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Age Structure, Growth, and Body Size of Pelodytes caucasicus from Turkey

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Abstract

Habitat conditions drive the growth rate and the age structure of near-threatened species of Caucasian parsley frog (Pelodytes caucasicus). We studied the age structure and the growth parameters of the Caucasian parsley frogs obtained from four regions of Anatolia, that is, Giresun, Trabzon, Rize, and Artvin. Our results revealed a lower growth rate among the frogs residing in anthropogenic areas (Cımbırtlık, Giresun; Çat, Rize) compared to those living in the conservative areas (Hıdırnebi, Trabzon; Karagöl, Artvin). Also, the lowest values for age structure and the snout-vent length (SVL) were found in anthropogenic areas. Since P. caucasicus is categorized as “Near-Threatened” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Red Data Books of some countries, we must manage protected areas and plan future conservation action for this species.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are thankful to Çiğdem Gül and Rahşan Evren Mazlum for their contribution to this study.

Funding

This research was funded by grant FYL-2020-1076 project from Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University, Rize, Turkey

    T. Ergül Kalaycı & K. Gümüşsoy

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  1. T. Ergül Kalaycı
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  2. K. Gümüşsoy
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Correspondence to T. Ergül Kalaycı.

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Conflict of interest. The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.Statement on the welfare of animals. The sampling was carried out with the permission of the local ethics committee for animal experiments (approval reference no. 2019/09-08).

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Ergül Kalaycı, T., Gümüşsoy, K. Age Structure, Growth, and Body Size of Pelodytes caucasicus from Turkey. Biol Bull Russ Acad Sci 49 (Suppl 1), S124–S129 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1062359022130088

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