A comparison of hill stream anuran diversity across two habitats in Kalakad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve: a pilot study.

India, one of the most populous countries, with an estimated population of 1.1 billion, also has the greatest amphibian species richness (321), endemics (180) and threatened species of all countries in the Indo-Malayan realm (Bain et al. 2005). According to the Global Amphibian Assessment (GAA) almost one-third of the worlds 6,638 known amphibian species are listed as threatened or extinct. These declines are attributed to two major factors, habitat loss and fungal disease with possible contributions from introduced species, climate change and pollution (Beirne 2009). In the Western Ghats, one of the 34 global biodiversity hotspots (Mittermeier et al. 2005), endemic anurans are also at risk due to their specialised diet, habitat preferences and limited vagility (Gururaja 2002). While much focus still lies on bringing about clarity in the taxonomic aspects of this class of vertebrates, there exists a dearth of research centred around their ecology, behaviour, species assemblages and for some species, natural history.