Jader Marinho-Filho

DIET, HABITAT USE, AND HOME RANGES OF SYMPATRIC CANIDS IN CENTRAL BRAZIL

Abstract Food items consumed by sympatric maned wolves (Chrysocyon brachyurus), crab-eating foxes (Cerdocyon thous), and hoary foxes (Lycalopex vetulus) were investigated in the Cerrado of central Brazil to determine overlap among their diets. Home ranges and spatial segregation among these canids were also investigated. Overlap among diets was greatest for maned wolves and crab-eating foxes, which had generalist diets, although maned wolves fed on larger prey than did crab-eating foxes. Hoary foxes were frugivore–insectivores, with Syntermes termites being the most important food item. In relation to habitat use, hoary foxes were also the most selective canid, preferring more open habitats.

Effectiveness of Scat-Detection Dogs in Determining Species Presence in a Tropical Savanna Landscape

Most protected areas are too small to sustain populations of wide-ranging mammals; thus, identification and conservation of high-quality habitat for those animals outside parks is often a high priority, particularly for regions where extensive land conversion is occurring. This is the case in the vicinity of Emas National Park, a small protected area in the Brazilian Cerrado. Over the last 40 years the native vegetation surrounding the park has been converted to agriculture, but the region still supports virtually all of the animals native to the area. We determined the effectiveness of scat-detection dogs in detecting presence of five species of mammals threatened with extinction by habitat loss: maned wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus), puma (Puma concolor), jaguar (Panthera onca), giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla), and giant armadillo (Priodontes maximus). The probability of scat detection varied among the five species and among survey quadrats of different size, but was consistent across team, season, and year. The probability of occurrence, determined from the presence of scat, in a randomly selected site within the study area ranged from 0.14 for jaguars, which occur primarily in the forested areas of the park, to 0.91 for maned wolves, the most widely distributed species in our study area. Most occurrences of giant armadillos in the park were in open grasslands, but in the agricultural matrix they tended to occur in riparian woodlands. At least one target species occurred in every survey quadrat, and giant armadillos, jaguars, and maned wolves were more likely to be present in quadrats located inside than outside the park. The effort required for detection of scats was highest for the two felids. We were able to detect the presence for each of five wide-ranging species inside and outside the park and to assign occurrence probabilities to specific survey sites. Thus, scat dogs provide an effective survey tool for rare species even when accurate detection likelihoods are required. We believe the way we used scat-detection dogs to determine the presence of species can be applied to the detection of other mammalian species in other ecosystems.

Activity patterns of nine phyllostomid bat species in a fragment of the Atlantic Forest in southeastern Brazil

Seasonal, monthly and hourly activity patterns of nine bat species were studied based on their capture rates at the Reserva Particular do Patrimonio Natural Feliciano Miguel Abdala (RPPN-FMA), Caratinga, Minas Gerais state, southeastern Brazil. The frugivorous and nectarivorous bat species have their activity closely related to the availability of food. Divergence in monthly and hourly activity is discussed for pairs of similar species and the hypothesis of reduction in competition for nectarivorous and frugivorous species are rejected. Further studies on frugivores-plants interactions should be conducted to assess the long term consequences for the whole system at the RPPN-MFA.

Resource Selection and Its Implications for Wide-Ranging Mammals of the Brazilian Cerrado

