As part of the National Park Service Inventory and
Monitoring Program in the Mojave Network, we conducted an
inventory of amphibians and reptiles at Death Valley National
Park in 2002-04. Objectives for this inventory were to: 1)
Inventory and document the occurrence of reptile and amphibian
species occurring at DEVA, primarily within priority
sampling areas, with the goal of documenting at least 90%
of the species present; 2) document (through collection or
museum specimen and literature review) one voucher specimen
for each species identified; 3) provide a GIS-referenced
list of sensitive species that are federally or state listed, rare,
or worthy of special consideration that occur within priority
sampling locations; 4) describe park-wide distribution of
federally- or state-listed, rare, or special concern species; 5)
enter all species data into the National Park Service NPSpecies
database; and 6) provide all deliverables as outlined in the
Mojave Network Biological Inventory Study Plan. Methods
included daytime and nighttime visual encounter surveys, road
driving, and pitfall trapping. Survey effort was concentrated
in predetermined priority sampling areas, as well as in areas
with a high potential for detecting undocumented species. We
recorded 37 species during our surveys, including two species
new to the park. During literature review and museum specimen
database searches, we recorded three additional species
from DEVA, elevating the documented species list to 40 (four
amphibians and 36 reptiles). Based on our surveys, as well
as literature and museum specimen review, we estimate an
overall inventory completeness of 92% for Death Valley and
an inventory completeness of 73% for amphibians and 95%
for reptiles.
Key Words: Amphibians, reptiles, Death Valley National
Park, Inyo County, San Bernardino County, Esmeralda
County, Nye County, California, Nevada, Mojave Desert,
Great Basin Desert, inventory, NPSpecies.
