MEDIUM TO LARGE-SIZED MAMMALS OF THE BIOLOGICAL RESERVE “AUGUSTO RUSCHI”, SÃO PAULO STATE, BRAZIL

Abstract

Although Sao Paulo state presents two hotspots – the Cerrado and the Atlantic Forest – it currently has only 13% of its native vegetation, which is divided into 8,300 fragments harboring at least 220 mammal species. The present study aims to survey mammal species of medium to large size in a conservation area of Sao Paulo – the Biological Reserve “Augusto Ruschi”. We used 562 camera trap-nights, footprint surveys, and opportunistic visualizations to record species. Species richness was estimated by presence/absence of animals at the camera-trap station and using the first-order Jackknife estimator.  Twelve species of mammals were recorded. The estimated species richness was 10.99 (± 1.4) and there was no correlation between fragment size and species richness (R= -0.60; N=5; p= 0.2847). The species richness of medium and large-sized mammals in the area is considerably high, even though these species are not fully protected due to the presence of anthropogenic activities nearby.