Description
Monitor Lizards of the Varanidae family are a diverse group of reptiles of the Squamata order, representing the ancient group of anguimorph reptiles. Distributed throughout Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and Australasia. They serve as predators and scavengers in local ecosystems. According to the IUCN, the Yellow Monitor (Varanus flavescens) is declared endangered (EN), and the Bengal Monitor (Varanus bengalensis) is categorized as Nearly Threatened (NT). Asian Water Monitor (Varanus salvator) and Desert Monitor (Varanus griseus) are still listed under Least Concern (LC). In India, all four species fall under Schedule I Part II of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act (1972). Monitor Lizards have been fascinating species in the reptile class. Their morphological characteristics, behavior, and coexistence within human settlement have been a reason for much research about these lizards. Recent scenarios show that the population of different species are declining due to urban sprawling, habitat degradation, habitat fragmentation, overuse of pesticides and many other reasons. As initiated in 2022 and the remarkable response we received, we are back again with the Monitor Lizard (Varanus spp.) count for 2023 to understand the current population and distribution pattern of Monitor lizards all over India and to educate the citizens about these species by involving them in this counting process.
Data Records
The data in this occurrence resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 93 records.
1 extension data tables also exist. An extension record supplies extra information about a core record. The number of records in each extension data table is illustrated below.
This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.
Versions
The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.
How to cite
Researchers should cite this work as follows:
Samrat C, Mandal P, Das M, Sain R, Mukherjee R, Das A, Majumdar A, Chatterjee A, Barman N, Basu Roy A, Barve V (2024). World Lizard Day 2023: Monitor Lizard (Varanus spp.) Count in India. Version 1.0. Nature Mates-Nature Club. Occurrence dataset. https://cloud.gbif.org/asia/resource?r=lizard_day_nmnc&v=1.0
Rights
Researchers should respect the following rights statement:
The publisher and rights holder of this work is Nature Mates-Nature Club. To the extent possible under law, the publisher has waived all rights to these data and has dedicated them to the Public Domain (CC0 1.0). Users may copy, modify, distribute and use the work, including for commercial purposes, without restriction.
GBIF Registration
This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: de5e8fab-0b1e-41c1-9010-416328d61493. Nature Mates-Nature Club publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by Participant Node Managers Committee.
Keywords
Occurrence; Observation
Contacts
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Geographic Coverage
The study was carried out all across the India.
| Bounding Coordinates | South West [9.709, 67.324], North East [34.886, 84.375] |
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Taxonomic Coverage
No Description available
| Kingdom | Animalia |
|---|---|
| Phylum | Chordata |
| Class | Reptilia |
| Order | Squamata |
| Family | Varanidae |
Temporal Coverage
| Start Date / End Date | 2023-08-14 / 2023-09-14 |
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Sampling Methods
opportunistic sampling and submission of data online through a google form questionnaire. Historical data was also accepted.
| Study Extent | This study was conducted throughout the India during monsoon season. |
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Method step description:
- Data was collected using a google form questionnaire. Photos of the lizard were also provided, wherever possible by the users. Date, location (both are mandatory), habitat and behavior (optional). This form was circulated along with an instructions poster in ecologically inclined google groups, mails, different social media channels as well as personal messages.
Bibliographic Citations
- Chatterjee A, Samrat C, Mandal P, Das M, William S, Majumdar A, Barman N, Basu Roy A, Barve V (2023). World Lizard Day 2022 : Monitor Lizard Count India. Version 1.6. Nature Mates-Nature Club. Occurrence dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/49tzb9 accessed via GBIF.org on 2024-06-22. https://www.gbif.org/
Additional Metadata
| Purpose | For understanding the distribution of Monitor lizard species throughout the India. |
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| Alternative Identifiers | de5e8fab-0b1e-41c1-9010-416328d61493 |
| https://cloud.gbif.org/asia/resource?r=lizard_day_nmnc |