Keanekaragaman Jenis Ular di Areal Perkebunan Sawit PT Sukses Tani Nusasubur Kalimantan Timur

Abstract

Ecologically, snake has been known to functions as biological pest control. The aim of this research is to assess snake diversity in oil palm plantation area of PT Sukses Tani Nusasubur in East Kalimantan. The survey found 22 individual of snakes consisting of eight species in four families. Xenopeltidae (1 species), Colubridae (5 types), Pythonidae (1 species), and Elapidae (1 species). Two species of snakes, Naja sumatrana and Python reticulatus, is include in Appendix II of CITES. Snake species diversity is highest on karst habitats with Shanon Index of diversity of 1.74 and the lowest in the secondary forest habitat type with an index value of 0. Evenness index within oil-palm plantation are moderate, with low dominance of Dendrelaphis pictus. Highest level of evenness is found in karst habitat and lowest in the secondary forest habitat. Food habits analysis were only conducted for selected species with limited number of snake. The result only found reptile and amphibian as food, but unable to showed the function of snake as rodent control