Occurrence data of terrestrial vertebrates of Son Tra Peninsula, Da Nang City, Vietnam
Son Tra Peninsula of Da Nang City is well known as a home for one of the most beautiful primates, the red-shanked douc (Pygathrix nemaeus) and the forest is considered as the “green lung” of the city. Located on the peninsula, Son Tra Nature Reserve was established in 1977 to protect the forest and its biodiversity in an area of ca. 4,000 ha. The nature reserve then was reduced to 3,871 ha in the “National Planning for Biodiversity Conservation toward 2020 and vision to 2030”. In addition, the peninsula was planned for national tourism development with an area of 1,056 ha from 2016. Hence, the total area allocated for conserving the habitat for wildlife was reduced to 3,383 ha. Therefore, the forestry area, as well as the biodiversity of the peninsula, including the nature reserve, will be impacted under the pressure of economic development for the city.
Before the re-unification of Vietnam, the fauna of Son Tra was surveyed and 23 mammal species were reported for the peninsula (Jones 1983, van Peenen et al. 1971). Although the nature reserve was established in 1977, its wildlife was not inventoried until 1997 when the occurrence of 174 terrestrial vertebrate species, including 36 mammal species, 106 bird species, 23 reptile species and 9 amphibian species, was reported (Dinh et al. 1997). Recently, a study on the herpetofauna of the nature reserve reported the presence of 18 amphibian and 52 reptile species (Phan et al. 2014). Several opportunistic observations and studies conducted at the nature reserve have contributed to the knowledge of species richness of the fauna of the nature reserve (Lippold and Vu 2008, Dinh et al. 2010, Streicher and Ulibarri 2014). After revising the terrestrial fauna list by removing synonyms and unconfirmed species, the terrestrial vertebrates of Son Tra consists of 41 mammals, 151 birds, 52 reptiles and 18 amphibians. Although the previous studies provided initial information to understand the biodiversity of the nature reserve, data on the distribution of animals including coordinates were lacking or not sufficient for planning conservation activities, particularly in light of the high pressure caused by human activities. In addition, after almost 20 years, the biodiversity of the Son Tra Peninsula has likely changed due to the invasive species Merremia spp. Therefore, this study provides crucial data on species distribution of confirmed species that occur within the nature reserve.
The forest of Son Tra Peninsula was designated as a nature reserve in 1977 and serves as a green lung for Da Nang City. Due to the economic development scheme of Da Nang City, the forest of the peninsula has been disturbed by human activities and by invasive plant species. Moreover, the management board of the nature reserve lacked sufficient data of the species distribution of its biodiversity for developing future management and conservation plans. To provide and enhance knowledge for the distribution of wildlife species in Son Tra Peninsula, we conducted field surveys over two years to collect data on species richness and distribution and then build a biodiversity database for the protected area.
The project collected the occurrence data of 145 species of terrestrial vertebrates, accounting for 51.6% of vertebrate species known from the peninsula with total of 900 observations. In addition, distribution data of six threatened species were recorded on the peninsula.
