MARQUES ET AL.; AMPHIBIANS AND TERRESTRIAL REPTILES OF ANGOLA 
II 
were eompiled and reviewed and are presented here. These data provide a starting point and 
overview of the current knowledge on the Angolan herpetofauna. The present work compiles all 
available published data regarding the diversity and distribution of the Angolan herpetofauna, span¬ 
ning more than 150 years of herpetological research in the country. It also highlights taxonomic 
and distributional issues relating to particular taxa, thus suggesting avenues for future research. We 
deliberately chose to focus solely on bibliographic records, not including the compiled museum 
records, as the latter will require further detailed reviews and descriptions that fall out of the scope 
of this publication. We anticipate that the current phase of active herpetological research by sever¬ 
al groups will facilitate the eventual production of a comprehensive atlas, along the lines of that 
recently completed for South Africa, Swaziland and Lesotho (Bates et al. 2014). However, this is 
not yet feasible and we offer the current work as a tool for future work in both taxonomy and con¬ 
servation. 
The Angolan Landscape 
Political and administrative borders oe Angola.— Mainland Angola is limited by the 
Atlantic Ocean on the west, by the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the north and northeast, 
by Zambia in the east, and by Namibia in the south (Fig. 1). The Cabinda enclave, a province of 
Angola, is separated from mainland Angola by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which it 
borders to the south and east. It is bordered by the Republic of the Congo in the north and the 
Atlantic Ocean in the west. Once part of Portugal (also known as Portuguese West Africa), from 
which it became independent in 1975, the current borders of mainland Angola were originally 
defined in the Berlin West African Conference in 1884-1885 and in a few subsequent agreements 
Figure 1. Map of Angola, showing the provinces and major towns and position of Angola on the African continent. 
