Riqueza de espécies e uso de hábitats por mamíferos terrestres de médio e grande porte no alto rio Marmelos, Manicoré (AM)

Abstract

The lack of consensus of priority areas and species and the lack of faunal surveys have made difficult the adoption of efficient conservation actions for the mammals of the Amazon region. In this context, the region of the upper Marmelos River in south Amazonas state, still largely unexplored biologically, is threatened by increasing lumber extraction and monoculture agriculture and caule raising is considered priority for zoological inventaries. Thus, a mammal survey was carried out from 26 July to 10 Setember 2004, seeking to identify the medium and large ten-estrial species and to determine their habitat usage. Both direct (observation) and indirect methods (footprints) were used over 228 km of linear transects. In four sampled vegetation types (open forest, closed forest, tropical savanna and tropical scrub forest a total of 50 species was recorded, 36 through primary observation of animals or their footprints. Of these, 12 are species presents at IUCN list. Observing footprints gave the largest number of species and was the fastest method. The largest percentage (45%) of the registered species showed generalist behavior in habitat usage, being found in both open and closed vegetation. This corroborates the trend described in the literature for areas with similar vegetation formations. Open forest was the environment that sheltered the largest number of species, as well as being the most-used habitat.