Endemic Species of Cuba

Cuba combines country-wide endemics with species confined to individual mountain systems, karst landscapes, wetlands, cays, and unusual soil types. The strongest national datasets use different taxonomic units, so species counts, vascular-plant taxa, database counters, and checklist-defined endemics need to remain separate.

{
  "type": "bar",
  "title": "Endemic vascular plant taxa by major lineage",
  "description": "Endemic taxa in the 2024 Cuban vascular-plant catalogue. Angiosperms account for most of the 2,975 endemic vascular plant taxa.",
  "unit": "taxa",
  "orientation": "horizontal",
  "data": [
    {"label": "Angiosperms", "value": 2874},
    {"label": "Ferns", "value": 71},
    {"label": "Lycophytes", "value": 16},
    {"label": "Gymnosperms", "value": 14}
  ],
  "source": "[S2] Catálogo de las Plantas de Cuba, 2024"
}

What the national numbers represent

The 8,365 figure is the value displayed under “Endémicas” by the Biodiversidad Cubana portal. The same portal displays 36,940 species across Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Chromista, Bacteria, and Protozoa. It is therefore retained as a portal-wide statistic rather than converted into a new species-rank national total. ^[S1]

The vascular-plant figures have a narrower and more explicit definition. The 2024 catalogue recognizes 7,088 vascular plant species but 7,251 vascular plant taxa, because its taxonomic scope includes species and subspecies. Of the 6,054 native taxa, 2,975 are endemic to Cuba. Those 2,975 taxa must not be rewritten as 2,975 species. ^[S2]

The bird figures use the Clements 2025 taxonomic treatment in Avibase. Avibase also marks some birds as “Endemic (country/region),” reflecting a wider regional form of endemism. The 28-species table below uses the records classified simply as “Endemic” in the Cuba checklist. ^[S3]

Where Cuban endemism is concentrated

Endemic diversity is not distributed evenly across the Cuban archipelago. The 2024 vascular-plant catalogue identifies Holguín, Guantánamo, Santiago de Cuba, and Pinar del Río as the only Cuban provinces exceeding 1,000 genera, 2,500 vascular plant taxa, 2,000 native taxa, and 700 endemic taxa. Guantánamo and Holguín each contain more than 250 strict territorial endemics in that dataset, while Pinar del Río contains more than 150. ^[S2]

Nipe–Sagua–Baracoa and eastern Cuba

Alejandro de Humboldt National Park lies in the Nipe–Sagua–Baracoa Mountains of eastern Cuba. UNESCO links its high endemism to a combination of complex topography, varied geology, altitudinal range, and soils derived partly from serpentines and peridotites. Those substrates can be chemically difficult for plants, creating strong environmental filtering and localized adaptation. ^[S4]

This eastern concentration is visible across taxonomic groups. The endemic frogs Eleutherodactylus iberia, E. toa, and E. principalis occupy separate portions of Holguín and Guantánamo, while E. melacara is associated with the Sierra Maestra farther south. The result is a pattern in which “endemic to Cuba” can still describe a species whose actual natural range occupies only one mountain block or a small set of localities.

Pinar del Río and the Viñales karst

Pinar del Río forms a second major concentration of restricted biota. A study of the limestone highlands of Viñales recorded 136 land-snail species in 49 genera and 19 families; 90% of the recorded species were endemic to Cuba. Within that study, 57% were categorized as national endemics, 20% as regional endemics, and 13% as local endemics. These are regional study values published in 2009, not current national mollusk totals. ^[S5]

Zapata and western wetland ranges

The Zapata region contains several endemics with much narrower distributions than the Cuban national boundary suggests. The Clements 2025 bird list includes the Zapata Rail, Zapata Wren, and Zapata Sparrow among Cuba’s endemic birds. The Cuban gar occurs in western Cuba and Isla de la Juventud, with records centered on wetlands including Ciénaga de Zapata and Ciénaga de Lanier. Recent genomic literature describes the Cuban crocodile’s natural range as restricted to the freshwater system of Zapata Swamp.

Vascular plants: 2,975 endemic native taxa

The 2024 Cuban plant catalogue provides one of the clearest national measures of endemism. It recognizes 6,054 native vascular plant taxa, of which 2,975 are endemic, giving an endemic share of 49.1%. It also recognizes 65 endemic vascular plant genera. ^[S2]

Families and genera concentrating endemic plant diversity

Endemic vascular plant diversity is taxonomically concentrated. Ten families contain 50.7% of Cuba’s endemic vascular plant taxa, while ten genera contain 22.2%. ^[S2]

Endemic flora has a different growth-form balance

Herbs are the largest growth-form category across Cuba’s native vascular flora, but shrubs form the largest category within the endemic flora. Trees also account for a larger share of endemic taxa than of the native flora as a whole. ^[S2]

