IMPACT OF FIRES ON SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION PATTERNS OF THE HERMANN’S TORTOISE (TESTUDO HERMANNI) IN A HEAVILY AFFECTED AREA IN BULGARIA
Keywords:
Burned area, NATURA 2000, tortoises, habitatsAbstract
Fires are among the main threats for tortoises all over the world. Recently many territories over the country were burned. In April and August 2011 fi res broke out in Pastrina Natura 2000 zone. The survey was carried for three years from 2011 to 2013. Habitats where specimens were encountered were reclassified to four classes of suitability – unsuitable, least suitable, suitable and optimal. The abundance (individuals per hectare) of tortoises was calculated for every each habitat. The territory affected by fires covered 69% of total study area. In both affected and control polygons the habitats distribution was displayed in a similar pattern. More specimens were found in affected polygon (60 individuals) versus non-affected (25 ind.). The species was found in only seven out of 19 habitat types. The fi re affected 0.08% least suitable, 0.14% suitable but 62.19% optimal habitats in the total area. The overall abundance values are extremely low (up to 0.1ind./ha) and in all habitats this species is critically endangered. Species is very sensitive towards large-scale fi res. Deciduous and especially oak forests are relatively resistant to fi re and serve as refuges.
References
Abrams, M. D., 1992. Fire and the development of oak forests. Bioscience, 42: 346–353.
Beshkov, V., 1984. On the Distribution, Relative Abundance and Protection of Tortoises in Bulgaria. Ecology, 14: 14–34. (Bg).
Brooks, M., L. and T. C. Esque, 2002. Alien plants and fi re in desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) habitat of the Mojave and Colorado deserts. Chelonian Conservation Biology, 4: 330–340.
Cavitt, J. F., 2000. Fire and a tall grass prairie reptile community: effects on relative abundance and seasonal activity. Journal of Herpetology, 34: 12–20.
Cheylan, M., 1984. The true Status and Future of Hermann’s Tortoise Testudohermannirobertmertensi Wermuth 1952 in Western Europe. Amphibia - Reptilia, 5: 17–26.
Evans, E. W., 1984. Fire as a natural disturbance to grasshopper assemblages of tall grass prairie.Oikos, 43: 9–16.
Félix, J., X. Capalleres., J. Budo and M. Farre, 1989. Estructura de unapoblación de Tortuga mediterránea (Testudohermannirobertmertensi, Wermuth), antes y después de unincendioforestal. Treballsd ’Ictiologiai Herpetologia, 2: 210–223.
Fenner, A. L. and C. M. Bull, 2007. Short-term impact of grassland fi re on the endangered pygmy bluetongue lizard. Journal of Zoology, 272: 444–450.
Fredericksen, N. J., T. S. Fredericksen, B. Flores and D. Rumiz, 1999. Wild life use of different-sized logginggaps in a tropical dry forest. Tropical Ecology, 40: 1–9.
Fredericksen, N. J. and T. S. Fredericksen, 2002. Terrestrial wildlife responses to logging and fi rein a Bolivian tropical humid forest. Biodiversity and Conservation, 11: 27–38.
Hailey, A., 2000. The effects of fi re and mechanical habitat destruction on survival of the tortoise Testudohermanni in northern Greece. Biology and Conservation, 92: 321–333.
Hurlbert, L. C., 1969. Fire and litter effects in undisturbed bluestem prairie in Kansas. Ecology, 50: 874–877.
Kaufman, D. W., E. J. Fink and G. A. Kaufman, 1990. Small mammals and grassland fi res. In: Collins, S. L. and L. L. Wallace (Editors) Fire in North American tall grass prairies. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, pp. 46–80.
Lambert, M., 1984. Threats to Mediterranean (West Palaearctic) tortoises and their effects on wild populations: overview. Amphibia - Reptilia, 5: 5–15.
Lillywhite, H. B. and F. North, 1974. Perching behavior of Sceloporus occidentalis in recently burned chaparral. Copeia, 74: 256–257.
Rice, E. L. and R. L. Parenti, 1978. Causes of decreases in productivity in anundisturbed tallgrass prairie. American Journal of Botany, 65: 1091–1097.
Rochelle, B. R., 2005 Fire in Eastern Oak Forests: Delivering Science to Land Managers. Proceedings of a Conference, pp. 158–166.
Skelly, D. K., E. E. Werner and S. A. Cortwright, 1999. Longterm distributional dynamics of a Michigan amphibian assemblage. Ecology, 80: 2326–2337.
Walter, H. S. and J. R. Leslie, 2010. Quantifying Disturbance in Terrestrial Communities:Abundance-Biomass Comparisons of Herpetofauna Closely Track Forest Succession Restoration Ecology, 18 (1): 195–204.
Santos, X. and J. M. Poquet, 2010. Ecological succession and habitat attributes affect the postfi re response of a Mediterranean reptile community. European Journal of Wildlife, 56: 895–905.
Pianka, E. R., 1996. Long-term changes in the lizard assemblages in the Great Victoria Desert. In: Cody, M. L. and J. A. Smallwood, (Editors). Longterm studies of vertebrate communities. Academic, San Diego, pp. 191–216.
Popgeorgiev, G., 2008. The effects of a large-scale fi re on the demographic structure of a population of Hermann’s (Testudo hermanni boettgeri Mojsisovics, 1889) and Spur-thighed (Testudo graeca ibera Pallas, 1814) tortoises in Eastern Rhodopes Mountains, Bulgaria. Historia Naturalis Bulgarica, 19: 115–127.
Popgeorgiev, G. S. and Y. V. Kornilev, 2009. Effects of a High Intensity Fire on the Abundance and Diversity of Reptiles in the Eastern Rhodopes Mountains, Southeastern Bulgaria. Ecologia Balkanica, 1: 41–50.
Rugiero, L. and L. Luiselli, 2006. Effects of small-scale fi res on the populations of three lizard species in Rome. Herpetological Journal, 16: 63–68.
Sanz-Aguilar, A., J. D. Anadуn , A. Gimenez , R. Ballestar, E. Gracia and D. Oro, 2011. Coexisting with fi re: The case of the terrestrial tortoise Testudo graecain mediterranean shrublands. Biological Conservation, 144: 1040–1049.
Stubbs, D., I. R. Swingland and A. Hailey, 1985. The Ecology of the Mediterranean Tortoise Testudo hermanni in Northern Greece (The Effects of a Catastropheon Population Structure and Density). Biological Conservation, 31: 125–152.
Swingland, I. and M. Klemens, (Editors) 1989. The conservation biology of tortoises. Occasional Papers of the IUCN Species Survival Commission, 5.IU CN, Gland, Switzerland. 202 pp.
Whelan, R. J., 1995. The ecology of fi re.Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 346 pp.
Withgott, J. H., 1996. Elapheobsoletaobsoleta.Response to fire. Herpetological Review, 27: 145–146.
Wilson, B. A., 1994. Fire effects on vertebrate fauna and implications for fi re management and conservation. In: Fire and Biodiversity: The Effects and Effectiveness of Fire Management. Department of Environment, Sport and Territories Press, Canberra, pp. 131–147.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Bulgarian Journal of Agricultural Science
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
