Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world and the first of the megadiversity countries, accounting for roughly 14% of the world's biota. It has the largest mammal diversity (more than 530 described species) with many yet to be discovered and cataloged. Very few sites have been adequately surveyed, and local lists are usually incomplete, which makes for knowledge gaps that hamper conservation and management initiatives and regional analyses. According to the Brazilian Institute for the Environment (IBAMA), 66 species are threatened, and the World Conservation Union lists 74. Primates, mostly Atlantic Forest endemics, are the most endangered group (40% of the threatened taxa). Carnivores and rodents are also notable members of the lists. Twenty-nine percent of listed species are marine, 18% occur in the Atlantic Forest, 13% in the Pampas, 12% in the Cerrado, 11% in the Pantanal, 7% in the Amazon, and 6% in the Caatinga. Human-induced habitat loss and fragmentation are major threats to land mammals in Brazil, and large-and medium-sized mammals are hunted. The major threat to small mammals is the scarcity of basic scientific knowledge-taxonomy, systematics, distribution, and natural history. Aquatic mammals are threatened by commercial hunting, accidental netting, long-line fisheries, chemical pollution, habitat degradation, tourism, and boat traffic. Mammal conservation has benefited from a number of recent initiatives by government and nongovernmental organizations, including legislation, nationwide initiatives to define priority areas for conservation, management plans for some threatened species, sustainable landscape planning, and new protected areas. Given the rate of habitat loss, a nationwide program of short-and long-term field surveys and increased support for natural history collections is of particularly urgency. Progress has been made toward conserving Brazilian mammals in recent years, but threats are growing fast, and conservation science must keep growing to provide the wherewithal to minimize and remove these threats. Conservación de Mamíferos en BrasilResumen: Brasil es el quinto país más grande del mundo y el primero de los países megadiversos, con casi 14% de la biota mundial. Tiene la mayor diversidad de mamíferos (más de 530 especies descritas) con aun mucho por descubrir y catalogar. Pocos sitios han sido muestreados adecuadamente, y las listas locales generalmente están incompletas, lo que constituye huecos de conocimiento que obstaculizan iniciativas de conservación y manejo y análisis regionales. De acuerdo con el Instituto Brasileño del Medio Ambiente (IBAMA), sesenta y seis especies están amenazadas, y la Unión de Conservación Mundial enlista 74. Los Primates, principalmente endémicos del bosque Atlántico, son el grupo en mayor peligro. Veintinueve porciento de las especies enlistadas son marinas, 18% ocurren en el bosque Atlántico, 13% en las Pampas, 12% en el Cerrado, 11% en el Pantanal, 7% en el Amazonas y 6% en la Caatinga. La pérdida y fragmentación de hábitat inducida por huma...

The crab-eating fox (Cerdocyon thous (Linnaeus, 1766)) and the raccoon (Procyon cancrivorus (Cuvier, 1798)) are medium-sized nocturnal carnivores (3–8 kg) belonging, respectively, to families Canidae and Procyonidae (Berta 1982, Langguth 1975, Yanosky & Mercolli 1993). Both are widely distributed over the Neotropical Region (Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Surinam, French Guiana, Paraguay, Uruguay, northern Argentina and the greater part of Brazil) (Berta 1982, Brady 1979, Langguth 1975, Santos & Hartz 1999), being sympatric over most of their range. In Brazil both species are found in various different habitats, including the coastal plains (restingas) (Berta 1987, Langguth 1975, Motta-Junior et al. 1994, Novaes 2002, Santos & Hartz 1999, Wang & Sampaio 2001).

We monitored the birth patterns of sympatric brown howler monkeys (Alouatta fusca clamitans) and northern muriquis (Brachyteles arachnoides hypoxanthus) during a 4-yr period from October 1996 to August 2000 at the Estação Biológica de Caratinga, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Brown howler monkey births (n = 34) occurred throughout the year, and birth frequencies did not differ between rainy and dry season months. The aseasonal birth patterns of the howler monkeys differed significantly from the dry season concentration and dry month peak in muriqui births (n = 23). We found no effects of infant sex or the number of females on interbirth intervals (IBIs) in our 10 howler monkey study troops. IBIs of brown howler monkeys averaged 21.2 +/- 2.5 mo (n = 8, median = 21.0 mo), and were significantly shorter following dry season births than rainy season births. Their IBIs and yearling survivorship (74%) were similar to those reported for other species of howler monkeys, but yearling survivorship was much lower than that of muriquis (94%), whose IBIs were more than 12 mo longer than those of the howler monkeys. Our study extends comparative knowledge of birth patterns in Alouatta to a poorly known species, and provides insights into the different ways in which diet and life history may affect the timing of births in large-bodied platyrrhines under the same seasonal ecological conditions.

This study identifies the food habits of the margay, Leopardus wiedii (Schinz, 1821), and the jaguarundi, Puma yagouaroundi (É. Geoffroy Saint-Hilare, 1803), in the Vale do Rio Doce Natural Reserve and in the Sooretama Biological Reserve, Espírito Santo, Brazil. We determined the diet of both species by the analysis of scats. Fecal samples were collected from April 1995 to September 2000 and identified based on the presence of hairs that were ingested during self-grooming. Scats were oven-dried and washed on a sieve, and the screened material was identified using a reference collection. Of the 59 fecal samples examined, 30 were confirmed to be from the margay and nine of them from the jaguarundi. Mammals were the most consumed items in the diet of the margay, occurring in 77% of the fecal samples, followed by birds (53%) and reptiles (20%). Among the mammals consumed, marsupials (Didelphimorphia) were the most common item (66%). In the diet of the jaguarundi, birds were the most consumed items and occurred in 55% of the fecal samples; mammals and reptiles occurred in 41% and in 17% of the fecal samples, respectively. From this work we conclude that the margay and jaguarundi fed mainly upon small vertebrates in the Vale do Rio Doce Natural Reserve and in the Sooretama Biological Reserve. Although sample sizes are therefore insufficient for quantitative comparisons, margays prey more frequently upon arboricolous mammals than jaguarundis, which in turn prey more frequently upon birds and reptiles than margays. This seems to reflect a larger pattern throughout their geographic rang

Levels of reproductive skew vary in wild primates living in multimale groups depending on the degree to which high-ranking males monopolize access to females. Still, the factors affecting paternity in egalitarian societies remain unexplored. We combine unique behavioral, life history, and genetic data to evaluate the distribution of paternity in the northern muriqui (Brachyteles hypoxanthus), a species known for its affiliative, nonhierarchical relationships. We genotyped 67 individuals (22 infants born over a 3-y period, their 21 mothers, and all 24 possible sires) at 17 microsatellite marker loci and assigned paternity to all infants. None of the 13 fathers were close maternal relatives of females with which they sired infants, and the most successful male sired a much lower percentage of infants (18%) than reported for the most successful males in other species. Our findings of inbreeding avoidance and low male reproductive skew are consistent with the muriqui's observed social and sexual behavior, but the long delay (≥2.08 y) between the onset of male sexual behavior and the age at which males first sire young is unexpected. The allocation of paternity implicates individual male life histories and access to maternal kin as key factors influencing variation in paternaland grandmaternal-fitness. The apparent importance of lifelong maternal investment in coresident sons resonates with other recent examinations of maternal influences on offspring reproduction. This importance also extends the implications of the "grandmother hypothesis" in human evolution to include the possible influence of mothers and other maternal kin on male reproductive success in patrilocal societies.mating system | reproductive strategy | development | molecular ecology | Platyrrhini