{
  "type": "bar",
  "title": "Growth forms in native and endemic Cuban vascular plants",
  "description": "Shares for the three leading growth forms reported in the 2024 Cuban vascular-plant catalogue.",
  "unit": "percent",
  "orientation": "horizontal",
  "categories": [
    "Herbs",
    "Shrubs",
    "Trees"
  ],
  "series": [
    {
      "name": "Native flora",
      "values": [40.3, 28.0, 20.8]
    },
    {
      "name": "Endemic flora",
      "values": [22.8, 44.5, 25.1]
    }
  ],
  "source": "[S2] Catálogo de las Plantas de Cuba, 2024"
}

Current accepted plant records with narrow Cuban ranges

The national count is too large for a useful 2,975-row article table. Current taxonomic records can still show how country endemism narrows to western Cuba, central Cuba, or a single province.

Cuba’s 28 endemic birds under Clements 2025

Avibase’s Cuba checklist contains 413 species under Clements 2025 and classifies 28 species as Cuban endemics. The table reproduces that complete source-defined endemic set at species rank. Birds marked by Avibase as “Endemic (country/region)” are not included because that label covers a broader regional distribution concept. ^[S3]

Cuba-only mammal records under current MDD taxonomy

Mammal taxonomy is especially important for Cuba because recent treatments recognize species that older lists merged with other taxa. The current Mammal Diversity Database, for example, accepts Atopogale cubana for the Cuban solenodon, with Solenodon cubanus retained in its synonymy, and places its distribution in southeastern Cuba. ^[S9]

The following species-level records have individual MDD accounts showing Cuba as their country distribution. This is a table of verified Cuba-only MDD records, not a separately published MDD national endemism total.

Amphibian ranges show micro-endemism inside Cuba

Several Cuban frogs occupy ranges far smaller than the country itself. Current Amphibian Species of the World records provide precise examples across eastern mountain systems.

These records show three nested geographic scales: each species is endemic to Cuba, each is restricted to a smaller portion of the island, and some are further tied to individual mountain systems or sets of localities. Country-level endemism therefore does not describe range size by itself.

Reptile endemism ranges from archipelago-wide to a few hundred square kilometres

Current Caribherp data distinguish island endemics, multi-island Cuban endemics, introduced distributions, and wider Caribbean ranges. That distinction prevents a species from being classified as Cuba-endemic simply because its common name contains “Cuban.” The following records show the range contrast within the current Cuba and islets dataset. ^[S30]

Caribherp also shows why introduced populations must be separated from native range. Some reptiles native to Cuba occur elsewhere after introduction; those introduced occurrences do not enlarge the species’ original native distribution. ^[S30]

Freshwater and wetland endemics

Freshwater systems add another form of geographic restriction. Two large vertebrates illustrate different versions of Cuban endemism: one is tied to the Zapata freshwater system, while the other occurs across several western Cuban wetlands and Isla de la Juventud.

The Cuban gar is therefore a country endemic without being confined to the main island. Isla de la Juventud and the smaller Cuban islands matter when interpreting national endemism: a species can be absent from most of mainland Cuba and still be endemic to the Cuban archipelago.

All six Polymita land snails are Cuban endemics

The genus Polymita provides a source-defined invertebrate set. The CITES analysis prepared for the genus recognizes six species and states that all six are endemic to Cuba. ^[S33]

The same assessment shows large differences in range size within the genus. Its historical estimates placed P. muscarum and P. venusta across thousands of square kilometres, while P. sulphurosa was associated with only small fragments of potential habitat. Those older range estimates are not used here as current distribution measurements. ^[S33]

Country endemic, regional endemic, and micro-endemic are different range scales

“Endemic to Cuba” therefore answers where a species occurs naturally at the country level, but it does not state how much of Cuba the species occupies. Mountain, province, wetland, karst, cay, and substrate-level ranges provide the finer geographic information needed to distinguish widespread Cuban endemics from micro-endemics.

Taxonomic treatment can change an endemic checklist

Endemic totals can change without any organism changing its geographic range. A species split may convert one broadly defined taxon into two or more restricted species; synonymization can have the opposite effect. Current Cuban mammals provide direct examples. MDD recognizes Capromys geayi after its split from C. pilorides, while C. garridoi is tentatively retained as distinct despite having often been treated as a synonym of C. pilorides. ^{[S18] [S19]}

The Cuban solenodon provides a naming example. Older literature commonly uses Solenodon cubanus; MDD currently accepts Atopogale cubana and records the older combination in synonymy. ^[S9]

Bird counts are similarly tied to a checklist authority. The 28-species endemic-bird figure on this page belongs specifically to the Clements 2025 treatment used by Avibase. A list based on another authority can differ where species limits or geographic treatments differ. ^[S3]

Species coverage and dataset limits