Abstract
Abstract: Habitat fragmentation is one of the principal causes of the decline of species worldwide, and the Brazilian Atlantic Forest and Cerrado savanna biomes are among the most severely affected by this process. While highly fragmented, remnants of Atlantic Forest can still be found within the Cerrado domain of southern Goiás, where previous studies have revealed high levels of biodiversity. To inventory the mammalian species that occur in the region, two fragments of semideciduous Atlantic Forest were sampled between 2011 and 2016, using line transect surveys and camera trapping. A total of 1016 records were obtained of 30 mammal species, of which eleven are under some threat of extinction. The species richness recorded on this study was similar to or higher than the values reported from other areas of Goiás, which reinforces the importance of the maintenance of these remnants, located in private properties, for the conservation of the region's mammals.
Highlights
Brazil is home to 10% of the world’s terrestrial biota, and is considered to be one of the planet’s most biodiverse countries (Mittermeier et al 1997)
Most of the state of Goiás is covered by Cerrado savanna formations (Morellato & Haddad 2000), 3% of the southern and southwestern extreme of the state were originally covered with Atlantic Forest, with a total area of 1,190,184 ha (Galindo-Leal & Câmara 2003)
A total of 1016 records were collected in the present study, which confirmed the presence of 27 mammal species of medium to large size
Summary
Brazil is home to 10% of the world’s terrestrial biota, and is considered to be one of the planet’s most biodiverse countries (Mittermeier et al 1997). The Atlantic Forest is one of Brazil’s most diverse biomes, and has a high rate of endemism (Feio & Caramaschi 2002), which led to its inclusion, together with the Cerrado savanna, in the world’s 34 conservation hotspots defined by Mittermeier et al (2005). Only 30,386 ha of this forest has survived to the present day (Fundação SOS Mata Atlântica 2017). In Goiás, only two types of Atlantic Forest formation exist, seasonal deciduous forest and seasonal semi-deciduous forest, which are both characterized by leaf-fall during the dry season, in addition to the impacts of habitat fragmentation and the loss of local biodiversity (Campanili & Prochnow 2006, Fundação SOS Mata Atlântica 2017)
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