Abstract
There is little known about the bats of the Brazilian restinga as most studies have concentrated on the country’s south and southeast regions. In Sergipe, Northeastern Brazil, the only study previously carried out registered 17 species in different restinga habitats. Thus, this study aimed to characterize the bat community in a restinga area in Sergipe and update the list of species that occur in the area. The study was carried out in the Caju Private Natural Heritage Reserve, on the south coast of the state of Sergipe. Monthly campaigns were carried out from October 2016 to September 2017 over two consecutive nights and alternating between two sites to capture the bats. We captured Bats using 10 mist nets that remained open between 6:00 p.m. and 12:00 p.m. We determined the abundance and trophic guilds of the captured species. In addition, we obtained the occurrence frequency degree through the Constancy Index. We captured 457 individuals distributed over 13 species and two families, where three species represented a new record for the locality. The family Phyllostomidae was the richest and most abundant. Most species were frugivorous (61.5%). According to the Constancy Index, only four species were considered common. Using Jackknife 1 estimator, we estimated 14.83 species for the area, indicating that the richness obtained in this study corresponds to 87.6% of this estimate. This study resulted in an 17.6% increase in bat richness known for the area. The high representativeness of the Phyllostomidae family may be related to the capture method used. The predominance of frugivores bats in this study may be associated with the presence of many fruit trees in the area. The low occurrence of species considered common is often reported and can be explained by the species’ trophic specializations and by the sampling methods. Considering the scarcity of studies in restinga areas in Northeastern Brazil, this work becomes important for the knowledge of the bats in this environment, especially for Sergipe.
Highlights
IntroductionRestinga environments are characterized by long strips of sandy marine deposits, with poor soils, a high degree of salinity, high temperature, and intense luminosity (Hay et al, 1981)
Restinga environments are characterized by long strips of sandy marine deposits, with poor soils, a high degree of salinity, high temperature, and intense luminosity (Hay et al, 1981). This environment presents vegetation that varies from herbaceous formations, shrubs, and denser forests, as it moves away from the sea line, whose canopy does not exceed 20 m in height (Silva, 1999; IBGE, 2012). It is characterized as a vegetation subset of the Atlantic Forest (Cerqueira et al, 1990) and, because it is generally close to forest areas, it contains important breeding, feeding, and shelter sites for fauna (Bôlla et al, 2017)
With a sampling effort of 35,316 m2.h, we had 490 captures, from 457 individuals belonging to 13 species and distributed among the families of Phyllostomidae (S = 11) and Vespertilionidae (S = 2)
Summary
Restinga environments are characterized by long strips of sandy marine deposits, with poor soils, a high degree of salinity, high temperature, and intense luminosity (Hay et al, 1981) This environment presents vegetation that varies from herbaceous formations, shrubs, and denser forests, as it moves away from the sea line, whose canopy does not exceed 20 m in height (Silva, 1999; IBGE, 2012). It is characterized as a vegetation subset of the Atlantic Forest (Cerqueira et al, 1990) and, because it is generally close to forest areas, it contains important breeding, feeding, and shelter sites for fauna (Bôlla et al, 2017). In the northeast of the country, studies with this group in restingas have only been carried out in Paraíba (Campos et al, 2018), Rio Grande do Norte (Soares et al, 2018), and Sergipe (Rocha et al, 2017)
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