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Reptiles
45 species constitute the reptilian diversity. These include 30
species of snakes, 13 species of lizards and two species of turtles.
Among the snakes, all the four deadly venomous species found in
Kerala such as King cobra, Cobra, Russels viper and Krait were recorded
from Periyar. The king cobra, an endangered rainforest species is
frequently sighted near Sabarimala in the Reserve. Malabar pit viper,
Hump nosed pit viper, Striped coral snake etc. are some of the other
snakes found. Of the 13 species of lizards 4 are endemic to Western
Ghats. Monitor lizard is commonly seen. Flying lizard, Forest dwarf
gecko and the Green calotes are some of the other fairly distributed
reptiles.
Amphibians
Amphibians are among the least studied vertebrate groups in
Periyar. A total of 27 species have been recorded and of these,
10 are endemic to Western Ghats. Micrixalus fuscus, Micrixalus
nudis, Rana malabarica, Rana beddomei, Rana curtipes, Rana
brevipalmata, Rana temporalis, Philatus beddommii and Racophorus
malabaricus are the Western ghat endemic species found in
Periyar.
Fishes
A total of 38 species of fishes are listed. Of these, 4 species
are endemic to this Reserve. They are Periyar trout (Lepidopygopsis
typus), Periyar lattia (Crossocheilus periyarensis) Periyar
barb (Puntius micropogon periyarensis) and Noemacheilus menoni.
Periyar is an important abode of the well known game fish,
mahseer Tor khudree, a western ghat endemic species. Channa
barb, Curcuma barb, and Travancore loach are the other Western
Ghat endemic species found here. Tilapia and Common European
carp are the two introduced species now distributed abundantly
in the lake.
Invertebrates
Very few surveys and other taxonomic studies have been carried
out for invertebrates. The predominant invertebrate orders
found in Periyar are protozoans, annelids, arthropods and
molluscans. |
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