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Herpetofauna of Trairão, Brazil
All articles available online at http://www.salamandra-journal.com
© 2011 Deutsche Gesellschat für Herpetologie und Terrarienkunde e.V. (DGHT), Rheinbach, Germany
SALAMANDRA 47(4) 199–206 20 November 2011 ISSN 0036–3375
Preliminary assessment of amphibians and reptiles
from Floresta Nacional do Trairão,
with a new snake record for the Pará state, Brazilian Amazon
Telêmaco Jason Mendes-Pinto
1
& Sergio Marques de Souza
2
1)
Pós-Graduação em Ciências Florestais e Ambientais, Departamento de Ciências Florestais, Universidade Federal do Amazonas
(UFAM), Av. Gen. Rodrigo Otávio Jordão Ramos, 3000, Setor Sul - Coroado I, Manaus-AM, CEP 69.077-000, Brazil
2)
Coleção de Anfíbios e Répteis, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA), Av. André Araújo, Petrópolis, Manaus-AM,
CEP 69.011-970, Brazil
Corresponding author: Telêmaco Jason Mendes-Pinto, e-mail: biojason2005@hotmail.com
Manuscript received: 6 June 2011
Abstract. We present a list of amphibians and reptiles from Floresta Nacional do Trairão, located in the southwestern part
of the state of Pará. his study is part of the results obtained during the preparation of the management plan of FLONA do
Trairão, required by the Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade (ICMBio), conducted during the rainy
season, 05–24 September 2009. We use four diferent methods: time-constrained visual searching (TCVS), pitfall traps with
drit fence (PT), occasional collecting (OC), and collections made by others (CMO). he study area covers 257,482 hectares
and approximately 70% of it is covered by dense ombrophilous forest and 30% of open ombrophilous forest. We registered
94 species of amphibians and reptiles: Anura (35), Chelonia (4), Crocodylia (1) and Squamata (54: 23 lizards and 31 snakes).
he snake Drymobius rhombifer was registered for the irst time in the state of Pará. Although none of the recorded spe-
cies is cited in the lists of endangered species in Brazil, FLONA do Trairão should be considered important for maintaining
populations of central Amazonian herpetofauna.
Key words. Herpetofauna, distribution, Amazonia, southwestern Pará.
Introduction
Brazil ranks irst among the countries with the great-
est richness in amphibian species diversity, followed by
Colombia and Ecuador, and in second place among the
countries with the greatest richness in reptile species di-
versity, just behind Australia (which has 864 species re-
corded; Wilson & Swan 2008), but surpassing India, In-
donesia, Mexico, Colombia, China and Peru (Rodriguez
& Duellman 1994, Bérnils 2011).
To date, there are 875 species of amphibians rec-
ognized in Brazil (847 Anura, 27 Gymnophiona and 1
Urodela), added to which are 721 reptile species (6 Cro-
codylia, 36 Testudines, 67 Anphisbaenidae, 241 Lacerti-
lia and 371 Ophidia) (Bérnils 2011). However, studies of
Amazon wildlife are still very incomplete, particularly for
some groups of reptiles and amphibians (V ogt & Bern-
hard 2003). he description of numerous new species
every year suggests that this wealth is even greater than
currently recognized (Azevedo-Ramos & Gallati 2001,
Avila-Pires et al. 2007).
he state of Pará has been the target of several her-
petofaunistic studies, but the major species inventories
are concentrated in the eastern part of the state. Cunha
& Nascimento (1978, 1993) presented data on snake di-
versity for Belém and surroundings, Cunha et al. (1985)
and Nascimento et al. (1987) characterized the herpeto-
fauna of the Carajás region, Y uki & Santos (1996) list-
ed the snake species of the Mexiana and Marajo islands,
and Avila-Pires & Hoogmoed (1997) conducted a study
similar to the aforementioned in the Caxiuanã region.
Disregarding occasional records, intensive herpetofau-
nal studies have been conducted in the western parts of
the state of Pará only recently. Frota (2004) realized a
snake survey in the Itaituba region, Caldwell & Araujo
(2005) inventoried the amphibian diversity of the Xingu
and Curuá-Una Rivers, Frota et al. (2005) conducted a
review of snake species in western Pará, Mesquita et al.
(2006) studied an assembly of lizards from Monte Ale-
gre, in the northwestern region of the State, and Mendes-
Pinto & Tello (2010) studied the squamate fauna in a
transition area between savannah and forest in Santarém.
Being one of the herpetofaunistically lesser-known
Amazon regions, the forests of the southwestern parts of
the state of Pará have been under intense human pres-
sures, largely due to the construction of federal highway
BR-163 (Santarém-Cuiabá) (Fearnside 2007). Aiming
to ill this gap, we present the results of a herpetofau-
nal inventory conducted at Floresta Nacional do Trairão
(FLONA do Trairão), located in the municipality of Trai-
rão, southwestern Pará, adjacent to BR-163. his study is
part of the results obtained during the preparation of the
management plan of FLONA do Trairão, required by the
Brazilian government environmental agency “Instituto
Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade” (IC-
MBio).