Abstract
The Atlantic Forest is one of the most biodiverse biomes in the world and has been severely degraded and fragmented, with the extirpation of most medium-sized and large vertebrates from the forest remnants. Here we present the results of a survey of medium-sized and large mammals in an area of protected seasonal semideciduous forest, the Floresta da Cicuta Area of Relevant Ecological Interest (ARIE-FC), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, part the Atlantic Forest biome. We used camera traps (2,257 camera days) and direct observations over a 23-month period. We recorded 19 species (including two domestic species), seven of which are classified as at-risk, such as Leopardus guttulus (Hensel, 1872), Sylvilagus tapetillus Thomas, 1913, Alouatta clamitans Cabrera, 1940, and Chrysocyon brachyurus (Illiger, 1815). A diverse terrestrial mammal assemblage in the ARIE-FC reinforces the importance of small forest fragments for the conservation of biodiversity in human-modified landscapes of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest.
Highlights
The Neotropical Atlantic Forest supports high environmental heterogeneity, including several soil and vegetation types and a wide variation of topography, temperature, and precipitation due to its extensive latitudinal and longitudinal range (Ribeiro et al 2009, 2011; Marques et al 2021)
We present the results of a survey of medium-sized and large mammals in an area of protected seasonal semideciduous forest, the Floresta da Cicuta Area of Relevant Ecological Interest (ARIE-FC), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, part the Atlantic Forest biome
The seasonal forests of the Atlantic Forest biome, mainly the seasonal semideciduous forest, are the predominant vegetation covering the biogeographic subregion known as Interior Forest (Silva and Casteleti 2003; Carlucci et al 2021)
Summary
The Neotropical Atlantic Forest supports high environmental heterogeneity, including several soil and vegetation types and a wide variation of topography, temperature, and precipitation due to its extensive latitudinal and longitudinal range (Ribeiro et al 2009, 2011; Marques et al 2021) This environmental heterogeneity, along with a complex evolutionary history of its biota, has resulted in a unique biome with among the greatest biodiversity and endemism worldwide (Silva and Casteleti 2003; Marques et al 2021). The Interior Forest is one of the most threatened biogeographic subregions of the Atlantic Forest biome, with only 7.1% of its original vegetation remaining, and only 6.8% of its forest remnants protected (Ribeiro et al 2009; Carlucci et al 2021)
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