A survey of reptiles and amphibians on Kinmen Island, Taiwan

Little is known about the reptiles and amphibians of Kinmen Island, Taiwan. Until recently, Kinmen had been off-limits to outsiders. It wasn’t until the mid 1990’s that civilian travel was allowed to and from the island. We surveyed 8 sites from 19 May through 18 July 2005, using 15 m drift fences with collapsible funnel traps on the ends. We documented encounters with animals outside the traps and observed 258 individuals of 7 species during our survey. The herpetofauna encountered consisted of two anuran, two lizard, and three snake species. The two anuran species made up over 97% of the individuals captured in traps. Reptiles were encountered or captured less frequently. Since we sampled a limited number of sites, our study serves as a basis upon which future reptile and amphibian inventory studies, conducted on Kinmen, could be based. A more thorough inventory is needed to fully understand the natural history of herpetofauna on the island