Abstract
Despite advances in recent decades, the Atlantic Forest of northeastern Brazil is still one of the least studied regions of the country, regarding, for instance, the bat fauna. The present study reports on the results of a rapid survey of the bat fauna of a fragmented landscape in the Atlantic Forest of eastern Sergipe, in the legal forest reserve of Fazenda Santana, a commercial sugarcane plantation located in the adjoining municipalities of Japoatã and Pacatuba. We recorded 272 bats belonging to 23 species and four families, from which 265 individuals from 18 species from two families (Phyllostomidae and Vespertilionidae) were captured in the mist-nets, and seven individuals of six species from four families (Emballonuridae, Molossidae, Phyllostomidae and Vespertilionidae) were recorded during the active searches. This species richness was higher than that found in previous studies in the Atlantic Forest of northeastern Brazil. Lasiurus blossevillii and Micronycteris minuta were recorded in Sergipe for the first time, increasing to 57 the number of bat species known to occur in this state. The use of alternative strategies (such as active search and sampling one night per point, seeking to areas with greater availability of resources) in rapid surveys may contribute to the compilation of a more robust sampling, reinforcing the usefulness of this approach for the inventory of the bat fauna of a given region.
Highlights
The Brazilian Atlantic Forest is a biodiversity hotspot, considered to be one of the world’s most threatened biomes (Mittermeier et al 2004; Varjabedian 2010)
Despite advances in recent decades, the lack of knowledge concerning the real patterns of diversity and distribution of some taxa, such as the bat fauna (e.g., Falcão et al 2005; Mikalauskas 2005; Faria et al 2006; Percequillo et al 2007; Rocha et al 2010; Brito and Bocchiglieri 2012), partially results in the underestimation of the current damage in the diversity caused by land-use change and native habitats degradation
The species richness recorded in the present study (S = 23) was higher than those found in previous studies in the Atlantic forest from northeastern Brazil, which recorded (Falcão et al 2005), (Brito and Bocchiglieri 2012), 16, and 18 species (Rocha et al 2010)
Summary
The Brazilian Atlantic Forest is a biodiversity hotspot, considered to be one of the world’s most threatened biomes (Mittermeier et al 2004; Varjabedian 2010). This biome initially covered an area of well over a million square kilometers (Muylaert et al 2018). The reduction of its original cover to among 11–16% (in different regions) (Ribeiro et al 2009) resulted in the ongoing loss of innumerable plant and animal species, including many endemic taxa (Paglia et al 2012; ICMBio 2018). The northern extreme of the Biome (up to 15°S), which encompasses the Northeastern region of Brazil, has suffered the highest rates of deforestation and habitat fragmentation (IBGE 2016). Despite advances in recent decades, the lack of knowledge concerning the real patterns of diversity and distribution of some taxa, such as the bat fauna (e.g., Falcão et al 2005; Mikalauskas 2005; Faria et al 2006; Percequillo et al 2007; Rocha et al 2010; Brito and Bocchiglieri 2012), partially results in the underestimation of the current damage in the diversity caused by land-use change and native habitats degradation
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