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Abstract: Fourteen species of reptiles (two turtles, five geckos, six skinks, one monitor lizard) are recorded in the first herpetological survey of Sorol Atoll, Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). Most of the species are widespread in the western Pacific and often well beyond. Emoia boettgeri is endemic to the Caroline and Marshall Islands and is at the western limits of its range on Sorol Atoll, and E. atrocostata, which is widely distributed in Indo-Australia and the western Pacific, is near the eastern edge of its range in the Caroline Islands on Sorol. Emoia caeruleocauda and E. impar are the most common lizards on the islands where they were recorded, and Lepidodactylus moestus was the most widely encountered, being recorded on four of the six islands. An abundance of turtle tracks on the beaches of nearly all the islands suggests that Sorol Atoll is an important sea turtle nesting site in the FSM. The monitor lizard, Varanus indicus, frequently feeds on turtle eggs on Sorol Island, where it was introduced during the Japanese administration, but it has not spread to the other islands on the atoll.
Sorol Atoll is one of many remote, difficult to reach, seldom visited, and biologically poorly known groups of islands in the western Pacific. I visited Sorol Atoll during 27 June- 19 July 2011 to assess the distribution and abundance of reptiles, birds (Buden 2012a), coconut crabs (Buden 2012b), butterflies, and dragonflies (odonates). Here I report on the first herpetological survey of Sorol Atoll, which is based largely on my observations and the specimens I collected.
Study Area
Sorol Atoll (8° 08' N, 140° 25' E) is part of Yap State, Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), and is located in the western Caroline Islands in the western Pacific Ocean (Figure 1A). It is 280 km southeast of Yap proper and 180 km south of Fais Island, the nearest land. The atoll is approximately 12.0 km long and 3.0 km wide, with six low (2-3 m high) coralline islands distributed along the northern perimeter (Figure 1B). A few small unvegetated sand cays are located between some of the main islands. The total land area is 0.93 km2, and Sorol Island (~0.5 km2) is the largest island (Bryan 1971). The vegetation of...