CONTRIBUTION TO THE FAUNISTIC RESEARCH AND CONSERVATION OF THE HERPETOFAUNA OF NORTHERN KRESNA GORGE AND SOME ADJACENT AREAS
ATANAS GROZDANOV1*, HRISTO PESHEV2, EMILIAN STOYNOV1,2, NADYA VANGELOVA2,
MILOS VAN LEEST3, HANS WIELPSTRA3, DIMITAR PARVANOV4
1 – Department of Zoology and anthropology, Faculty of Biology, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, Sofia, Bulgaria
2 – Fund for Wild Flora and Fauna, 2700 Blagoevgrad, P.O. Box 78, 49 Ivan Michaylov Str, room 327, Bulgaria
3 - Van Hal Larenstein University, PO Box 1528, 8901 BV Leeuwarden, the Netherlands
4 - MHAT Nadezhda, Research department, 3 Blaga vest Str., Sofia, Bulgaria
* Corresponding author: zootribe@gmail.com
Keywords: herpetofauna, reptiles, amphibians, conservation, Kresna Gorge
Abstract: Due to its species richness, Kresna Gorge is relatively well investigated in herpetological aspect. However, almost all of the researchers concentrate their efforts in the well-known biodiversity hot spots situated in the middle and the southern parts of the area, thus leaving the northern parts almost unexplored.
Most of the locations of the researched species presented in this work are newly identified, since the areas of investigation remained out of the scope of the majority of scientists.
In addition the research presents some of the conservation measures in the area, taken by the non-governmental organization Fund for Wild Flora and Fauna (FWFF), which directly affected the prosperity of the researched species populations. The identified nature conservation benefits and possible fails of these measures were evaluated.