BIHAREAN BIOLOGIST 14 (2): 122-124 ©Biharean Biologist, Oradea, Romania, 2020
Article No.: e202302 http://biozoojournals.ro/bihbiol/index.html
New data on the distribution of the Bulgarian Bent-toed Gecko
(Mediodactylus danilewskii Strauch, 1887)
in Shumen town (NE Bulgaria)
Teodora KOYNOVA1,*, Dimitar DOICHEV1 and Nikolay NATCHEV1,2
1. Faculty of Natural Science, Shumen University, Universitetska 115, 9700 Shumen, Bulgaria
2. DIZ, Vienna University, Althanstrasse 14, 1090 Vienna, Austria
* Corresponding author, T. Koynova, E-mail: [email protected]
Received: 29. March 2020 / Accepted: 03. July 2020 / Available online: 10. July 2020 / Printed: December 2020
Abstract. Recently, the phylogeny of the “Kotschy’s gecko” (Mediodactylus kotschyi Steindachner,1870) was revised, and the Black sea
populations were distinguished as a new species – the Bulgarian Bent-toed Gecko (Mediodactylus danilewskii Strauch, 1887). This
species was never reported for the inland of north Bulgaria (except for one already extinguished population near the Danube river)
until 2015. New information on the distribution of the geckos on the territory of Shumen is presented and notes on the sustainability
of the population in the region in the last five years are provided.
Key words: distribution, new locality, population, gecko, monitoring, ecology.
For Bulgaria the “Kotschy’s gecko”, (Mediodactylus kotschyi
Steindachner,1870) is considered as a species complex (see
Popgeorgiev et al. 2019). Kotsakiozi et al. (2018) have made a
multilocus phylogenetic analysis and divided the genus
Mediodactylus into five clades/species: M. kotschyi; M.
orientalis; M. danilewskii; M. bartoni and M. oertzeni. The
Mediodactylus populations along the Black Sea coast (Black
Sea region and south-western Anatolia) were classified as M.
danilewskii. To date on the territory of Bulgaria were detected
two species – M. kotschyi (with two subclades M. k. rumelicus
and M. k. bibroni) and M. danilewskii (the former M. kotschyi
danilewskii obtained a status of a species).
In Bulgaria, the geckos predominantly inhabit human
settlements (Petkov, 2002, Mollov, 2005, Pulev et al. 2014,
Mollov et al. 2015, Popgeorgiev et al. 2019)) - there are only
few known populations from natural habitats (see Beshkov
& Nanev, 2002). In the northern part of the country, the
species was found along the Black sea coast (see Stoyanov et
al. 2011) and a single population was detected at “Orlova
chukka” cave in the region of Ruse (the last report for this
population was provided by Tzankov et al. 2009). As stated
by Boyan Petrov (see Koynova et al. 2017), the population of
M. danilewskii in the region of the cave had disappeared
before 2017.
The first record of M. danilewskii from Shumen town
(inland NE Bulgaria), was provided by a local hobby
naturalist (Radoslav Tzvetkov) in the summer of 2015.
Thanks to the efforts of local volunteers, we were able to
confirm the presence of M. danilewskii in Shumen trough the
last five years (except 2017) and gained new data on the diet
of the species which will be subject of a future publication.
The species was detected several times in 2016 (see Koynova
et al. 2017). In 2017 there were no recorded observations. The
lack of observations may be explained by the exceptionally
cold and long winter and the low summer temperatures,
which may had impacted the activity patterns of the species
and this way had limited its detectability. Another possible
reason is that the only two old low-profile buildings in the
region of detection were destroyed in the spring of 2017 and
new construction works had started. Apparently, the older
buildings (43.274352°N, 26.926885°E; 231 m a.s.l.; Datum:
Figure 1. A subadult specimen of M. danilewskii observed on a facade
of a newly constructed building in Shumen town (NE Bulgaria).
WGS 84) were the overwintering places for that local
population of the gecko.
In 2018 M. danilewskii was not detected on the location
known to that date, however in two new sites we recorded
geckos (Figure 1). The exact coordinates of these localities
are 43.278428°N, 26.920267°E; 237 m a.s.l and 43.271875°N,
26.932058°E; 213 m a.s.l. (both Datum: WGS 84)
In 2019 the species was observed on all of the three sites
(see Figure 2). The latest registered animals were two
juvenile geckos with estimated body length (SVL) of 15 mm
Data on M. danilewskii in Bulgaria
123
Figure 2. Map of detected separate localities numbered 1, 2 and 3 of M. danilewskii in the central part of
Shumen (NE Bulgaria).
Figure 3. Маp of settlements in NE Bulgaria, where geckos were detected - the represented subadult gecko specimen from Novi Pazar was
photographed on 07.08.2016 by Sevinch Faik Basri. The smaller map (modified from Stojanov et al. 2011) represents the distribution of the
Mediodactylus kotschyi complex on the territory of Bulgaria (the dots represent the locations of the gecko habitats and the square indicates
the geographic position of Shumen town).
(detected on 09.09.2019) and a subadult with SVL of 35 mm
(detected on 16.09.2019), which may be a proof that the
geckos are breeding.
During the five-year monitoring, the most of the
observations were made at night, however several
individuals were spotted during the day. The lizards were
observed not only on the facades of the buildings, but also
indoors. Similar behavior was also described for the gecko
populations in Plovdiv city (South Bulgaria) by Mollov
(2019). In contrast to the first observations in 2015 and 2016,
which were in regions with houses of low profile, the later
were made in neighborhoods with multiple-staged high
buildings. Such habitats were recently reported for M.
danilewskii from Bucharest, Romania where it was observed
T. Koynova et al.
124
even in business and economic centers. To date there are no
firm evidences whether this particular Romanian population
is resident or these are accidentally transferred animals (see
Gherghel & Tedrow, 2019).
Based on our monitoring and observations over the last 5
years, we can determine that M. danilewskii is resident in
Shumen. Presumably the animals were initially brought to
the town by a human-mediated transportation and the
species has successfully adapted to the local habitats and has
established a reproducing population. Another possible
hypothesis could be based on the expansion of the range of
the species related to the current climatic conditions. A
support for such “natural” appearance of the lizards in
Shumen could be the finding of a subadult gecko in the town
of Novi Pazar made by Sevinch Faik Basri (43.351387°N,
27.190063°E; 108 m a.s.l. Datum: WGS 84). This town is
positioned between the populations along the Black sea and
the town of Shumen (see Figure 3).
Acknowledgement. This work was partly supported by the
Research Fund of the Konstantin Preslavsky University of Shumen
(Grant No. RD-08-104/30.01.2020). We are thankful to Daniel
Jablonski (Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia) for comments
on the phylogenetics. Two anonymous reviewers are acknowledged
for their helpful comment, which contributed to the improvement of
the manuscript.
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