Introduction 



The mountains of eastern Cuba mountains are the main center of floristic and faunistic diversity 

 and have the highest endemism on the island. Considering only the vertebrates, these mountains 

 harbor 71% of Cuba's species and 30% of its endemic species (Fong, 1994). Specifically, the 

 Sagua-Baracoa Mountains contain, together with Sierra Maestra, the most endemic amphibians and 

 reptiles and the greatest number of species. Fifty-three percent of Cuban amphibians and 45.6% of 

 Cuban reptiles occur in Sagua-Baracoa. Although these mountains comprise less than a fourth of 

 the Cuban territory, they have half of the Cuban herpetofauna. 



The high endemism (93.1% in amphibians and 74.2% in reptiles), along with 40% of the 

 species being typical of Sagua-Baracoa, contribute to the national and global importance of this 

 area. For this reason, we prepared the following checklist. It includes all species of amphibians and 

 reptiles of Sagua-Baracoa described through June 2000. The list also summarizes the endemism 

 and distribution of the S-B herpetofauna. Despite the currency of this report, it is not conclusive 

 because new species continue to be described. We agree with the statement of Schwartz and 

 Henderson (1991): "we hope that new species are discovered and described for many years to 

 come". 



The compilation of this checklist is based on the author's field work and observations 

 throughout the eastern Cuba, as well as data from the Cuban herpetological collections of the 

 Institute de Ecologia y Sistematica, Museo Nacional de Historia Natural, Museo de Historia Natural 

 of Holgum, and Centro Oriental de Ecosistemas y Biodiversidad (BIOECO) of Santiago de Cuba. 

 We also used the herpetological database created for a previous work (Fong, 1994), in which all 

 literature about Eastern Cuban vertebrates through 1993 was reviewed. In addition to that literature 

 we include new species descriptions from 1994 onward. 



We define the Sagua-Baracoa Mountains (following Nunez et al., 1989) as consisting of the 

 Sierra de Nipe (SN), Alturas del Segundo Frente (SF), Sierra del Cristal (SC), Sierra de Sagua de 

 Tanamo (ST), Gran Meseta de Guantanamo (MG), Cuchillas de Toa (CT), Alturas de Moa (AM), 

 Cuchillas y Mesas de Baracoa-Imfas (CB), Gran Meseta Carsica de Baracoa (MB), Mesas Costeras 

 Aterrazadas de Guantanamo-Cajobabo (TG) and Llanura Costera Yaguaneque-Baracoa (LC). For a 

 detailed map of the Sagua-Baracoa region see Nunez et al. (1989). 



Abbreviations are as follow: En = Endemism, E = Cuban endemic, R = Regional Cuban 

 endemic (known only from Sagua-Baracoa), L = Local Cuban endemic (known only from isolated 

 localities in Sagua-Baracoa), - = No endemic species, I = Introduced species. 



