The Amazon forest has the highest biodiversity on earth. However, information on Amazonian vertebrate diversity is still deficient and scattered across the published, peer-reviewed and grey literature and in unpublished raw data. Camera traps are an effective non-invasive method of surveying vertebrates, applicable to different scales of time and space. In this study, we organized and standardized camera trap records from different Amazon regions to compile the most extensive dataset of inventories of mammal, bird and reptile species ever assembled for the area. The complete dataset comprises 154,123 records of 317 species (185 birds, 119 mammals and 13 reptiles) gathered from surveys from the Amazonian portion of eight countries (Brazil,
Hydropower constructions cause severe disturbances to biodiversity. Arboreal plants die after flooding; however, they expose their emerged branches (also called paliteiros) as a new habitat for animals and plants. Nothing is known about how paliteiros influence the presence of aquatic birds. This study verified which species of birds use the paliteiros, what are their behaviors and probably consequences to ecological processes. In November 2018, we sampled 5 km of paliteiros recording perched birds and their behaviors in the Três Marias dam, a 1040 km2 flooded area in southeastern Brazil. In total, 5.4% of paliteiros were used by 14 bird species. The Neotropic Cormorant Nannopterum brasilianus (Gmelin, 1789) was the most frequent species. Birds mainly preened feathers; they also rested (with no apparent activity), defecated, hunted, fed, vocalized and drank water. Attention must be focused to some behaviors such as resting and defecation, which may influence long-term ecological processes (e.g., incorporating additional organic matter and changing aquatic community) in the dam.
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