LAUSR

Abstract. Hematological parameters values for normal animals can reflect the health status of the individual and population, as well as the fitness of the species. Here, we determined the hematological parameters of wild caught Batrachuperus yenyuanensis. Blood samples were collected from 55 individuals B. yenyuanensis from a wild populations of West China and analyzed. Although the values of erythrocyte morphometric characters and hematological parameters varied between males and females, the difference was only significant in the case of the neutrophil count, with more neutrophils in females. The mean erythrocyte count was 7.20 × 104/mm3 (3.00 × 104–12.00 × 104/mm3), mean leukocyte count was 3.10 × 103/mm3 (0.58 × 103–7.75 × 103/mm3), mean hematocrit (Hct) was 30.49% (15.60–46.00%), mean cell volume (MCV) was 4.57 × 103 fl (2.21 × 103–8.57 × 103 fl), mean cell hemoglobin (MCH) was 0.75 × 103 pg (0.33 × 103–1.04 × 103 pg), mean cell hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) was 16.61% (8.50–25.32%) and mean hemoglobin was 5.00 g/dl (1.5–7.5 g/dl). This is the first report on hematological parameters of B. yenyuanensis, and the results may serve as a reference for health assessment and future study of this species. Comparison of our results to those of other hynobiid salamanders indicated that hematological parameters have species-specific and genus-specific characteristics.