Uso de habitat e padrão de atividade de médios e grandes mamíferos e nicho trófico de Lobo-Guará (Chrysocyon brachyurus), Onça-Parda (Puma concolor) e Jaguatirica (Leopardus pardalis) numa paisagem agroflorestal, no Est / Habitat use and activity patterns use of large and medium size mammals and niche overlap of Manned-wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus), Mountain-lion (Puma concolor) and ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) in a agroforest landscape, in São Paulo State

Giordano Ciocheti

The following study analyzed activity patterns and habitat use of large and medium size mammals as well as diet and trophic niche overlapping of feline and canid species in a fragmented area of the State of São Paulo. The landscape studied contains two fully protected conservation units with cerrado and semi-deciduous vegetation and also remnants of native semi-deciduous forest located in private properties. The general hypothesis of this study are: in more impacted environments, i, large and medium size mammal species tend to generalize their behavior regarding habitat use and activity patterns and ii, top food chain predators increase the competition for resources. The following aspects were studied through photographic traps and fecal sorting: a) frequency of different habitat use by large and medium size mammals; b) activity pattern of large and medium size mammals; c) diet and niche overlapping of three top food chain carnivores: Chrysocyon brachyurus, Puma concolor and Leopardus pardalis. Samples were withdrawn from seven fragments of native phytophysiognomies - cerrado sensu stricto, cerradão and semideciduous forest - and from areas of eucalyptus plantations. One hundred and sixty five photographs were obtained, where 17 species were identified. Two hundred and thirty three samples of feces were collected and identified, of which 93 of Chrysocyon brachyurus, 68 of Puma concolor, 38 of Leopardus pardalis, 30 of other small felines and 4 of Cerdocyon thous. The results show that, generally, large and medium size mammals use the entire area. However, more specialist mammals, such as the Sylvilagus brasiliensis, kept their preference for a more specific habitat. Spearman correlation tests demonstrated that those species which are more susceptible to anthropic alterations were more correlated with areas containing a higher connectivity and bigger size. The data also indicated that species are generalizing their behavior regarding the activity patterns: species that were active in some periods of the day are now remaining active in other periods as well. Among the carnivore species studied, Chrysocyon brachyurus was the specie with the most diversified diet, feeding on birds, reptiles, fruits, insects and mammals. Puma concolor and Leopardus pardalis had more restricted diets, where 90% of the items ingested belonged to other mammals. The trophic niche of C. brachyurus and L. pardalis species were strongly overlapped, indicating competition between them. The results obtained through photographic traps and diet analysis indicate that there might be a relation between more conserved areas (less isolated larger areas immersed in more permeable matrixes) and the frequency of mammals, the overlapping niche of top food chain carnivores ad the density of feces found.

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