|
Vol. 48 No. 6, 2009
Small Non-Volant Mammals of an Ecotone Region between the
Cerrado Hotspot and the Amazonian Rainforest, with Comments on Their
Taxonomy and Distribution
Alexandra
M. R. Bezerra1,*, Ana Paula Carmignotto2, and
Flávio H. G. Rodrigues3
1Departamento
de Zoologia, Universidade de Brasília, CEP 70910-900, Brasília, DF,
Brazil. E-mail:abezerra@fst.com.br
2Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Campus Sorocaba,
Rodovia João Leme dos Santos (SP-264) Km 110, Bairro Itinga, CEP
18052-780, Sorocaba, SP, Brazil. E-mail:apcarmig@ufscar.br
3Departamento de Biologia Geral, and Pró-Carnívoros
Institute, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. Av. Antônio
Carlos, 6627, Pampulha, CP 486, CEP 31270-901, Belo Horizonte, MG,
Brazil. E-mail:rodrigues@procarnivoros.org.br
Alexandra
M. R. Bezerra, Ana Paula Carmignotto, and Flávio H. G. Rodrigues (2009)
Araguaia National Park is located on Bananal I., Tocantins state,
Brazil. This conservation unit exists in the transitional area
between Cerrado, a tropical savanna hotspot, and Amazonian
biomes. Transitional zones are thought to be characterized by
high species richness due to the overlap of species distributional
ranges, and by a high level of endemism provided by the uniqueness of
these regions. The aim of this study was to survey small
non-volant mammals and analyze the species composition, richness, and
endemism in order to test the above hypotheses, and to contribute to
the increasing knowledge of the mammalian fauna of the Cerrado, since
the northern portion of this biome is one of the most poorly
known. We surveyed marsupials and small rodents using both live
and pitfall traps with total trapping efforts of 2259 live trap-nights
and 3200 pitfall trap-nights. We found that typical inhabitants
of the Cerrado biome occurred side by side with species commonly
distributed in the Amazonian rainforest, in addition to the presence of
2 regionally endemic rodents. Nevertheless, the low species
richness (13 species) and percentage of endemics surveyed demonstrate
that Bananal I. presents some special characteristics, such as climate
seasonality and periodic inundation, which may have influenced the
small non-volant mammal community richness and composition, which need
to be further studied.
Key words: Small
rodents, Marsupials, Cerrado, Amazonian rainforest, Zoogeography.
*Correspondence: Tel: 55-21-93365439.
|
