RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Faunal richness

The Western Ghats are also rich in faunal diversity and endemism (Daniels 2003; Sreekantha et al. 2007) accounting for 330 butterflies (11% endemics), 289 fishes (41% endemics), 157 amphibians (85% endemics), 156 reptiles (62% endemics), 508 birds (4% endemics) and 120 mammals (12% endemics). The Sharavathi Valley forests, which include also Kathalekan, constitute the northern limit for distribution of endemic and endangered primate lion tailed macaque, Macaca silenus (Krishnamurthy and Kiester 1998). Of the 64 species of fresh water fishes recorded from Sharavathi River 18 are Western Ghat endemic and 24 confined to Peninsular India. These include three new species of fishes, Batasio sharavatiensis (Bhat and Jayaram 2004), Schistura nagodiensis and S. sharavathiensis (Sreekantha et al. 2006). The very distribution of endemic fresh water fishes is highly correlated to terrestrial landscape elements, of which quantity and quality of evergreen forests are more decisive (Sreekantha et al. 2007). We also made a study of the amphibians to illustrate faunal endemism as indicators of better hydrological conditions of the relic forests. We recorded 35 species from Kathalekan of which 26 (74%) are endemics to the Western Ghats (endemic species are given in Table 12). There were six aquatic, 19 semi-aquatic, eight arboreal and two terrestrial species. The endemic species occur in greater number and diversity in and around the Myristica swamps. Among the aquatic species, Nyctibatrachus aliciae, N. major and Micrixalus saxicola are endemic to the Western Ghats and are exclusive to the evergreen forests having torrential streams. Their northernmost distribution range within the Western Ghats is limited to the 15°N in Uttara Kannada). Interestingly, these species of Nyctibatrachus and genus Micrixalus are among the most ancient genera (~60­70 mya) after Nasikabatrachus (~100mya) to have evolved (Roelants et al. 2007) in the Western Ghats. Arboreal species Philautus ponmudi, a Critically Endangered species, has its northernmost distribution range ending at Kathalekan. It is worth noting that, the arboreal and aquatic amphibians share highest number of endangered species at Kathalekan (three and one respectively).