Rockland Roll Call: Over Fifteen Years of Herpetofauna in South Florida’s Pine Rocklands

Adrian Figueroa^1,2,*, Nicole Atteberry^3,†, Steve Conners³, Dave Jimenez³, Kevin Kopf³, Andrea Perlberg³, Frank Ridgley¹, Dustin Smith⁴, Adam Stern³, and Ryan Zach³

¹Conservation and Research Department, Zoo Miami, Miami, FL 33177. ²Department of Earth and Environment, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199. ³Animal Science Department, Zoo Miami, Miami, FL 33177.^†Deceased. ⁴North Carolina Zoo, Asheboro, NC 27205. *Corresponding author.

Southeastern Naturalist, Volume 25, Issue 3 (2026): 415–433

First published early online: 20 September 2026

Abstract
Pine rocklands are among the most imperiled terrestrial ecosystems in North America, with more than 98% of their historical extent in South Florida destroyed or developed. The Richmond Tract pine rocklands at Zoo Miami represents one of the largest remaining fragments of this ecosystem in Miami-Dade County and supports a diversity of native herpetofauna including imperiled species such as the state-threatened Tantilla oolitica (Rim Rock Crowned Snake), which is currently proposed for federal listing as endangered, and Gopherus polyphemus (Gopher Tortoise), which was recently assessed as critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. In this study, we present a 17-year record of native herpetofaunal observations (June 2002–July 2019) collected by Zoo Miami staff using 4 drift-fence arrays and opportunistic encounters across 4 broad habitat types: pinelands, developed, edge, and aquatic locations. Over the study period, we documented 1145 observations representing 28 native herpetofaunal species (4 amphibians and 24 reptiles). This inventory demonstrates that even small, fragmented urban pine rockland fragments can harbor a functionally diverse native herpetofaunal community that includes imperiled species such as the Rim Rock Crowned Snake and Gopher Tortoise, establishing a foundational species baseline for future herpetofaunal monitoring at the Richmond Tract.

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