Endangered
Boulengerula niedeni
Boulengerula niedeni
Boulengerula niedeni, the Sagalla caecilian, is a worm-like amphibian first described in 2005.
Appearance
Depending on the micro-habitat the amphibian is found its color may vary. When found in areas with shade and high altitude they tend to be a dark brown while when found in lower elevations they tend to be a light brown with some traces of blue. The snout of the Sagalla caecilian is rounded, with short, globular tentacles, and a relatively large mouth, with two rows of teeth in each jaw.
Introduction Boulengerula niedeni, the Sagalla caecilian, is a worm-like amphibian first described in 2005.
Range and habitat
The Sagalla caecilian can be found mainly in low density farms and patches of indigenous forests on Sagala Hill. Besides their altitude they are only found on a patch of land that has an area of 20 km2. The forest in the Sagala Hill is ideal for Sagalla caecilian because of the large population of evergreen trees, that are a major source of food for the species.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Breeding
Eggs and damp skin make amphibians quick to vanish from a drained wetland or a forest stripped of litter.
In crisis
Little of the original forest remains on Sagalla Hill, but the species seems to adapt to human disturbance associated with small-scale farming activities. It is not found in the eucalyptus plantations that cover much of the hill. Because of the small range of this species, it is as of 2013 listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, while previously from 2006 been listed as critically endangered. It has been listed as one of the top-10 "focal species" in 2008 by the Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) project.
The smooth bark eucalyptus are more of a threat because they tend to extract more water from the soil than the rough barked ones. Another factor that threatens the species is deforestation for the expansion of farming land area.
Boulengerula niedeni is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Boulengerula niedeni, Wikidata item Q220814. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
