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Mexico City –  Eight species of snakes, one type of frog and a species of salamander have disappeared from the forests of southeastern Mexico's Los Tuxtlas region, a researcher with the National Autonomous University of Mexico, or UNAM, said Wednesday.

Sampling has been carried out over the past 10 years and members of these species have not been found among the local fauna, although it is not known if they have become extinct in the zone or simply have not been encountered, UNAM biologist Hugo Reynoso said in a statement.

"A decade is an important sampling period during which not to have found them," he declared.

Reynoso said the 155,122 hectares (about 388,000 acres) of forest in Los Tuxtlas, located in the Gulf coastal state of Veracruz, have suffered from severe "fragmentation" due to deforestation.

The result is a series of spaces of different sizes, from the preserve that UNAM owns there, with 640 hectares (1,600 acres) and the best preserved, to many areas ranging from 1 to 30 hectares.

"Unfortunately, it seems to be that in the strips of 4 hectares (10 acres) the amphibians and reptiles are disappearing, and only some very resistant species are surviving," he said.

Reynoso said that those animals are in a "very important" group because they are the first vertebrates to disappear from the ecological systems, given that they depend on the habitat to reproduce and do not have the same ability to move elsewhere as birds, "who if they don't like it they go to another place."

In Los Tuxtlas, the areas consisting of more than 6 hectares (15 acres) "still hold important biological wealth," although "in spaces of up to 30 hectares (75 acres) mammals larger than badgers, raccoons, opossums and howler monkeys have not been found," he said.

Specifically, in this part of Veracruz, larger mammals such as jaguars and tapirs have not been found.

The scientist said that the forests of southeastern Mexico are one of the most diverse land environments on the planet, containing between 60 percent and 80 percent of the currently-known plant and animal species.

However, between 1960 and 1990 those areas "suffered a significant rate of deforestation" as well as the division of the remaining forests into smaller and smaller parcels.

Reynoso said that it is still possible to overcome the problem and "join the islands of vegetation to create segments of greater size or to interconnect them."

"UNAM has the means to perform that task," he said.

The idea is to evaluate the effect of the environmental destruction in the preserved part of the forest and to analyze the small scattered forested areas to determine how ecosystems modify themselves.