Reptilia, Murray catchment, New South Wales, south-eastern Australia

Abstract

Two large-scale, long-term biodiversity monitoring programs examining vertebrate responses to habitat fragmentation and landscape change in agricultural landscapes are taking place in the Murray Catchment Management Area of New South Wales, south-eastern Australia. Field surveys involve counting reptiles under a range of management conditions and across a broad range of vegetation types in two bioregions, the South-western Slopes of New South Wales and the Riverina. We list reptiles recorded during surveys conducted between 2002 and 2009. We include additional species recorded between 1997 and 2009 from a conservation reserve. Thirty-nine species from nine families were recorded. The list will be useful for workers interested in reptile zoogeographical distributions and habitat associations as well as those interested in the biodiversity value of remnant vegetation and tree plantings in fragmented agricultural landscapes.