Herpetofauna of protected areas in the Caatinga III: The Catimbau National Park, Pernambuco, Brazil

Abstract

Despite the increase in herpetofaunal inventories in the Caatinga biome, information for many areas is still lacking and new surveys are required. We conducted a 30-day inventory of the herpetofauna of the Catimbau National Park, Pernambuco State, Brazil. Thirty-seven pitfall trap arrays composed of 4 buckets each, along with glue traps and active searches were used to sample local herpetofaunal diversity. We recorded 21 species of frogs, 25 lizards, 11 snakes, and 1 chelonian. All sampling methods contributed significantly to achieve the amphibian and reptile diversity recovered in the inventory. Rarefaction curves and richness estimators suggest that local biodiversity is still underestimated. We attempted to show the great potential of Catimbau National Park, characterized by the richest herpetofauna surveyed in a core region of the biome, along with the presence of endemic species such as the worm snake Amphisbaena supranumeraria and the limbless lizard Scriptosaura catimbau, underscoring the importance of the area for the conservation and maintenance of the Caatinga herpetofauna biodiversity.

Herpetofauna of protected areas in the Caatinga V: Seridó Ecological Station (Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil)

“…Our methodology is similar to other four inventories recently published for the biome Cavalcanti et al 2014;Pedrosa et al 2014;Magalhães et al 2015 characterize this area as one of the desertification centers in Brazil (Sampaio 2003;Zanella 2010).…”

“…The lizard families Gekkonidae, Phyllodactylidae, Teiidae and Tropiduridae have similar species compositions in other Caatinga areas (Vitt 1995;Garda et al 2013;Pedrosa et al 2014), which is expected because many of their representatives are common in open areas and can use a variety of microhabitats found in various xerophytic formations (Vitt 1995). In contrast, Gymnophthalmidae, which is frequently found on leaf litter, has a low richness even at Exu/Pernambuco, where only V. multiscutata is found (Vitt 1995).…”

“…Lizard species richness at ESEC Seridó (16 species) is regionally significant when compared to other Caatinga areas: Exu/Pernambuco (14 species; Vitt 1995), Floresta Nacional de Negreiros (14 species; Pereira et al 2015), PARNA Serra da Capivara (17 species; Cavalcanti et al 2014), PARNA do Catimbau (15 species; Pedrosa et al 2014) and PARNA da Chapada Diamantina (25 species; Magalhães et al 2015). The lizard families Gekkonidae, Phyllodactylidae, Teiidae and Tropiduridae have similar species compositions in other Caatinga areas (Vitt 1995;Garda et al 2013;Pedrosa et al 2014), which is expected because many of their representatives are common in open areas and can use a variety of microhabitats found in various xerophytic formations (Vitt 1995).…”

“…In fact, diversity of reptiles and amphibians in Caatinga is remarkable given its severe environmental conditions (Navas et al 2002;Rodrigues 2005). Knowledge for the area is still growing as new areas are being inventoried (Ribeiro et al 2012;Garda et al 2013;Cavalcanti et al 2014;Pedrosa et al 2014;Magalhães et al 2015;Pereira et al 2015). However, it is still undersampled, with just a few areas currently sampled in entire states in the Northeastern region.…”

“…Previous studies have recorded from 12 to 26 species of frogs (Arzabe 1999;Vieira et al 2007;Campos and Santos 2011;Silva and Santos 2011;Pedrosa et al 2014). We collected frogs typically found in open areas, with a dominance of Leptodactylidae and Hylidae species; these are the most representative families in several Brazilian biomes (Bertoluci 1998;Bernarde 2007;Vieira et al 2007).…”