El Parque Estatal Cerro de la Tortuga como reservorio de la herpetofauna en la región centro-sur del estado de Morelos

Abstract

The Cerro de la Tortuga State Park as a herpetofauna reservoir in the central region of Morelos The Cerro de la Tortuga State Park (PECT) in the south-central region of the state of Morelos in Mexico is an important reservoir of amphibian and reptile diversity. The objective of this study is to update the inventory of amphibians and reptiles and to determine the composition, species richness, species-area relationship and similarity of the herpetofauna between reserves with different types of administration. The herpetofauna within the PECT was composed of 28 species, equivalent to 20 % of the herpetofauna of Morelos and 1.97 % of the herpetofauna of Mexico. The Squamata order was the best represented group, with 17 species (60.71 %), followed by Anura with 10 species (35.71 %) and Testudines with 1 species (3.57 %). The agreement with the analysis of the species/area relationship, REBIOSH (3 spp.) and PECT (1 spp.) harbor a greater number of species than expected with respect to CBCH (3 spp.), which harbors a lower number. of species than expected. The similarity of the herpetofaunistic composition of the PECT result is greater between the RESM (50 %) and the REBIOSH (34 %), compared to the CBCH (12 %). Our results indicate that the PECT acts as an important reservoir for the herpetofauna of the south-central region of Morelos, which could structurally be part of the so-called conservation archipelagos. However, in addition to evidence of composition and similarity between reserves, we suggest developers consider habitat quality for corridor identifiers and genetic studies that demonstrate gene flow for species shared between reserves.