A checklist of the vertebrates of Kerala State, India

1 Centre for Wildlife Studies, College of Forestry, Kerala Agricultural University, KAU (PO), Thrissur, Kerala 680656, India 2 B-303, ShriramSpurthi, ITPL Main Road, Brookefields, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560037, India 3 Department of Aquatic Biology and Fisheries, University of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala 695581, India 4 Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), Western Ghat Regional Centre, Jafar Khan Colony, Eranhipalam, Kozhikode, Kerala 673006, India 5 Forest Ecology and Biodiversity Conservation Division, Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI), Peechi, Kerala 680653, India 6 Center for Taxonomy of Aquatic Animals, Department of Fisheries Resource Management, Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies (KUFOS), Kochi, Kerala 682506, India 7 Laboratory of Systematics, Ecology and Conservation, Zoo Outreach Organization (ZOO), Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu 641035, India 1 nameer.po@kau.in (corresponding author), 2 paintedstork@gmail.com, 3 bijupuzhayoram@gmail.com, 4 palot.zsi@gmail.com, 5 sandeep.koodu@gmail.com, 6 rajeevraq@hotmail.com ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) ISSN 0974-7893 (Print)

the management practice.For any park manager, the dream would be to maintain a single inventory of all flora and fauna found in the park, derived from a survey with bare minimum essentials laid out in a uniform fashion and a timely updation of this list maintaining the same principle.
Compared to countries in the Western Hemisphere (Banks et al. 1987;Hanel et al. 2009), there have been very few attempts in India to produce comprehensive and synchronised faunistic checklists.The Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) has published faunal series on the States of Orissa (1987), West Bengal (1992), Meghalaya (1995), Delhi (1997), Gujarat (2000), Sikkim (2003), Manipur (2004), Nagaland (2006), Arunachal Pradesh (2006), Mizoram (2007), Goa (2008), Tamil Nadu (2009), Meghalaya (2012), Andaman & Nicobar Islands (2012), Uttarakhand (2012) and also brought out a series on fauna of conservation areas and fauna of wetland ecosystems (http://zsi.gov.in/App/content.aspx?link=199).Johnsingh (2001) published a comprehensive vertebrate checklist of the Kalakkad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve in Tamil Nadu, while recently, Nair & Krishna (2013) published a vertebrate checklist for the National Chambal Sanctuary, Madhya Pradesh.The state of Kerala is perhaps the only one in India which has a checklist of forest trees (Sasidharan 2000).In addition there are also some independent checklists for mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fishes from Kerala, and this compilation is a natural extension at integrating all of them.

METHODS, DEFINITIONS AND DATA SOURCES
This checklist covers both terrestrial (including freshwater) and marine vertebrate classes including Pisces (Fishes), Amphibia (Amphibians), Reptilia (Reptiles), Aves (Birds) and Mammalia (Mammals) recorded from the state of Kerala (as on 1 March 2015).Political boundaries of the state of Kerala are as defined by the Government of India.For marine vertebrates, the maritime limits for continental fauna which is typically defined as extending till 200 nautical miles from the coast or a median between two political entities if they are closer than 400 nautical miles has been followed.This matches the definition for the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of a country and that the biological resources (including their conservation measures) present in this zone belongs to the country.For the sake of the present checklist, the maritime limit is the median between the coast of Kerala and The Western Ghats region (part of the Western Ghats -Sri Lanka Biodiversity Hotspot), represents a macrocosm of India's biodiversity.Close to 39% of the vertebrates occurring in this hotspot are endemic (Anon 2009).However, biodiversity of the Western Ghats has been extensively modified for human settlement by forest clearing and resultant habitat fragmentation, unsustainable exploitation of resources, land conversion specifically for monocrop plantations, invasive alien species and climate change (WGEEP 2011).Further, the highly productive coastal ecosystems along the western coast of India are also under severe stress due to increasing developmental activities in the coastal zone, pollution, over harvesting and climate change (KSCSTE 2005).Surprisingly, there are very few datasets available on the status of individual species, and checklists and catalogues presenting updated information on status of biodiversity, even for groups like vertebrates.Conversely, the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, a 10-year framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) demands for action by all countries and stakeholders to save biodiversity and enhance its benefits for people (Anon 2013).This requires concerted efforts by all parties to the CBD to properly document and protect biodiversity.
A checklist of fauna is a basic inventory for management of a biological landscape.Large administrative units handling the ministries of environment, forests, natural resources or wildlife for a country or state/province develop and implement their plans based on such inventories.Habitat and park managers use checklists of flora and fauna, possibly with annotations on conservation priority and threat status, to judiciously manage the habitats understanding the cost-benefits of each conservation action.However, lack on synchrony between the checklists of different classes; over-representation of one class over the other due to emphasis laid due to a particular study, and mismatch in the standards used to asses threat levels can all impact the islands of Lakshadweep, the nearest political entity across the Arabian Sea (Fig. 1).Care has been taken to ensure that the list is as authentic and up-to-date as possible and therefore certain species that have been recorded with less remarkable evidence or a subject of a challenge have been excluded (see details in remarks within each taxonomic section).Species that were once known to occur and are currently 'extirpated' or 'extinct' and species with naturalised population are included with appropriate notes.Escapees of exotic species that do not have a viable breeding population have not been included.No distinction is made between resident and migratory species, or between those that occur regularly and those of casual or accidental occurrence.

