Herpetofaunal Species Richness of Southeastern National Parks

Abstract

The Southeast is the stronghold of US herpetofaunal biodiversity and comprises approximately half of the nation's species of amphibians and reptiles, of which about 20% are endemic. However, few areas have been inventoried, thus hampering efforts to monitor and protect populations. We conducted 2-year herpeto-logical inventories of 16 parks within the National Park Service's Southeast Coast Network. We used a wide variety of standard field techniques to document species occurrences and augmented our collecting records with historical data from museums, published literature, and personal collections. We documented the presence of 123 native species of amphibians and reptiles at the 16 parks, with numbers of species ranging between 6 and 64 per park. Many southeastern parks support rich assemblages of herpetofauna.