Table 5.3. Faunal similarity at the species level between the Monteverde area and
two other localities, La Selva in the Caribbean lowlands of Costa Rica and Sierra de
las Minas in the highlands of Guatemala.
Area under ComparisonLa Selva Sierra de las Minas
Taxon AT PS AT PS
Amphibians
Caecilians (N = 2}
Salamanders (N = 5)
Anurans (N = 53)
Total (N = 60)
Reptiles
Lizards (N = 29)
Snakes (N = 72)
Total (N= 101)
Amphibians and reptiles (N = 161)1
3
44
4825
56
81
129 a1
0
23
2415
43
58
82—
—
0.474
0.4440.555
0.672
0.637
0.5661
8
26
3523
51
74
1090
0
3
310
23
33
36—
—
0.076
0.0630.358
0.374
0.377
0.267
PS (proportional similarity) = 2CI(N + AT), where Nis the number of species at Monteverde. AT is the number at
the locality being compared, and Cis the number in common. Data for La Selva are from Donnelly (1994) and
Guyer (1994). Those for Sierra de las Minas are from Campbell (1982). For the latter area, only species occurring
at or above 550 m elevation are included. PS is not calculated for caecilians and salamanders because of the
small sample sizes.
Turtles and crocodilians, present only in the La Selva sample, are omitted from the analysis.biition. Amphibians might be comparatively tolerant
of cool climates and thus apt to colonize highland
areas, and may be prone to speciation in these areas
because of limited dispersal abilities.
The high proportion of upland endemics among
the frogs, toads, and salamanders of Monteverde im-
plies that the area's amphibians are generally more
vulnerable to regional or global extinction than are its
reptiles. The percentage of anuran species missing
during 1990-94 was not significantly greater for up-
land endemics than it was for nonendemics (53% vs.
33%; P= .150; Appendix 8). Of the 20 missing spe-
cies, however, the nine upland endemics are less
Table 5.4. Numbers of upland endemics among
the species of amphibians and reptiles in the
Monteverde area.Number
of Percentage
Taxon Endemics of N
Amphibians
Caecilians (N = 2)
Salamanders (N = 5)
Anurans (N = 53)
Total (AT = 60)
Reptiles
Lizards (N = 29)
Snakes (N = 72)
Total (N= 101)
Amphibians and reptiles (N = 161)0
5
19
244
10
14
380
100.0
35.8
40.013.8
13.9
13.9
23.6
"Upland endemics" are species restricted to the uplands of Costa Rica
and western Panama (see Appendix 8).likely to recolonize than are the remaining 11 species.
The latter have potential source populations in nearby
lowland areas, where there is little evidence of de-
clines beyond those attributable to habitat loss.
Opportunities for recolonization also vary among
upland species. At one extreme is the Golden Toad.
Because it is known only from ridgetops in the
Monteverde area, its prospects are nil, unless un-
known populations exist in inaccessible, outlying
areas (Pounds and Fogden 1996). The Pin-striped
Treefrog and the Green-eyed Frog are likewise re-
stricted to high elevations but have larger geographic
ranges. The former is endemic to the Cordillera de
Tilaran and Cordillera Central of Costa Rica (Savage
and Heyer 1969); the latter ranges to western Panama
(Zweifel 1964). The conservation status of these spe-
cies is unknown. In contrast to the high-elevation
forms, some upland endemics have relatively broad
altitudinal ranges (Appendix 8). The Tilaran Rain
Frog, for example, is restricted to the Cordilleras de
Tilaran and Central (Savage 1975) but extends into the
foothills on both slopes. The likelihood of recovery
for this and similarly distributed species depends in
part on their distributional limits relative to the lower
altitudinal cutoff of the declines, a subject that needs
further study.5.4. Population EcologyWe know lamentably little about natural rates of re-
production and mortality in Monteverde's amphib-157 Amphibians and Reptilesc c