Comunidade de mamíferos de médio e grande porte em um mosaico de fitofisionomias na Mata Atlântica no estado do Espírito Santo, Brasil

Abstract

The Atlantic Forest is considered one of the five "hotspots" more diverse, with a complex set of ecosystems that holds a significant portion of the biological diversity of Brazil. The State of Espírito Santo, located in the Southeast, had almost 90% of its surface covered by Atlantic Forest, however with the Portuguese colonization process, the land use and industrialization, there was only 8% of the original forest cover. With all the existing information about the Neotropical species of medium and large mammals there are still many gaps in our knowledge. In this context, this work was developed in four chapters in order to conduct a survey that results in richness data, composition, abundance, population density, activity period, distribution and habitat use by species of medium and large mammals, the Vale Natural Reserve (RNV), north of the Espírito Santo state. So aiming to generate more information for increase the knowledge of the ecology of Neotropical mammals, as well as providing information for this taxa to support environmental policies and actions for the conservation of biodiversity. For this study was conducted monthly sampling from April 2013 period to June 2014 in RNV through camera trapping (39 camera traps) and also linear transects. The records obtained from 39 camera traps resulted in a total of 7020 days of monitoring. 23245 photos of 26 species of medium and large sized mammals were observed. Higher richness and records of species occurred in the camera traps located in Northern RNV. The distance of the water resource is positively related to the composition of mammals and the amount of hunting records in this study had a marginally negative effect on the frequency of records in the western and southern regions, where they presented a higher incidence of hunting. Our results show that these species are not evenly distributed within the reserve, with the occupation of the same having been affected by four main covariates: (1) distance between trees; (2) distance from the road; (3) distance from the nearest water source and (4) density of lianas per hectare. The detectability of species that are considered hunting was affected by the history of hunting records. Most of the recorded species that had a high probability of occupation are rare or even locally extinct in other areas of the Atlantic Forest domain. In addition our data confirm that the RNV still holds a rich medium and large size mammal fauna, including large herbivores, seed dispersers and some carnivores. Although the study was conducted in only one area, it is worth remembering that the RNV, along with REBIO Sooretama, form the largest protected area of block within the Espírito Santo state and also one of the largest fragment of "Mata de Tabuleiro" of the Atlantic Forest. Thus, for the conservation of the species of the RNV, one must consider not only the isolated reserve, but all Linhares-Sooretama block, since they are connected allowing the population growth and the genetic exchange between populations. Only in this way will increase the probability of survival and maintenance of the species in the long term