Taxonomy and Nomenclature
Taxonomy followed for each group is based on wellaccepted primary literature/s (see individual papers).Wherever there was a pressing need to deviate from the standard taxonomy, the same has been stated explicitly in notes.Recent changes in taxonomy and/ or contradicting opinions and views are covered as specific footnotes.Though Malayalam (local language of the state of Kerala) names for the mammal and bird species followed standard references (Ali 1969;Prater 1971;Neelakantan 1984;Radhakrishnan 1997;Nameer 2000;Palot & Radhakrishnan 2003;Grimmet et al. 2007;Sashikumar et al. 2011), there was a need to coin new vernacular names for fishes, amphibians and reptiles; as well as several species of mammals and birds not covered in the above references.Additional Malayalam names were also suggested where the existing name was not ideal.Google transliteration was used to complete the phonetic Latin transliteration of the Malayalam names.

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) maintains the Red List of Threatened Species™, an inventory of the extinction risk and conservation status of the world's species.Information on the conservation status of all taxa listed in this checklist was retrieved from the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (www.iucnredlist.org),whose underlying assessments are based on the IUCN Red List Categories and criteria (version 3.1) (IUCN 2001).Additionly, the results of the recent assessments for some of the groups of mammals (Molur et al. 2003;2005) (2014).Raorchestes travancoricus was thought to be extinct (Biju 2004) as on 1 March 2015, the cut off date fixed on the records of the vertebrates from Kerala for this monograph.However, the recent IUCN assessment (2015.3)has elevated the status of Raorchestes travancoricus to Endangered (IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group 2015), which is followed here.

Endemism
Only two levels of endemism are mentioned and discussed in the checklists, viz., Kerala (KL) and the Western Ghats (WG).Other cases of endemism or restricted ranges, wherever applicable, are indicated in the foot notes.While political boundaries of Kerala State are well-defined, it is not so for the Western Ghats region.For the sake of the present paper, we follow the boundaries of the Western Ghats as defined by Gadgil (2011).However, in certain cases, particularly for birds, some of the accepted Western Ghats endemics have got small resident populations in pockets that strictly fall outside this region in the southern Eastern Ghats or Deccan Plateau.However, such anomalies are not considered as a case to drop the endemic status of these species which are otherwise primarily restricted to the Western Ghats.

Schedules of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act (WPA)
Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972 amended up to 2011 forms the legal framework for conservation of flora and fauna in India.Though there was a proposal to revise the different schedules of the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 (MOEF 2007), this is yet to be implemented.A draft Wildlife (Protection) Amendment Bill (2013), though placed in the Rajya Sabha is also yet to be approved by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC).One of the major change suggested in the 2013 draft amendment is the inclusion of Schedule VII, which lists the species whose trade is to be regulated using the provisions of the CITES.On 26 March 2015, the MoEFCC constituted an Expert Group to revise the Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act.
The Act itself is more than 40 years old, and the taxonomy and nomenclature of species have changed since then.This brings in significant challenges in interpreting the schedule and relating to the most recent taxonomy.Our attempt to interpret the WPA schedules in the current checklist should not be considered as a replacement for WPA, or as a document with a legal standing.It can only be treated as a ready reckoner of WPA at species level for the vertebrate fauna of the state of Kerala.
The details on the fauna listed in the different schedules of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 were retrieved from the website of the MoEFCC (www.moef.nic.in/sites/default/files/wildlife1l.pdf), which is amended up to 2003.
The three Appendices of CITES form the legal on species that occur in Kerala which are listed in the appendices.php).
Vertebrate diversity of Kerala is represented by Fig. 2).Fishes (freshwater and marine) are the most amphibians are represented with fewer numbers of families and orders when compared to other vertebrate of Kerala occur in the marine environment (Table 2, vertebrate groups occur in marine environments; between taxonomic groups.Fishes have the greatest (dolphins, whales and porpoises) and Sirennia (Dugongs or Sea Cows).Among birds, the pelagic forms include (northern storm-petrels), Procellariidae (petrels (boobies), Stercorariidae (skuas and jaegers) and certain the families Cheloniidae (sea turtles), Dermochelyidae (Leather-back Turtle) and a few members of Elaphidae (sea snakes).

Endemism among vertebrates have been discussed
boundaries of Kerala State.
Three-hundred-and-eighty-six species (36%) of vertebrates of Kerala are endemic to the Western Ghats and Kerala, of which 282 species (26%) are endemic to to Kerala (Table 3, Fig. 4).endemic species, of which 66% are endemic to the Western Ghats, while 24% are endemic to the state of Kerala endemic to the Western Ghats and 6% endemic to is Ranjini's Rat .The level of endemism is the lowest among birds with only 4% endemic to the Western Ghats and no species endemic to Kerala (Fig. 5).should be accorded high priority with respect to future research and monitoring as many of them are likely to be A total of 28 species of vertebrates of Kerala are listed and III of the CITES (Table 6).About 50% of the vertebrates of Kerala listed in the This updated checklist reveals high diversity, endemism and threat levels for the vertebrate fauna of Kerala State.The uniqueness of the vertebrate fauna of Kerala is manifested by the high levels of endemism various vertebrate groups in the state of Kerala.
While utmost care has been taken to ensure that the contents are accurate and up-to-date, there are through this paper.We encourage readers to provide their feedbacks if any especially on the vernacular names

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Physical map of Kerala , reptiles (Srinivasulu et al. 2014), and freshwater fishes (Dahanukar et al. 2011) were also consulted.BirdLife International annually updates the threat status of birds and the 2015 assessment published in October is followed here.For details on the IUCN Red Listing process, refer to Mace et al. (2008), Hoffman et al. (2010) and Collen et al.
the Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife are included in the Schedule II, four in the Schedule III and Kerala have been included under the Schedule V of WPA.have not been included under any of the Schedules of amphibians of Kerala have not been included under any About 50% of the Schedule I animals listed in WPA belong to birds, while those in Schedule II and Schedule III primarily consist of mammals.About 80% of the animals listed under the Schedule V, are mammals (Fig.8).Only 8% of the vertebrates of Kerala have been Fauna (CITES).Mammals are well represented in CITES