Endemic Species of Chile

Chile combines continental barriers, isolated high-Andean waters, Mediterranean-climate mountains and remote Pacific islands within one national boundary. National biodiversity reporting estimates that almost one quarter of the species described for the country are endemic, but the share differs sharply among taxonomic groups.^[S1]

{
  "type": "bar",
  "title": "Endemic share in three high-endemism vertebrate groups",
  "description": "National shares reported for Chile from one national biodiversity source.",
  "unit": "percent",
  "orientation": "horizontal",
  "data": [
    {"label": "Amphibians", "value": 65},
    {"label": "Reptiles", "value": 63},
    {"label": "Continental freshwater fishes", "value": 55}
  ],
  "source": "[S1] Ministerio del Medio Ambiente de Chile"
}

Country-endemic vertebrates in the IUCN data

IUCN defines the country-endemic figures in its summary tables as species naturally occurring in only one country and limits the table to groups with more than 80% assessment coverage.^[S2] The current Red List release is 2026-1; the Chile counts below come from Table 8a in release 2025-2 and should be read as versioned 2025-2 values, not as 2026-1 counts.^[S3]

{
  "type": "bar",
  "title": "Country-endemic and threatened-endemic vertebrates",
  "description": "Both series use the same IUCN country table and release.",
  "unit": "species",
  "orientation": "horizontal",
  "categories": [
    "Mammals",
    "Birds",
    "Reptiles",
    "Amphibians"
  ],
  "series": [
    {
      "name": "Country-endemic",
      "values": [17, 10, 74, 41]
    },
    {
      "name": "Threatened endemic",
      "values": [4, 4, 24, 30]
    }
  ],
  "source": "[S3] IUCN Red List Table 8a, 2025-2"
}

Endemism is concentrated in different geographic systems

Chile does not have one uniform center of endemism. Narrow ranges occur in coastal desert vegetation, isolated Andean waters, central-Chilean mountains, temperate forests and oceanic islands. The biological mechanisms differ among those systems, so regional figures need their own scope.

Taltal–Paposo coastal desert

Along the Taltal–Paposo coast, seasonal fog supplies moisture to vegetation embedded in the hyper-arid Atacama margin. The official Costa de Paposo 1 profile estimates about 250 plant species in the coastal desert flora and reports that at least 65% are endemic.^[S4] This is a site-level flora estimate, not a national plant percentage.

Central Chile and mountain microendemics

Central Chile contains species whose natural distributions are much smaller than the country itself. The Metropolitan Region biodiversity service identifies Alsodes tumultuosus as endemic to La Parva and lists the reptiles Pristidactylus volcanensis, Liolaemus moradoensis and Liolaemus frassinetti as regional endemics.^[S5] Mountain blocks and separated high-elevation habitats can therefore contain Chile-endemic species with ranges measured at a subregional scale.

High-Andean springs and isolated inland waters

Freshwater isolation is visible in northern Chile. The national biodiversity profile gives Orestias gloriae as an example restricted to springs associated with Salar de Carcote at roughly 3,000 m elevation.^[S1] Small spring systems and internally drained basins can hold entire native ranges, which helps explain why the national endemic share is high among continental freshwater fishes.

Juan Fernández Archipelago

CONAF reports 213 native plant species and 137 endemic plant species in Juan Fernández, equivalent to 64.32% endemism in the native plant inventory.^[S6] The archipelago also supports island-restricted vertebrates including the Juan Fernández firecrown (Sephanoides fernandensis), Juan Fernández tit-tyrant (Anairetes fernandezianus) and Masafuera rayadito (Aphrastura masafuerae).

{
  "type": "donut",
  "title": "Native plant flora of Juan Fernández by endemic status",
  "description": "The endemic count is a subset of 213 native plant species; 76 are other native species.",
  "unit": "species",
  "data": [
    {"label": "Endemic", "value": 137},
    {"label": "Other native", "value": 76}
  ],
  "source": "[S6] CONAF — Parque Nacional Archipiélago Juan Fernández"
}

Desventuradas and oceanic marine endemism

Marine endemism around the Desventuradas depends on depth and the biological assemblage being measured. SIMBIO reports that 41% of fishes and 46% of invertebrates in the deep-water communities of Nazca–Desventuradas are regional endemics.^[S7] A 2026 Ministry of the Environment account uses a broader island-fish context and reports 72% endemism for the Nazca–Desventuradas fish fauna.^[S8] The figures describe different scopes and should remain separate.

Rapa Nui and Sala y Gómez

The shallow marine biota around Rapa Nui and Sala y Gómez forms another isolated Pacific system. An official protected-area inventory records 144 benthic algal taxa and 14 endemic Rhodophyta species in the shallow flora associated with Easter Island waters.^[S9] The two numbers should not be converted into an endemic percentage because the inventory total is reported as taxa while the endemic red-algal figure is reported as species.

Verified Chile-endemic species with range-resolved records

No unified species-level national checklist covers every Chile-endemic plant, animal and invertebrate under one current taxonomic treatment. The reference set below is restricted to species-rank records whose Chile-only native range can be stated from official Chilean accounts or current Kew range treatments. It is not an all-taxa national total.

Species in the table are counted at species rank only. Narrower endemic subspecies, varieties and populations are not treated as separate species records. The table contains 38 range-resolved species records and does not substitute for the larger national endemic biota.

Native to Chile is not the same as Chile-endemic

Several species closely associated with Chile cross the international boundary in their natural range. Those species remain native to Chile but do not meet a Chile-only endemic definition.

Range concentration changes exposure

For a microendemic, a local disturbance can overlap a large part of the global range. The official account for Alsodes barrioi reports a distribution estimate of about 30.36 km² after excluding a suspected misidentification, while Alsodes vanzolinii is reported from an area of about 9 km².^{[S10] [S11]} These are species-level range estimates, not national amphibian measures.

Freshwater endemics face a similar geographic constraint when their distribution is tied to a basin or short river system. The Chilean accounts for Percilia gillissi and Basilichthys microlepidotus identify habitat degradation, altered water conditions and introduced species among documented pressures.^{[S20] [S21]} In Juan Fernández, the terrestrial-bird recovery plan records pressures from introduced plants and mammals, fire and habitat degradation within small island populations.^[S45]

Marine protection around endemic-rich islands

In 2026, Chile approved the Juan Fernández II and Nazca–Desventuradas II marine parks, covering 193,998 km² and 143,323 km² respectively. The same official account reports fish endemism of 87% for Juan Fernández and 72% for Nazca–Desventuradas.^[S8] These island-fish figures describe marine faunas and should not be merged with the terrestrial national percentages or the IUCN country-endemic vertebrate counts.