Abstract
Ecuador is one of the most reptile-diverse countries in the world, with 464 currently recognized species. Similar to other taxa, reptiles in Ecuador face important conservation challenges because of anthropogenic activities. Using distribution data of nearly 90% of the species of reptiles from continental Ecuador, as well as information on ecosystem protection status and anthropogenic activities, we present the first comprehensive quantitative study of reptile conservation in Ecuador. While species richness is higher in northwestern Ecuador and the central-northern Amazon, the conservation priority areas identified in this study also include the central Pacific coast, southwestern Ecuador, and the central-southern Amazon. Similar areas have been identified by previous studies as conservation gaps. Thus, our study reinforces the idea of protecting those areas to improve the conservation of biodiversity in continental Ecuador.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 51-58 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Amphibian and Reptile Conservation |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| State | Published - 2017 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2017 Reyes-Puig et al.
Funding
We thank A. Merino-Viteri for help with SDMs, and both S. Espinosa and S. Ron for reviewing an earlier version of this manuscript. Special thanks to M. Martins, U. Roll, F. Kraus, S. Meiri, and P. Uetz for filling out the surveys; as well as M. Yánez-Muñoz for access to the MECN specimen database. This work was supported by Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador and Secretaría de Educación Superior, Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (SENESCYT) under the "Arca de Noé" Initiative (PIs: S.R. Ron and O. Torres-Carvajal).
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Secretaría de Educación Superior, Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación |
Keywords
- Conservation priority areas
- Endemism
- Importance
- Opportunity
- Species distribution models
