The Manaslu Conservation Area (MCA) is a biodiversity rich spot that harbors a wide variety
of local flora and fauna, thus herpetofauna fall no apart to this diversity. A field study was
carried out at the tail end of April 2012 for 15 days with the purposes of conducting an
inventory of local herpetofauna in three Village Development Committees (VDCs) of MCA,
recording their composition and abundance, studying their distribution pattern, relationship
between species‟ abundance, elevation and ambient temperature, and ethnoherpetology of the
area.
Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) was carried to figure out the potential areas of local
herpetofauna. Species composition and abundance were recorded by adopting field survey
methods like Visual Encounter Surveys, Patch Sampling, Dip netting and Opportunistic
sampling. The checklist of species found in the area was prepared by triangulating data
generated from all methods like Field survey, Photo-elicitation, Questionnaire survey, Key
Person Interviews, Group Discussion and published literature. For spatial analysis, Global
Positioning System (GPS) data acquired from the field were mapped in Arc GIS 9.3. Scatter
plot, Regression analysis, one way ANOVA, Correlation analysis, Runs Test and Coefficient
of variation were applied to analyze the relationship between abundance of herpetofauna with
elevation and temperature. Likewise, ethnoherpetological information was garnered from
local people using standard questionnaire sheets.