Inventory of the reptiles of the War in the Pacific National Historic Park, Guam
Rodda GH and Dean-Bradley K. 2008. Inventory of the reptiles of the War in the Pacific National Historic Park, Guam. National Park Service, War in the Pacific National Historic Park. Fort Collins, Colorado
In Feb.-Apr. 2001 we intensively sampled the reptiles of the mainland portions of War in the Pacific National Historic Park (WAPA). Snake populations were sampled using a mark-recapture technique to estimate population size. Two trapping grids, each four ha, were placed in the Opop section of the Asan unit. Snakes were captured, marked, released, and recaptured for 33 days. Lizards in selected units were sampled using a total removal methodology. Three samples were collected in each of two types of habitat: grassland and tangantangan forest. Concurrently, we sampled the lizards of the same habitat types using adhesive trapping. In addition, we conducted eleven spot adhesive-trapping samples of park units not otherwise sampled. Only common species were found. Brown Treesnakes were found at low to moderate densities (7-20/ha compared to our Guam average of 29/ha). The lizard spot samples and removals indicated that several species, although fairly dense, do not generally attain densities in the sampled areas as high as in comparable tangantangan habitat elsewhere on Guam. For example, the Pacific Blue-tailed Skink (Emoia caeruleocauda) averaged 1933/ha and the Curious Skink (Carlia fusca) averaged 1800/ha compared to the Guam average of 2400/ha and 6000/ha respectively for tangantangan forest. Overall, about half of all lizard individuals were skinks; the remainder were geckos. Compared to the tangantangan habitat of WAPA, the total density of grassland lizards was less than half, with the gecko fraction accounting for most of the difference. In addition to quantifying the lizard fauna of WAPA in unprecedented detail, and providing data on the impact of the Brown Treesnake on Guam lizards, the data obtained from this work will be utilized for comparisons with tropical lizard assemblages throughout the world, for detailed evaluation of the role of forest structure in the habitat requirements of lizards, and for validating other techniques which may be used for sampling lizards. Representative analyses along these lines are presented.
- Type
- Unpublished Report
- Authors
- Rodda, Gordon; Dean-Bradley, Kathy
- Date of Issue
- 2008-07-06
- Publisher
- National Park Service, War in the Pacific National Historic Park
- Units
- WAPA
- Keywords
- Abundance, Abundance (Biodiversity), Amphibians, Animal Studies, Distribution, Distribution (Biodiversity), Guam, Observations, Presence (Biodiversity), Reptiles