URBAN HERPETOFAUNA AND PUBLIC ATTITUDE TOWARDS THEIR CONSERVATION IN RAWALPINDI AND ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN

Registering association between urban features and occurrence of herpetofauna provides useful information to urban planners and wildlife managers. We conducted the present study to see if likelihood of occurrence of various herpetofauna species is explained by land use categories, such as forest, open area, croplands, urban areas or wetlands. We aimed to document changes in the urban extent (from 2006 to 2016) and evaluate perception about herpetofauna in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. We recorded ten species of amphibians and 25 of reptiles including Narrow-headed Soft-shell Turtle (Chitra indica) and Soft-shell Turtle (Nilssonia gangetica), listed as Endangered and Vulnerable in the IUCN list of threatened species, respectively. The binary logistic regression was statistically significant and explained likelihood of occurrence of Murree Hills Frog, Hazara Torrent Frog, Fat-tail Gecko, Striped Grass Skink and Russell's Viper in natural areas such as forest and open land while Brown River Turtle, House Gecko, Black Cobra and Saw-scale Viper in urban features such as roadside, residential areas, urban streams and croplands. The satellite images showed considerable increase in built up and urban areas in Rawalpindi, Gujar Khan, and Islamabad Capital Territory. The univariate generalized linear model revealed that the change in area of all the other studied land use categories was also significant. Of 251 respondents interviewed from the study area, 76% were interested in the study of birds, 20% in mammals and only 1% in amphibians and reptiles. Interestingly, 58% of the respondents were unaware of significance of herpetofauna such as their role as bio-indicator and role in food chain which might have caused this bias in their perception. The awareness level differed significantly between male and female respondents. The survey data suggested that social media is the best platform to create awareness about amphibians and reptiles.