Globally, the occurrence of terrestrial vertebrates in mangrove forests is poorly documented, with little empirical data available. This knowledge gap is, at least in part, explained by the challenging survey conditions typically found in these environments. As an ecological understanding of ecosystems is essential to guide conservation management actions, a lack of baseline biodiversity surveys can leave ecosystems vulnerable to degradation. To address this, we developed and tested a rapid assessment protocol for tidal regions (RAPTR), that uses a range of techniques to detect mammals, reptiles and amphibians in mangrove habitat subject to daily tidal inundation. Our approach uses seven commonly used fauna detection techniques (live traps, camera traps, nocturnal transects, hair tubes, artificial terrestrial and arboreal refuges, and high-frequency acoustic monitoring). RAPTR was implemented over four consecutive nights at each of the 10 sites spanning temperate to tropical mangrove regions of Australia. We detected 65 species of terrestrial vertebrates, of which 42 species have not previously been reported in mangroves. We demonstrated that all techniques were robust to tidal inundation, and that four consecutive trap nights were sufficient to detect all taxonomic groups and most species in temperate regions, but that additional nights may be required in subtropical and tropical regions. We recommend RAPTR be used as a biodiversity assessment protocol to identify terrestrial vertebrates in mangroves to fill critical knowledge gaps about these important ecological communities, and one which can potentially be applied to other tidal ecosystems. Such a strategy would further our understanding of the ecological role mangroves play as habitat for terrestrial fauna, and help identify management strategies to aid the conservation of these declining ecosystems.

在全球范围内，红树林中陆生脊椎动物的发生情况鲜有记载，几乎没有经验数据。这种知识鸿沟至少部分是由这些环境中通常具有挑战性的调查条件来解释的。由于对生态系统的生态理解对于指导保护管理行动至关重要，因此缺乏基准生物多样性调查可能会使生态系统容易退化。为了解决这个问题，我们开发并测试了潮汐区域快速评估协议（RAPTR），该协议使用多种技术来检测每天遭受潮汐泛滥的红树林生境中的哺乳动物，爬行动物和两栖动物。我们的方法使用了七种常用的动物区系检测技术（活体诱捕器，照相机诱集器，夜间横断面，毛管，人造陆地和树栖避难所，和高频声学监控）。在澳大利亚温带至热带红树林地区的10个地点中，每个地点都连续四个晚上实施了RAPTR。我们检测到65种陆地脊椎动物，其中42种以前未在红树林中报告过。我们证明了所有技术对潮汐泛滥都具有鲁棒性，连续四个诱集之夜足以检测温带地区的所有生物分类群和大多数物种，但是在亚热带和热带地区可能需要额外的夜晚。我们建议将RAPTR用作生物多样性评估协议，以识别红树林中的陆生脊椎动物，以填补有关这些重要生态群落的关键知识空白，并且有可能将其应用于其他潮汐生态系统。