Abstract
ABSTRACT Rapid assessments are the most common information source on biodiversity in the northwestern Amazon in Colombia due to limited resources and logistic constraints. These assessments are essential for decision-making on environmental policies in this region, that has been strongly impacted by the transformation of its natural ecosystems. Several local camera-trapping rapid assessments of medium and large-sized mammals (MLM) have been conducted in the Colombian Amazon, but they are difficult to compare. We analyzed information of 16 of these rapid assessments of MLM to provide the first list of MLM in the northwestern Amazon in Colombia. We also evaluated the accuracy of four estimators (ICE, Chao-2, Jackknife-1, and Jackknife-2), and the minimum sampling effort for the estimation of MLM richness in local surveys in the region. We report 26 species of MLM for the Colombian Amazon (between five and 13 species per locality), which is an underestimation of MLM richness in the region. The best estimator of MLM richness was the Jackknife-1, due to its precision and the lower influence of singletons. We recommend a minimum sampling effort of 350 camera trap-days. Although rapid assessments do not allow a robust estimation of MLM richness, they record the most common species (or core species) per locality and their abundance variation. The evaluation of the effect of habitat transformation on MLM and the estimation of population parameters of rare species require more intensive studies.
Highlights
The Colombian Amazon, comprising the northwestern area of the Amazonian biome, is environmentally heterogeneous and recognized for its exceptional biodiversity of mammals (Rodríguez-Mahecha et al 2006)
Our analyses focused on terrestrial mammals with a weight greater than 2 kg, we excluded primates and other mainly arboreal mammals seldom captured on camera traps
Our results showed that the local species richness of medium and large terrestrial mammals in the northwestern Amazon in Colombia is still highly underestimated
Summary
The Colombian Amazon, comprising the northwestern area of the Amazonian biome, is environmentally heterogeneous and recognized for its exceptional biodiversity of mammals (Rodríguez-Mahecha et al 2006). This biodiversity has been poorly studied, and the region remains vastly scientifically unexplored (Stevenson et al 2004; Montenegro 2017; Trujillo et al 2019), while at the same time being submitted to intense and accelerated ecosystem transformation that involves the highest fire frequencies (Otavo and Murcia 2018) and up to 76% of the total deforestation (IDEAM 2020) in Colombia. These mammals contribute significantly to food security in several indigenous communities (Osorno et al 2014) but are sensitive to habitat changes and overexploitation (RomeroMuñoz et al 2020) and populations of many species are in decline (Benítez-López et al 2019)
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