Spatial and temporal assessment of snake encounters in urban Delhi, India.

Delhi, the capital city of India is, highly urbanized and surrounded by remnant forest, farms, ridges, and other green areas experience regular snake encounters in and around residential, institutional, and industrial areas. A total of 41 months of sampling from January 2019 to May 2022 was conducted wherein we, studied the snake assemblage in Delhi to determine the species composition, encounter frequency, seasonal activity patterns, and probable encounter sites in an urban setup. We documented 372 individuals belonging to 15 species from seven families out of 23 species found in Delhi. Snakes were found inside forests, public parks, homes, drain networks, streets, office buildings, and even in school-college buildings. The most recorded species being Ptyas mucosa (37.37%, n = 139), Naja naja (19.62%, n = 73), and Lycodon aulicus (13.44%, n = 50). The highest numbers of incidents were reported in the month of July (22.04%, n = 82) and August (19.89%, n = 74) during the peak monsoon season, for identifying high encounter sites, we used a geostatistical modeling tool, Ordinary kriging to identify places having more snake occurrences. We further used a statistical spatial method called average nearest neighbor distance to detect the pattern distribution of snake species. Spatial interpolation done through Ordinary kriging highlighted two areas having concentrated snake encounters. The results of the average nearest neighbor distance analysis showed three species having clustered and two species having dispersed distribution. The incidence of snake encounters was found to be highly seasonal and appeared to be associated mainly with monthly rainfall, temperature, and humidity. The findings of this study on snakes' distribution patterns provide valuable insights into the conservation of these species. Understanding their habitat preferences and spatial distribution is crucial for the implementation of effective conservation strategies.

Matrilineal phylogeny and habitat suitability of the endangered spotted pond turtle (Geoclemys hamiltonii; Testudines: Geoemydidae): a two-dimensional approach to forecasting future conservation consequences.

The spotted pond turtle (Geoclemys hamiltonii) is a threatened and less explored species endemic to Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan. To infer structural variation and matrilineal phylogenetic interpretation, the present research decoded the mitogenome of G. hamiltonii (16,509 bp) using next-generation sequencing technology. The mitogenome comprises 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 transfer RNAs (tRNAs), two ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs), and one AT-rich control region (CR) with similar strand symmetry in vertebrates. The ATG was identified as a start codon in most of the PCGs except Cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (cox1), which started with the GTG codon. The non-coding CR of G. hamiltonii was determined to have a unique structure and variation in different domains and stem-loop secondary structure as compared with other Batagurinae species. The PCGs-based Bayesian phylogeny inferred strong monophyletic support for all Batagurinae species and confirmed the sister relationship of G. hamiltonii with Pangshura and Batagur taxa. We recommend generating more mitogenomic data for other Batagurinae species to confirm their population structure and evolutionary relationships. In addition, the present study aims to infer the habitat suitability and habitat quality of G. hamiltonii in its global distribution, both in the present and future climatic scenarios. We identify that only 58,542 km2 (7.16%) of the total range extent (817,341 km2) is suitable for this species, along with the fragmented habitats in both the eastern and western ranges. Comparative habitat quality assessment suggests the level of patch shape in the western range is higher (71.3%) compared to the eastern range. Our results suggest a massive decline of approximately 65.73% to 70.31% and 70.53% to 75.30% under ssp245 and ssp585 future scenarios, respectively, for the years between 2021-2040 and 2061-2080 compared with the current distribution. The present study indicates that proper conservation management requires greater attention to the causes and solutions to the fragmented distribution and safeguarding of this endangered species in the Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra (IGB) river basins.