Conserving animals beyond protected areas is critical because even the largest reserves may be too small to maintain viable populations for many wide-ranging species. Identification of landscape features that will promote persistence of a diverse array of species is a high priority, particularly, for protected areas that reside in regions of otherwise extensive habitat loss. This is the case for Emas National Park, a small but important protected area located in the Brazilian Cerrado, the worlds most biologically diverse savanna. Emas Park is a large-mammal global conservation priority area but is too small to protect wide-ranging mammals for the long-term and conserving these populations will depend on the landscape surrounding the park. We employed novel, noninvasive methods to determine the relative importance of resources found within the park, as well as identify landscape features that promote persistence of wide-ranging mammals outside reserve borders. We used scat detection dogs to survey for five large mammals of conservation concern: giant armadillo (Priodontes maximus), giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla), maned wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus), jaguar (Panthera onca), and puma (Puma concolor). We estimated resource selection probability functions for each species from 1,572 scat locations and 434 giant armadillo burrow locations. Results indicate that giant armadillos and jaguars are highly selective of natural habitats, which makes both species sensitive to landscape change from agricultural development. Due to the high amount of such development outside of the Emas Park boundary, the park provides rare resource conditions that are particularly important for these two species. We also reveal that both woodland and forest vegetation remnants enable use of the agricultural landscape as a whole for maned wolves, pumas, and giant anteaters. We identify those features and their landscape compositions that should be prioritized for conservation, arguing that a multi-faceted approach is required to protect these species.

Density of the Near Threatened jaguar Panthera onca in the caatinga of north-eastern Brazil.

We report the first estimate of jaguar density in the semi-arid caatinga biome of north-eastern Brazil. During August–October 2007, in the Serra da Capivara National Park, we used camera traps to identify and count jaguars. Jaguar abundance and density were calculated using mark-recapture models. In a sampling effort of 1,249 camera-trap-nights we identified 12 adult jaguars and estimated an abundance of 14 ± SE 3.6 jaguars in an area of 524 km 2 , i.e. a density of 2.67 ± SE 1.00 jaguars per 100 km 2 . This estimate is higher than in most other Brazilian biomes and indicates Serra da Capivara National Park as an important reserve for protecting jaguars in north-eastern Brazil.

Bat frugivory in a remnant of Southeastern Brazilian Atlantic forest

ABSTRACT Knowledge of bat diets may be important for the conservation of small Atlantic Forest fragments because these animals play an important role in seed dispersal and natural recovery of tropical forests. The ‘Reserva Particular do Patrimônio Natural Feliciano Miguel Abdala’ (RPPN-FMA) is a 886-hectare Atlantic forest fragment consisting of a mosaic of distinct successional phases resulting from logging and natural causes, in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. We collected 216 fecal samples containing blood, arthropods, pollen-nectar, vegetation (leaflets and fruit peel), fruit pulp (fibers and juice) and seeds, from 18 bat species at the RPPN-FMA. Piperaceae, Solanaceae, Cecropiaceae, and Guttiferae were the most important food resources for frugivorous bats at RPPN-FMA. Piper infrutescences were consumed by Artibeus obscurus, A. fimbriatus, Carollia perspicillata, and Sturnira lilium throughout the year, functioning as key species, as already observed for other tropical rainforest sites.

INTERSPECIFIC PATTERNS OF SKULL VARIATION BETWEEN SYMPATRIC BRAZILIAN VESPER MICE: GEOMETRIC MORPHOMETRICS ASSESSMENT

Abstract Sympatric species of vesper mice (Calomys expulsus and C. tener) from the Cerrado biome are often distinguished by their respective sizes. Using geometric morphometrics, we tested if interspecific differences were mainly due to isometric or allometric size variations or allometry-free shape differences. To delimit species groups, we used and compared linear discriminant analysis, calculated on subsets of individuals of known identity, and pattern recognition techniques, needing no prior information on specimens. They both yielded similar results, indicating that patterns of interspecific morphological differences are mainly due to size-free shape differences located at landmarks defined at the suture between the frontals and the parietals and between the latter and the interparietal. Correct specimen identification was obtained with pattern recognition techniques using Gaussian mixture models. Morphological differences also were found between the 2 species analyzed and the newly described C. tocantinsi represented here by its paratypes. The combination of geometric morphometrics and pattern recognition techniques seems suitable for systematic analyses aimed at elucidating interspecific patterns of morphological variation in closely related species in field studies and museum specimens.

