepreceding group, but have distributions
extending into western Indochina.

One additional frog, Microhyla ornata, isa likely resident of Chitwan.

It is reported
higher in the Rapti drainage system (Nahoe
and Ouboter, 1987), as well as being
widespread in northern India. We excluded
it from thepresent list, because we found noliterature or specimen voucher placing it
adjacent or within the RCNP.

In summary, the Chitwan herpetofaunaconsists of 1 1 frogs and 44 reptiles.

With afew exceptions, the taxa represent a subsetof the herpetofauna of northern India. As
human population growth continues, thevalue of RCNP and its resident animals andplants will increase as an essential biologicalreserve.

Acknowledgments"Tiger Camp"] provided daily assistance.
especially wish to acknowledge the

We

and

encouragement

Schleich and Maskey (1992) report avoucher specimen. Moll and Vijaya (1986)
report a Chitwan occurrence based on a
6.

Our field work was supported by theSmithsonian Research Opportunity fund.
The staff of the Smithsonian-Nepal Terai
Ecology Project [formerly the Smithsonian

supportVol. 6, p. 179

Asiatic Herpetological Research

June 1995

of

Eric

photograph.
(1989); we have excluded otherfrom
Gurung's list because theyspeciestobemisidentifications, e.g.,
appearEnhydris enhydris, Rhapdophis subminata.
7. Gurung

Dinerstein, director of the Terai Project, andWemmer of the Smithsonian's
National Zoological Park Conservation &Research Center. The Nepal Department of
National Parks and Wildlife Conservationencouraged and provided permits for ourfield surveys and for the export of voucher
specimens. The original report submitted to
the national parks' department was reviewed
and improved by A. Dubois, R. F. Inger, T.
The staffs of the RCNP
K. Shrestra.
andGaida Wildlife Camp
headquarters
allowed us to examine their synoptic
collections. We thank all of the precedingorganizations and individuals for theirChrissupport and assistance.

1.

MNHN

specimens,

Royal

ChitwanNationalPark

headquarter's synoptic collection.
9. Kramer

10.

Gaida

(1977).

WildlifeCampsynopticcollection.
11. Swan and Leviton (1968).

Literature Cited

ANON. 1985. Royal Chitwan National Park,
fprinted handout with map] Dept. Natl.
Nepal,
Parks & Wildl. Conserv., Kathmandu

BHATT, D. D. 1977. Natural History andEconomic Botany of Nepal. Orient Langmann Ltd.,Appendix
Notes to Table

8.

New Delhi.
1Dubois(1974:DANIEL, J. C. 1983. The Book of Indian Reptiles.
Bombay Natural History Society, Bombay, India.

appendix).

and Maskey (1992) state that
two species of Tomopterna are known from
Chitwan, but they do not identify either

2. Schleich

Schleich and Maskey (1992) reportvoucher specimens.
3.

Iverson (1992).

5. Moll

Melanochelys (Reptilia, Testudines, Emydidae) in
the terai of Nepal.

Journal of the Bombay Natural

History Society (1987) 84(3):687-688.

species.

4.

DINERSTEIN, E., G. R. ZUG, AND J. C.
MITCHELL. 1988. Notes on the biology of(1984) lists 14 turtle species fromthe Gandak River south of the Gandak Dam

Since the Gandak R. is acontinuation of the Narayni R. in India,
some of these species (Geoclemys
hamiltoni, Hardella thurji, Kachuga smithi,
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to Bettiah.

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