COMPARISONS OF THE LEAF LITTER HERPETOFAUNA IN ABANDONED CACAO PLANTATIONS AND PRIMARY RAIN-FOREST IN COSTA-RICA - SOME IMPLICATIONS FOR FAUNAL RESTORATION

Comparisons among three forest stands at the La Selva Biological Station, Costa Rica were made of biomass, abundance, richness, relative abundance, evenness and species overlap of herpetofauna collected in leaf litter plots. The forest stands were primary forest and two different cacao plantations abandoned at five and twenty-five years in the past. Abundance and biomass of herpetofauna were greater in more recently disturbed sites, but evenness, richness, and diversity were greater in less recently disturbed sites. The more recently disturbed sites also had deeper leaf litter, which may influence prey availability, and higher percent canopy open, which may lead to extremes in temperature and moisture availability, compared to undisturbed primary forest. The results imply that herpetofaunal restoration is a relatively slow process, and that the presence of primary forest is important for the maintenance of some rare species.