Herpetofauna of the Cerro El Potosi Natural Protected Area of Nuevo Leon, Mexico: Status of the Ecological and Altitudinal Distribution

Cerro El Potosi is a Natural Protected Area under State jurisdiction and it is one of the highest peaks of the Sierra Madre Oriental. It is an interesting area as its flora and fauna are distributed along a 2000–3750 m altitudinal gradient. The purpose of this study was to conduct an inventory of the herpetofauna and to describe its distribution in relation to plant communities and altitude. In addition, we address the risk of extirpation of some of the species. Twenty-five field trips of three to four days each were made between October 2006 and October 2008. A total of 268 individuals of amphibians and reptiles were observed. The sampled plant communities and number of herpetofaunal species found were: farming areas, eight species; submontane scrubland, four; chaparral, five; Quercus spp, six; Pinus pseudostrobus, eight; Pinus ayacahuite-, five; Pseudotsuga menziesii, five; Pinus hartwegii, five; Pinus strobiformis, two; Pinus culminicola, five; and catastrophic fire deforestation areas, three. According to the literature, 41 species are known from the area, while only 16 taxa were found during this study. The non-parametric estimators for species diversity indicated that the number of species tend to rise as sampling increases; the curve has not reached totality. Its asymptote represents 84.21% of herpetofauna for the mountain.