Diversidad de Herpetofauna asociada a tres diferentes coberturas vegetales del piedemonte llanero en la Vereda Miravalles. Municipio del Castillo, Meta. Colombia.

Abstract

Colombia is a country that has lived under armed conflict for more than 50 years, therefore, there was no access to different regions for this period of time, because these lands were used by armed groups outside the law, after the peace agreement different regions became accessible to the Colombian population, which allows different studies in these areas little explored, giving the possibility of finding the presence of endemic or even new species, and to know the diversity of wildlife, as in this case, the diversity of species of amphibians and reptiles. This is why in this research work, the diversity of species of amphibians and reptiles was estimated in three different vegetation covers in the Miravalles village of the municipality of Castillo, Meta, covering different time windows, from November 2022 to May 2023, and this allowed us to recognize how the spatio-temporal factors influence the diversity of these species. It was found that the species richness of amphibians and reptiles varies considerably between coverages, observing a greater diversity of amphibians in the clean pastures of livestock and the greatest diversity of reptiles in the flooded grasslands of the village. It is reiterated that the plains foothills are home to a great variety of wildlife species, which highlights the importance of conserving this territory in order to preserve biological diversity. The Miravalles village is home to a great variety of fauna species, including endemic and endangered species. Knowledge of this is fundamental for the development of strategies for conservation and sustainable management of natural resources, as well as for the design of public policies and actions that benefit the community and the environment.