Hábito alimentar do tatu-canastra (Xenarthra, Dasypodidae) em uma área de cerrado do Brasil Central

The diel of the giant armadillo - Priodontes maximus (Kerr,1792) - was studied in the field at Fazenda Sao Miguel, Unai, Minas Gerais, Brazil, through 82 samples collected at foraging excavations and 25 fecal samples. In both types of sample the most common item was insects (Isoptera e Hymenoptera) and, in less quantity, plant fragments and orhers invertebrates (Aranae, Blattaria, Coleoptera, Diplopoda, Scorpiones). These data suggest the giant armadillo is a specialist on insects with an opportunistic foraging strategy.

First record of Thyroptera discifera (Chiroptera: Thyropteridae) in the Cerrado of Central Brazil

only one genus, Thyroptera Spix, 1823, and three extant species: T. tricolor Spix, 1823, T. discifera (Lichtenstein and Peters, 1854), and T. lavali Pine, 1993. The disk-winged bats inhabit the Neotropical region, from Mexico to Southern Brazil (Wilson, 1978; Koopman, 1993; Pine, 1993), and its main generic diagnostic character is the presence of circular suction disks with short stalks on the soles of the feet and at the base of the well-developed claw of the thumb, which are histological and anatomically different from the Old World sucker-footed bat (Myzopoda sp.; see Nowak, 1999). Thyroptera tricolor is widely distributed through the Neotropical region occurring from southern Mexico to Bolivia, Trinidad, and southern Brazil, whereas T. discifera occurs from Nicaragua southwards to the Guianas and to at least 10°S in Peru, at 13°10’S and 64°13’W in Bolivia, and Belém, Pará State, and Aripuanã, Mato Grosso State, Brazil (e.g., Wilson and Findley, 1977; Wilson, 1978; Mok et al., 1982; Torres et al., 1988; Pine, 1993; Anderson, 1997; Herrera-Bernal et al., 1999; Nowak, 1999; Tschapka et al., 2000). Both species apparently occur in lowland forest areas. Thyroptera lavali is known from a few localities, including the type locality, Yavari Mirim River, Loreto Department (Pine, 1993), and at Camisea, Cuzco Department, and Alto Madre de Dios River, in Manu Biosphere Reserve, Peru (Solari et al., 2004), Orinoco Delta, Venezuela (Linares, 1998), Yasuni National Park, Napo Province, Ecuador (Reid et al., 2000), and Alter do Chão, Pará State, Brazil (Bernard and Fenton, 2002). Thyroptera tricolor and T. discifera may be distinguished by their size, the number of cartilaginous projections in the calcar and their fur color (Wilson and Findley, 1977; Wilson, 1978). Thyroptera lavali differs from both T. tricolor and T. discifera mainly by its larger size, larger free tail portion, wrist suction disk oblong, and more or less Acta Chiropterologica, 7(1): 165–188, 2005 PL ISSN 1508–1109

The impact of habitat fragmentation on the ecology of xenarthrans (Mammalia) in the Brazilian Cerrado

The impact of deforestation and fragmentation upon ecologically important and poorly known groups is currently an important issue for conservation biology. Herein we describe xenathran communities across the Brazilian Cerrado and study the effects of habitat fragmentation on occupancy and activity patterns on these assemblages. Our hypothesis was that larger and specialized species would be more ecologically sensitive, and likely to exhibit shifts in their activity patterns in more deforested areas as a way of dealing with the myriad of effects involved in the fragmentation process. The study was conducted by camera trapping in ten Cerrado sites. Five species were analyzed: Priodontes maximus, Euphractus sexcinctus, Dasypus novemcintus (Order Cingulata), Tamandua tetradactyla and Myrmecophaga tridactyla (Order Pilosa). Fragmentation was quantified by landscape metrics, calculated on scales that matched the species’ home ranges. Occupancy and detection probability analyses were conducted to test for shifts in occupancy under different fragmentation conditions. A mixed-effects model analysis was conducted to test for shifts in species’ frequency of records related to time of day, controlling for spatial autocorrelation by means of eigenvector-based spatial filters for the models’ residuals. There were no changes in activity pattern between more and less fragmented areas, so that our behavioural plasticity hypothesis was not corroborated for this group. The lack of changes in the patterns could be explained by a species’ time-lag response, or by the lack of a wide enough fragmentation gradient in our study.