Ring-necked snake. Photo by Chris Lohrengel, 11/3/2008, Leslie Canyon NWR, Cochise County AZ.

Side-blotched lizard. Photo by Chris Lohrengel, 7/28/2008, San Bernardino NWR, Cochise County, AZ

Black-necked garter snake. Photo by Chris Lohrengel, 7/2007, Leslie Canyon NWR.

Great plains skink. Photo by Chris Lohrengel, 9/2006/ Leslie Canyon NWR.

This completes the ninth year that San Bernardino NWR staff have been conducting herpetological monitoring on Leslie Canyon NWR.  The information gathered from this monitoring allows refuge staff to better understand ecological trends, investigate population dynamics and the roles of rare species, and helps justify resource management decisions.  While the emphasis of this monitoring is on terrestrial reptiles and amphibians, information is also gathered from the incidental captures of other organisms.  This year there were 441 captures, composed of twenty-one reptile and amphibian species and eight mammal species.  This number is lower than last years total captures of 841, but is still the second most captures for this study.  The interesting item to note about this year’s capture is that there were very few mammals captured this year compared to year’s past.  Of the 441 captures only thirty-two (7%) were mammals, compared to last year when there were 434 (52%) mammals captured.