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Carnivore mammals in a fragmented landscape in northeast of São Paulo State, Brazil

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Abstract

São Paulo is the most developed state in Brazil and little of its native vegetation remains. In Luiz Antonio and Santa Rita do Passa Quatro municipalities, only small fragments of cerrado (Brazilian savanna) physiognomies (cerradão, cerrado sensu stricto) and of semideciduous forest have been left, surrounded by eucalyptus silviculture and sugar-cane agriculture. However, that vegetation mosaic still shelters large mammals, including several carnivore species. To detect the carnivores present in such a mosaic area (50,000 ha), and to find out how they use the landscape, we recorded them through 21 camera traps and 21 track plots, during 18 months. Species richness, diversity and relative frequency were evaluated according to the habitat. Ten species were recorded, some of them locally threatened to extinction (Puma concolor, Leopardus pardalis, Chrysocyon brachyurus). Species diversity did not significantly differ among fragments, and although most species preferred one or another habitat, the carnivore community as a whole explored all the study area regardless of the vegetation cover; eucalyptus plantations were as used by the carnivores as the native fragments. Therefore, it seems possible to maintain such animals in agricultural landscapes, where some large native fragments are left and the matrix is permeable to native fauna.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. Luciano Martins Verdade, Dr. Sérgio Tadeu Meirelles, Dr. Carlos Piña and Ms. C. Thiago Timo for the suggestions on the manuscript; they also express their gratitude to the Neotropical Grassland Conservancy and to CNPq for financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Conservation and Landscape Ecology, Department of Ecology, University of São Paulo, Rua do Matão, Travessa 14, 321, Cidade Universitária, CEP 05508-900, São Paulo, Brazil

    Maria Carolina Lyra-Jorge, Giordano Ciocheti & Vânia Regina Pivello

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  1. Maria Carolina Lyra-Jorge
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  2. Giordano Ciocheti
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  3. Vânia Regina Pivello
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Correspondence to Maria Carolina Lyra-Jorge.

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Lyra-Jorge, M.C., Ciocheti, G. & Pivello, V.R. Carnivore mammals in a fragmented landscape in northeast of São Paulo State, Brazil. Biodivers Conserv 17, 1573–1580 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-008-9366-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-008-9366-8

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