Presenter Information

Sophia JanidloFollow
Megan MechFollow

Major

Biology

Anticipated Graduation Year

2022

Access Type

Open Access

Abstract

From March 4, 2022, until March 11, 2022, we traveled to Southeastern Peru with intentions to survey species of reptiles and amphibians, or herptiles, within the Neotropics. We had two goals for our trip: to compare reptile and amphibian densities near and away from human activity, and to contribute to citizen science by adding our collected data to the iNaturalist online database.

Amphibians are cause for much concern amongst environmentalists due to their drastically declining numbers since the 1980s. It was determined that both habitat loss and human densities pose high risks to global amphibian populations (Sodhi et al. 2008). We expect to observe more herptiles in areas without solitary human presence and to observe higher levels of species diversity in these areas. We predict this knowing that wildlife in this area is subject to greater human presence, including tourists walking the trails around the resort multiple times a week, human voices around the lodging, and noises from incoming and outgoing boats.

Our aim is to provide evidence that supports the existence of the Anthropocene mass extinction event (Pievani et al. 2014), showing the detrimental effects human activities pose to wild populations, especially in the neotropics.

Faculty Mentors & Instructors

Father Stephen Mitten, School of Environmental Sustainability

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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Assessing the effects of human presence on reptile and amphibian population density in Southeastern Peru

From March 4, 2022, until March 11, 2022, we traveled to Southeastern Peru with intentions to survey species of reptiles and amphibians, or herptiles, within the Neotropics. We had two goals for our trip: to compare reptile and amphibian densities near and away from human activity, and to contribute to citizen science by adding our collected data to the iNaturalist online database.

Amphibians are cause for much concern amongst environmentalists due to their drastically declining numbers since the 1980s. It was determined that both habitat loss and human densities pose high risks to global amphibian populations (Sodhi et al. 2008). We expect to observe more herptiles in areas without solitary human presence and to observe higher levels of species diversity in these areas. We predict this knowing that wildlife in this area is subject to greater human presence, including tourists walking the trails around the resort multiple times a week, human voices around the lodging, and noises from incoming and outgoing boats.

Our aim is to provide evidence that supports the existence of the Anthropocene mass extinction event (Pievani et al. 2014), showing the detrimental effects human activities pose to wild populations, especially in the neotropics.