Amphibians and reptiles of wildsumaco wildlife sanctuary, Napo province, Ecuador

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Abstract

We conducted a long-term inventory of the herpetofauna of Wildsumaco Wildlife Sanctuary in the eastern part of the Napo Province in Ecuador. This private preserve is about 500 ha in size and is located on the southern slopes of Volcán Sumaco. The preserve contains primary forest, secondary forest, and pasture habitats. Based mostly on nocturnal transect sampling we documented 39 species of amphibians including one species of salamander, two species of caecilians, and 36 species of frogs. Rain frogs (Pristimantis Jiminez de la Espada, 1871) were diverse with 14 species documented. A diverse species assemblage of 45 reptile species was also documented on the preserve. Six amphibian species found were listed by the IUCN Red List. At least three species exhibited substantial geographic range extensions and seven species showed elevational range extensions. We discovered several undescribed species including one salamander, three frogs, one lizard, and one snake.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)729-751
Number of pages23
JournalCheck List
Volume17
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 10 May 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The authors.

Funding

Funding was provided by professional development grants and international collaboration grants both from Francis Marion University and Satch Krantz Conservation Support Funds from Riverbanks Zoo and Botanical Gardens, Columbia, South Carolina, USA. Field trips by QCAZ staff were supported by SENESCYT under the “Arca de Noé” Initiative (PIs: S. Ron and OTC). Field assistance was greatly enhanced by P. Alexander, F. Ayala, S. Bair, J.R. Burger, B.T. Camper, L. Chick, A. Crawford, M. Nordgren, D. Paucar, R. Phillips, J. Steinmetz, A. Stoeckmann, E.N. Vanderhoff, M. Waggoner, K. Wheatly, T. Wright, D. Zart, and P. Zwiers. E.N. Van-derhoff provided trail distance measurements. J. and B. Olson provided access to the property. David Salazar-Valenzuela and Monica Paez-Vacas kindly provided the MZUTI data.

Funders
Francis Marion University

    Keywords

    • Amphibians
    • Andes
    • Ecuador
    • Herpetofauna
    • Reptiles

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