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Water cisterns as death traps for amphibians and reptiles in arid environments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2014

LUÍS GARCÍA-CARDENETE ,
JUAN M. PLEGUEZUELOS ,
JOSÉ C. BRITO ,
FRANCISCO JIMÉNEZ-CAZALLA ,
MARÍA T. PÉREZ-GARCÍA  and
XAVIER SANTOS
LUÍS GARCÍA-CARDENETE
Affiliation:
Departamento de Zoología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Granada, E-18071 Granada, Spain
JUAN M. PLEGUEZUELOS
Affiliation:
Departamento de Zoología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Granada, E-18071 Granada, Spain
JOSÉ C. BRITO
Affiliation:
CIBIO/InBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos da Universidade do Porto, Rua Padre Armando Quintas, 4485-661 Vairão, Portugal
FRANCISCO JIMÉNEZ-CAZALLA
Affiliation:
Avenida de Italia 5, Algeciras E-11205, Cádiz, Spain
MARÍA T. PÉREZ-GARCÍA
Affiliation:
Avenida de España 4, Loja E-18300, Granada, Spain
XAVIER SANTOS*
Affiliation:
CIBIO/InBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos da Universidade do Porto, Rua Padre Armando Quintas, 4485-661 Vairão, Portugal
*
*Correspondence: Xavier Santos e-mail: xsantossantiro@gmail.com
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Summary

Arid regions are increasingly being anthropogenically altered. In the north-western Sahara, a growing road network facilitates the use of habitats adjacent to roads. In regions where livestock is the traditional and main economic resource, local people are currently building numerous water cisterns for watering livestock, leading to an increase in the extent of pasturing of domestic livestock. Cisterns may attract desert vertebrates and act as death traps for species with already sparse populations in these arid areas. This paper is the first to examine the impact of cisterns as lethal traps for amphibians and reptiles in the Sahara, using a survey of 823 cisterns in south-western Morocco to identify and quantify species affected. Four amphibians and 35 reptiles were trapped in cisterns, some of which were listed as threatened. At least 459 017 individual amphibians and reptiles were trapped annually within the study area. The low productivity and low population densities of terrestrial vertebrates in this arid region suggest cisterns have a substantial impact upon amphibian and reptile species. As cistern construction is increasing, management actions are required to mitigate this impact on the herpetological community.

Keywords

amphibiansconservationMoroccoreptilesSaharawater cisterns
Type
Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 41 , Issue 4 , December 2014 , pp. 341 - 349
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 2014 

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