Patterns of range contractions and extinctions in the New Zealand herpetofauna following human colonisation

摘要: Abstract Evidence from subfossils and present distributions confirming range contractions extinctions of New Zealand amphibians reptiles is consistent with that landbirds, in which 40% the fauna, including largest species, has become extinct 1000 years since human arrival. The extant species all higher taxa herpetofauna—leiopelmatid frogs, tuatara, skinks, geckos—are on mainland; 41 % fauna (27 65 species) survive largely or entirely rat‐free offshore islands; many are now restricted to a few isolated locations, remnants once wider distributions, pattern called “secondary endem‐ism”. Habitat alterations occasional predation may have contributed contractions, but primary factor almost certainly introduced mammals, especially rats. At least three lines evidence support this view: (1) diversities population densities both far rat‐...