Abstract
Large and medium-sized mammals are essential to forest ecosystems as they are responsible for prey population control, seed dispersal and predation. A mammal survey was conducted in the Humaitá Forest Reserve (HFR), a 20 km² forest fragment located in the southeastern part of the state. The survey was carried out using census transects, camera traps, and occasional records such as bones and footprints. In all, 27 species of large to medium-sized mammals were recorded for the RFH, representing 48% of those expected for the region. Dasyprocta fuliginosa, Pecari tajacu and Didelphis marsupialis were the species with the highest number of records with camera traps. The occurrence of two species of cats (Leopardus pardalis and Puma concolor) and three endangered species (Callimico goeldii, Myrmecophaga tridactyla and Priodontes maximus) are important records for the RFH. The results may aid future research on the ecology, biogeography and conservation of mammals in the region.
Highlights
IntroductionLarge and medium-sized mammals (weight >1 kg, primates and members of the family Sciuridae) play a fundamental role in the functioning of Amazonian ecosystems, such as prey population control and dispersion/predation of seeds
Large and medium-sized mammals play a fundamental role in the functioning of Amazonian ecosystems, such as prey population control and dispersion/predation of seeds. They are an important source of protein and fat for human populations who live outside urban centers (Redford and Robinson 1987; Dirzo and Mendoza 2007; Stoner et al 2007; Estes et al 2011). Despite their great ecological importance, large and medium-sized mammals have been poorly studied in the state of Acre, and the available works focused on rapid surveys (e.g. Calouro 1999), assessments of the effects of subsistence hunting on mammals (e.g. Calouro and Marinho-Filho 2005; Rosas and Drumond 2007), and studies of primate autoecology (e.g. Bicca-Marques and Garber 2003; Rehg 2006)
Acre is among the Amazonian states that maintains most of its original vegetation cover, the eastern region of the state has been extensively deforested and its forests fragmented
Summary
Large and medium-sized mammals (weight >1 kg, primates and members of the family Sciuridae) play a fundamental role in the functioning of Amazonian ecosystems, such as prey population control and dispersion/predation of seeds. They are an important source of protein and fat for human populations who live outside urban centers (Redford and Robinson 1987; Dirzo and Mendoza 2007; Stoner et al 2007; Estes et al 2011). Fragmented environments are seen as key elements for the recovery of landscapes, since they harbor most of the native biodiversity of the region (Viana and Pinheiro 1998), making the retention of certain species viable, which is more than that observed in completely deforested areas (Turner and Corlett 1996)
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