Check List 18(2): 289-321, doi: 10.15560/18.2.289
An updated herpetofaunal species inventory of Iona National Park in southwestern Angola
expand article infoJavier Lobón-Rovira‡, Pedro Vaz Pinto§, François S. Becker|, Krystal A. Tolley, John Measey#, Bruce Bennet¤, Bastiaan Boon¤, Sango de Sá«, Werner Conradie»˄
‡ CIBIO-InBio, Vairao, Portugal§ CIBIO/InBio, Porto, Portugal| National Museum of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia¶ South African National Biodiversity Institute Kirstenbosch Research Centre, Cape Town, South Africa# Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa¤ African Parks, Johannesburg, South Africa« INBC – Instituto Nacional da Biodiversidade e Conservação, Luanda, Angola» Port Elizabeth Museum (Bayworld), Port Elizabeth, South Africa˄ Nelson Mandela University, George, South Africa

Corresponding author: Javier Lobón-Rovira ( j.lobon.rovira@cibio.up.pt )

Academic editor: Ross MacCulloch
© Javier Lobón-Rovira, Pedro Vaz Pinto, François S. Becker, Krystal A. Tolley, John Measey, Bruce Bennet, Bastiaan Boon, Sango de Sá, Werner Conradie.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation: Lobón-Rovira J, Vaz Pinto P, S. Becker F, Tolley KA, Measey J, Bennet B, Boon B, de Sá S, Conradie W (2022) An updated herpetofaunal species inventory of Iona National Park in southwestern Angola. Check List 18(2): 289-321. https://doi.org/10.15560/18.2.289
Open Access
Abstract

Angola has experienced an incredible increase of the knowledge of its herpetofauna over the past decade. However, accurate biodiversity inventories remain deficient for certain regions of particular conservation interest. We therefore provide an updated checklist of Iona National Park’s herpetofauna, with 75 recorded species, including five amphibians and 70 reptiles, 40 of these recorded for the first time in Iona National Park. These species comprise ~80% of the reptile diversity of Namibe Province. Therefore, this work recognises Iona National Park as the most reptile-diverse protected area in Angola and is potentially one of the richest in southern Africa. Consequently, this work enhances the importance of specific conservation plans in the area and the need for further investigation into the hidden biodiversity of this region.

Keywords
Amphibians, biodiversity, checklist, conservation, molecular, reptiles