Herpetofauna of the Santa Cruz Forest Preserve in the Peruvian Amazon Basin

The Amazon is the largest rainforest on the planet, and it is known for its biodiversity despite growing deforestation from agricultural development, urbanization, wildfires, and unregulated mining. It is increasingly important to better understand regionalized biodiversity through fauna inventories because of these anthropogenic pressures. This study was conducted between May 2019 and August 2019 to identify herpetofauna biodiversity at the Santa Cruz Forest Reserve in Loreto, Peru. During the study period, amphibians and reptiles were recorded via visual encounter surveys and opportunistic encounters. These sightings were then supplemented by secondary data compiled from previous observations. In total, 200 species of herpetofauna have been recorded at this reserve: 15 families of amphibian comprising 106 species, and 21 families of reptiles comprising 94 species. The visual encounter surveys sampled the diversity of amphibians that would have been expected given this protocol and the timeframe of the study adequately. In contrast, this procedure did not sample reptiles as well in terms of both species richness and diversity; more reptile species were expected than observed. The combined approach of this study, however, provided a robust inventory of the Santa Cruz Forest Reserve, which can be used to support future on-site studies and management plans throughout the region.