Anuran amphibians in a rapidly changing environment – revisiting Lamto, Côte d'Ivoire, 40 years after the first herpetofaunal investigations

Abstract

We reinvestigated the anuran amphibian fauna of the Lamto region in Central, Côte d'Ivoire, 40 years after this fauna was assessed for the first time. During this period, the region lost about 90% of the forest cover, resulting in an overall change from a forest to a savanna-dominated landscape. Surprisingly, the overall species richness and composition of the amphibian fauna changed only little. We did not observe six species previously recorded from the area but added two more. A total of 40 amphibian species are now known from the savanna/forest mosaic of Lamto. Unfortunately, due to methodological differences, a quantitative comparison of the present and previous amphibian fauna was not possible. It is hence possible that the small qualitative changes in the amphibian fauna obscure more important quantitative ones; in particular the observation of decreasing numbers of Phrynobatrachus spp. and increasing numbers of Arthroleptis spp. hint on microclimate changes affecting the reproductive opportunities for these ecologically different frog groups.