Assessment of the conservation status of amphibians in Chile

At present, amphibians are one of the groups with the most from conservation problems. The decline that is taking place in numerous amphibian populations around the world has led herpetologists to recognize the urgency of studying topics related to the biology and conservation status of this group. In Chile, numerous proposals exist to categorize the conservation status of flora as well as fauna at both national and regional levels. However, most of these works have used qualitative analysis. Because quantifiable data is not available, proposals of conservation status are based on field observations and researcher experience. The application of a more quantifiable method is necessary in the categorization of amphibians in order to detect and recognize the factors that could have an impact on the decrease of amphibian populations. The present work gathers the information available for the diverse taxa of Chilean amphibians and evaluates the conservation status of this fauna by means of the Addition Index (SUMIN), elaborated by Reca et al. (1994) and the proposal for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN 2001). Results of the application of these methodologies are compared with the previous evaluations.