Preliminary inventory of the anuran fauna of the Mata Estrela Private Natural Heritage Reserve, in the Atlantic Forest of the State of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil

Abstract

Tropical regions harbor the highest amphibian biodiversity, nevertheless, information on species composition is lacking in most areas yet these baseline data are essential to guide conservation strategies. The goal of the present study was to survey the anurans of a Private Natural Heritage Reserve named Mata Estrela, a fragment of about 26 km2 in the Northern Atlantic Forest, Brazil. The study was carried out as an active census in June 2015. We found 27 anuran species assigned to five families: Bufonidae (2 spp.), Craugastoridae (1 sp.), Hylidae (11 spp.), Leptodactylidae (12 spp.) and Phyllomedusidae (1 sp.). All species are widespread in the Atlantic forest as well as in other South American ecoregions. Descriptions of local diversity such as this one are a fundamental baseline for conservation work and are especially needed in the northern limits of the Atlantic forest, for which there is still a huge lack of biological knowledge.