SE ARMI in the Virgin Islands

Virgin Islands National Park occupies almost 15,000 acres on the island of St. John.  More than half of the land on the island is national park, and much of the surrounding waters are protected as well. While rather small (9 miles across), the island is extremely mountainous, with peaks up to 1277 ft. It has amphibian habitats ranging from very dry, thorny scrub to moist mountain forests.

Currently, 8 species are believed to occur on St. John, three of which are introduced. The Puerto Rican Coqui and the Cuban Treefrog as well as the Giant Toad (Bufo marinus) have been found on the island. Four of the native frogs are members of the tropical frog family Leptodactylidae, found commonly throughout the American tropics.  The fifth native amphibian is the Puerto Rican Crested Toad, but no specimen has been observed on the island for many years.

We have developed a list of the amphibians and reptiles of St. John.  We have made two visits to the island to survey for amphibians and plan to make more. We are hoping to identify the habitats in which the different species can be found and to get an idea of the number of frogs in these habitats.

Virgin Islands Amphibian Species Table