Amphibians and Reptiles of Bolivia

Beginning in 1998, the CBC has conducted surveys of amphibians (frogs, salamanders, and caecilians), and reptiles (snakes, lizards, turtles, and crocodiles) to support conservation strategies in Bolivia.

This geographically and biologically complex country includes a rich diversity of ecosystems from glacial ice fields to rainforests to grasslands. Having set aside ten percent of its land for conservation protection, Bolivian resource managers and planners required detailed surveys of critical habitats within these vast, diverse areas to provide them with baseline data for management and monitoring.

To assist with this task, the CBC initiated the Conservación de la Biodiversidad para un Manejo Integrado (COBIMI), or Biodiversity Conservation through Integrated Management. Together with partners the project mapped biological diversity and its distribution, zones for resource use, monitored impacts from agriculture and resource extraction, and developed outreach programs to encourage broad participation in conservation.

CBC researchers contributed directly to these aims by surveying for amphibians and reptiles along the Amboró-Madidi corridor of the Bolivian Andes — a biodiversity hotspot highlighted for immediate conservation action. The surveys included collecting, and identifying specimens in the field, and working with Bolivian counterparts to develop teaching and research collections, and housing voucher and tissue specimens for study.

Data from this primary research has been used to update our knowledge of natural history of this fauna, including describing new taxa.

Additional resources:

• De la Riva, I., J. Aparicio, and J.N. Ríos. 2005. New Species of Telmatobius (Anura: Leptodactylidae) from Humid Paramo of Peru and Bolivia. Journal of Herpetology 39: 409-416.
• Faivovich, J., C.F.B. Haddad, P.C.A. Garcia, D.R. Frost, J.A. Campbell, and W.C. Wheeler. 2005. Systematic review of the frog family Hylidae, with special reference to Hylinae: Phylogenetic analysis and taxonomic revision. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 294: 1-240.
• Frost, D. R., T. Grant, J. Faivovich, R. H. Bain, A. Haas, C. F. B. Haddad, R. O. de Sa, A. Channing, M. Wilkinson, S. C. Donnellan, C. J. Raxworthy, J. A. Campbell, B. L. Blotto, P. Moler, R. C. Drewes, R. A. Nussbaum, J. D. Lynch, D. M. Green, and W. C. Wheeler. 2006. The amphibian tree of life. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 297:1-370.
• Lötters, S., S. Reichle, J. Faivovich, and R.H. Bain, 2005. The stream-dwelling tadpole of Hyloscirtus charazani (Anura: Hylidae) from Andean Bolivia. Studies on Neotropical Fauna and Development. 40(3):181-185. PDF
• De La Riva, Ignacio. 2007. Bolivian frogs of the genus Phrynopus, with the description of twelve new species (Anura: Brachycephalidae). Herpetological Monographs. 21: 241-277.