Abstract
Biodiversity inventories are essential to generate information leading to the proposal of conservation plans, especially for threatened areas. Despite being one of the best sampled regions for bats in Brazil, some areas of Rio de Janeiro still represent knowledge gaps. Between May 2011 and June 2012, we performed 36 nightly samplings to conduct an inventory of bat species in Reserva Ecologica de Guapiacu, in Cachoeiras de Macacu, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, southeastern Brazil. We used 10 mist-nets per night opened from sunset to sunrise. A total of 1,290 individuals belonging to 31 bat species were caught. They were distributed in three families, Phyllostomidae (24 species), Vespertilionidae (four species) and Molossidae (three species). We recorded two other species of two families, Noctilionidae and Thyropteridae, by direct observations. The species richness of bats in Reserva Ecologica de Guapiacu is one of the largest ever recorded in the Atlantic Forest. Keywords: rainforest, species richness, abundance, biodiversity inventory.
Highlights
Since the sixteenth century many economic cycles, followed by processes of industrialization and unplanned urban expansion, led to a drastic reduction of the Atlantic Forest, leaving only about 8% of the original vegetation (Ribeiro et al, 2009)
Between May 2011 and June 2012, we performed 36 nightly samplings to conduct an inventory of bat species in Reserva Ecológica de Guapiaçu, in Cachoeiras de Macacu, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, southeastern Brazil
The species richness of bats in Reserva Ecológica de Guapiaçu is one of the largest ever recorded in the Atlantic Forest
Summary
Since the sixteenth century many economic cycles (e.g., pau-brasil, gold, sugarcane and coffee), followed by processes of industrialization and unplanned urban expansion, led to a drastic reduction of the Atlantic Forest, leaving only about 8% of the original vegetation (Ribeiro et al, 2009). The remaining fragments of the Atlantic Forest are usually small and isolated from large forests Such fragments consist of secondary forests ranging from early stage to late secondary succession of vegetation (Viana et al, 1997; Metzger et al, 2008). This situation put under threat a large proportion of its species, leading this biome to be one of the most important biodiversity hotspots in the world (Myers et al, 2000; Tabarelli et al, 2005) though still suffering constant anthropogenic pressures (Souza et al, 2013). Rio de Janeiro is the most well sampled state for bats in Brazil (Bergallo et al, 2003; Bernard et al, 2011). We present the results of an inventory of bat species of Reserva Ecológica de Guapiaçu, southeastern Brazil
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