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- Title
Notes on the distribution and abundance of the caecilian Boulengerula uluguruensis (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Caeciliidae) in the Uluguru Mountains, Tanzania.
- Authors
John Measey, G.; Mejissa, John; Müller, Hendrik
- Abstract
Boulengerula uluguruensis is a terrestrial caeciliid caecilian described from the Uluguru Mountains of Tanzania. We investigated the relative abundance of B. uluguruensis in agricultural and forested habitats at the beginning of the rainy season. This caecilian was found over a wide altitudinal range (450–1175 m a.s.l.), and in many land cover types (including natural forest, plantation forest and small scale agriculture), and different soil textures (including very compact soil). Based on quantitative and semi-quantitative surveys, B. uluguruensis is more abundant than any other subterranean lower vertebrate in this area, with densities up to 0.4 individuals m−2 in some agricultural plots. The hypothesis proposed, that B. uluguruensis is more abundant in agriculture than their native forest, could not be conclusively tested during this brief visit, although the data that were collected do not indicate to the contrary. Likewise, the size of animals from forest and agricultural populations could not be objectively compared.
- Subjects
ULUGURU Mountains (Tanzania); TANZANIA; CAECILIANS; ANIMAL population density; ZOOGEOGRAPHY; AMPHIBIANS; BIOGEOGRAPHY; ANIMAL ecology; POPULATION biology
- Publication
African Journal of Ecology, 2006, Vol 44, Issue 1, p6
- ISSN
0141-6707
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.1365-2028.2006.00569.x