Roedores y murciélagos en espacios verdes en San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, México

Abstract

Introduction : The demands of space for housing, industrial, commercial, and recreation space, are increasing as the human population continues to focus on urban areas. This implies an increase and constant degradation of natural environments. Despite the negative effect that the urban areas have on the biodiversity, these can be considered as important areas for the conservation of native flora and fauna. This is because urban areas have different types of land uses, where green spaces, represent an important component for the conservation of biological diversity. This study estimated the richness and abundance of rodents and bats in urban and non-urban green spaces in the city of San Cristobal de Las Casas (SCLC), Chiapas, Mexico. Given the great variety of types of green space in an urban area, the richness and abundance of rodents and bats in these areas will depend on the characteristics of the vegetation (richness and abundance of vegetal species) and the formation of the surrounding matrix (types of uses of soil around the green space). Methods: This study was conducted in 10 sites with presence of green spaces in the urban area and the periphery of SCLC. The rodents and bats were captured monthly from March to August 2013, for three consecutive nights per site. We compared the richness of species, relative abundance and diversity index between urban and non-urban green spaces. Results: There were a total of 12 species and 108 individuals, belonging to three families, Muridae, Phyllostomidae, and Vespertilionidae. In the non-urban green spaces were captured 55 individuals of four species of native rodents, and 19 individuals of three species of bats. In the urban green spaces were captured 11 individuals of three species of rodents (a species was native), and 23 individuals of four species of bats. For the richness of species of mammals, the correlation analysis showed very low values of relationship regarding to the independent variables. Discussion and conclusions: The number of species recorded in this study in the two groups of green spaces (urban and non-urban), show that these spaces can hold more than 40% of the total number of species recorded for the municipality of San Cristobal de Las Casas. The capture of larger number of individuals of species of native rodents in the non-urban green spaces may be that in these areas there is greater availability of resources such as food, shelter and breeding sites, since these sites are part of a remnant of forest. In the case of bats, there were not significant differences in their diversity between urban and non-urban green spaces. This study found that the urban and non-urban green spaces in the interior and periphery of the city of SCLC, are important for the native fauna of rodents and bats. In this way, preserving green areas on the periphery of an urban landscape is decisive for the conservation of the native fauna of the region, since they are reservoirs of their diversity.