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Herpetofaunal diversity and sampling efficacy in the Upper Guinean rainforest: a baseline survey from the Dugbe region, Liberia

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  • Ryan van Huyssteen,
  • Dr Melissa Petford,
  • Marius Burger,
  • MARK-OLIVER RÖDEL,
  • Trokon Superior Grimes,
  • Dr Jerome Gaugris
Ryan van Huyssteen
FLORA FAUNA & MAN, Ecological Services Ltd
Dr Melissa Petford
FLORA FAUNA & MAN, Ecological Services Ltd.
Marius Burger
FLORA FAUNA & MAN, Ecological Services Ltd.
Trokon Superior Grimes
Forestry Development Authority
Dr Jerome Gaugris
FLORA FAUNA & MAN, Ecological Services Ltd
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/a_h-18279

Published 2026-01-17

Keywords

  • Reptiles,
  • Amphians,
  • West Africa,
  • Field Survey,
  • Herpetology,
  • Tropical Forest Ecology
    • ...More
    Less

How to Cite

van Huyssteen, R., Petford, M., Burger, M., RÖDEL, M.-O., Grimes, T. S., & Gaugris, J. (2026). Herpetofaunal diversity and sampling efficacy in the Upper Guinean rainforest: a baseline survey from the Dugbe region, Liberia. Acta Herpetologica. https://doi.org/10.36253/a_h-18279

Copyright (c) 2026 Ryan van Huyssteen, Dr Melissa Petford, Marius Burger, Trokon Superior Grimes, Dr Jerome Gaugris

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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Abstract

The upper Guinean rainforest biome is a poorly studied, yet hyper-biodiverse region facing severe fragmentation due to ongoing habitat transformation. We conducted a herpetological baseline survey in the Dugbe region during 2021 using passive trapping and active searching. Our survey resulted in 1140 herpetofauna observations, representing 72 taxa (39 amphibians and 33 reptiles), with active searching yielding 50% of the total diversity. Nearly half (47.2%) of the documented species are West African endemics. Rarefaction/extrapolation sampling curves indicated incomplete overall sampling of herpetofauna diversity, though amphibian sampling completeness was high. Reptile diversity metrics revealed significant sampling deficiencies, largely explained by the high proportion of singleton observations (60.6% of reptile records). When compared to the IUCN predictive distribution maps, our survey documented 58.5% of the 123 species predicted for the region, with moderate overall Jaccard similarity (47.73%). Taxonomic groups showed varied patterns of congruence: amphibians displayed relatively high Jaccard similarity (55.18%), while reptiles showed lower similarity (40.26%). Notably, our survey documented substantially higher herpetofauna species richness than benchmark surveys from nearby areas, particularly for reptiles (33 species compared to 14 and 5 species in Krahn-Bassa Proposed Protected Area and Grebo National Forest surveys, respectively). Three amphibian species could not be identified to species level using morphological characteristics alone, highlighting the need for further taxonomic research on West African herpetofauna.

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