Aspects regarding urban herpetofauna (Chisinau city)

Abstract

Due to the rare available data on the urban populations of amphibians andreptiles in the urban ecosystems of the Republic of Moldova, this paper investigatedthe distribution and composition of the herpetofauna of Chisinau (within the parks: La Izvor and Valea Rascan), determine which human activities are the most serious threat toherpetofauna, which species are most vulnerable to human-caused ecological stress and which species are most adaptable when faced with urbanization. 9 species of amphib-ians were registered in the research area -Triturus cristatus Laurenti, 1768;Lissotriton vulgaris Linnaeus, 1758;Bombina bombina Linnaeus, 1761;Bufo bufo Linnaeus, 1758;Bufotes viridis Laurenti, 1768;Pelophylax ridibundus Pallas, 1771;Pelophylax lessonae Camerano, 1882;Rana dalmatina Bonaparte, 1840;Hyla arborea Bokermann, 1758 andthe hybrid form Pelophylax kl. esculentus Linnaeus, 1758. Among the reptiles werefound 4 species -Emys orbicularisLinnaeus, 1758;Lacerta viridis Laurenti, 1768;Lac-erta agilis Linnaeus, 1758;Natrix natrix Linnaeus, 1758.