Reptile fauna of the Khajeh protected area, with assessingits similarities with physiogeographical area of the Iranian Lizards

Natural habitats of the Iranian reptiles in many areas of the country are destroying due to several reasons. In such conditions the protected areas can act as the shelter sites for many organisms. Therefore it seems quite necessary that، under management of the department of environment، the reptiles'' fauna of these areas، comprehensively be studied and reported. The protected area of Khajeh with 37552 Hectares is located in 70 km west of Sarakhs city. This is one of the most important protected areas of Khorasan Razavi province. In a long term study of the reptiles in this area which lasted 5 years، 11 species of lizards، Paralaudakia erythrogastra، Trapelus agilis، Pseudopus apodus، Tenuidactylus caspius، Cyrtopodion scabrum، Eremias velox، Eremias persica، Mesalina watsonana، Ablepharus pannonicus، Trachylepis aurata، Varanus greseus belonging to 5 families، 7 species of snakes، Typhlops vermicularis، Platyceps rhodorachis، Psammophis schokari، Hemorrhois ravergieri، Malpolon insignitus، Macrovipera lebetina and Naja oxiana belonging to 4 families and one species of turtles، Testudo horsfieldii، were collected، recognized and reported from the area. We used Jaccard index for studying the similarity of lizard fauna between Khajeh Protected Area and 13 physiogeographical areas of Iran. Our results show that Khajeh Protected Area has the highest similarity index with Kopet Dagh and The Sistan Basin، respectively.