Herpetological Conservation and Biology 5(3):529–536. Herpetological Conservation and Biology Symposium at the 6 th World Congress of Herpetology. 529 AN OVERVIEW AND CHECKLIST OF THE NATIVE AND ALIEN HERPETOFAUNA OF THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES PRITPAL S. SOORAE 1 , MYYAS AL QUARQAZ 1 , AND ANDREW S. GARDNER 2 1 Environment Agency-ABU DHABI, P.O. Box 45553, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, e-mail: psoorae@ead.ae 2 Natural Science and Public Health, College of Arts and Sciences, Zayed University, P.O. Box 4783, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates Abstract.—This paper provides an updated checklist of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) native and alien herpetofauna. The UAE, while largely a desert country with a hyper-arid climate, also has a range of more mesic habitats such as islands, mountains, and wadis. As such it has a diverse native herpetofauna of at least 72 species as follows: two amphibian species (Bufonidae), five marine turtle species (Cheloniidae [four] and Dermochelyidae [one]), 42 lizard species (Agamidae [six], Gekkonidae [19], Lacertidae [10], Scincidae [six], and Varanidae [one]), a single amphisbaenian, and 22 snake species (Leptotyphlopidae [one], Boidae [one], Colubridae [seven], Hydrophiidae [nine], and Viperidae [four]). Additionally, we recorded at least eight alien species, although only the Brahminy Blind Snake (Ramphotyplops braminus) appears to have become naturalized. We also list legislation and international conventions pertinent to the herpetofauna. Key Words.— amphibians; checklist; invasive; reptiles; United Arab Emirates INTRODUCTION The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a federation of seven emirates (Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah, and Fujairah), which cover an area of approximately 89,000 km 2 , including the offshore islands. The country is in the eastern part of the Arabian Peninsula, and is bordered to the west and south by Saudi Arabia, Oman to the east and the Arabian Gulf to the north. Much of the UAE is classified as having a hyper-arid climate (Middleton and Thomas 1997; Bottomlay and Al Mualla 2008). However, the country also has a range of more mesic habitats such as islands, mountains, and wadis. As such, it has a diverse native herpetofauna. There have been various attempts at listing the reptile and amphibian species of the UAE. Hornby (1996) developed a checklist with 67 species of reptiles and amphibians, covering both terrestrial and marine species. Thirty-three terrestrial reptile species were recorded in Abu Dhabi Emirate during a 1991– 1992 survey (Baha El Din 1996). Gardner (2005, 2008) listed 54 terrestrial reptiles in the UAE. Baldwin and Gardner (2005) also list four marine turtle species (including one possible vagrant) and nine sea-snake species. Cunningham and Feulner (2001) also list two amphibian species. In this paper, we list 72 terrestrial and marine species. Additionally, eight alien species have been recorded, but which fortunately have not yet established viable populations. We derived this checklist from a literature review, survey reports held in the archives of the Environment Agency-ABU DHABI, and data collected by the authors. While this paper is not intended to be a comprehensive review of the literature on the herpetofauna of the UAE, we consulted the major works covering Arabian reptiles and amphibians (Arnold 1984, 1986; Balletto et al. 1985; Gasperetti 1988; Leviton et al. 1992; Gasperetti et al. 1993; Egan 2007). More comprehensive reviews of the herpetological literature specific to the UAE were provided by Gardner (2005, 2008). LEGISLATION AND INTERNATIONAL CONVENTIONS We present the following main national legislation, species global status, and international conventions pertinent to the UAE herpetofauna and list the species under each convention in Table 1. National.—The UAE has a Federal Law 11 (2006) that superseded Federal Law 24 (1999), which prevents the capture, hunting, and taking from the wild animals covered in its three main appendices. IUCN Red List.—The 2010 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species covers some UAE species in the Least Concern, Endangered, and Critically Endangered categories. CITES & CMS.—The UAE is a signatory to the CITES Convention (1990) and has some agreements on the Convention on Migratory Species. AMPHIBIANS AND REPTILES OF THE UAE Amphibians.—There are only two species of amphibians found in the UAE and both are toad species. These species are the Arabian Toad (Duttaphrynus arabicus [formerly in Bufo see Van Bocxlaer et al. 2009]) and Dhofar Toad (Duttaphrynus dhufarensis [formerly in Bufo see Van Bocxlaer et al. 2009]; Fig. 1). The distribution of these species is mainly limited to the northern emirates of the UAE,