Small mammals of Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park (Cerrado of Central Brazil): ecologic, karyologic, and taxonomic considerations

Abstract

This work is based on a survey of small mammals carried out in the Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park, a natural reserve located in the mountains of the Planalto Central Goiano in the Cerrado of Central Brazil. The 227 specimens collected represented six marsupial and 13 rodent species. Taxonomic, karyologic, and ecologic considerations are present and discussed in the present work. Our data reflected the faunal heterogeneity with respect to both elevation and vegetation because only eight of the 19 species were collected at both high and low elevations. The composition of the small mammal fauna of the park is influenced by predominance of forest formations at low elevations and cerrado with rupestrian areas at high elevations. Presence of endemic species and one undescribed demonstrated that the cerrado has an endemic fauna and a little known diversity of small mammals.

Seasonally flooded stepping stones: emerging diversity of small mammal assemblage in the Amazonia-Cerrado ecotone, central Brazil

“…As argued by Carmignotto (2005), zoogeographical patterns observed in the Cerrado are related with the distance to adjacent biomes and their contribution to the small mammal assemblages of this biome. For example, group II has great influence of the Amazonia as mentioned above (Lacher and Alho 2001;Carmignotto 2005;Cáceres et al 2008;Bezerra et al 2009;Rocha et al 2011;Santos-Filho et al 2012); group III and sites 20 and 22 have great influence of Pantanal and Chaco, accounting with species such as Thylamys macrurus, Marmosa constantiae and Oligoryzomys chacoensis (Carmignotto 2005;Cáceres et al 2010Cáceres et al , 2011Hannibal and Cáceres 2010;Napoli and Cáceres 2012); group IV accounts with typical and endemic Cerrado species, such as Calomys expulsus, Olygoryzomys moojeni and Rhipidomys macrurus (Mares and Ernest 1995;Bonvicino et al 2002Bonvicino et al , 2005Bonvicino and Bezerra 2003;Carmignotto 2005;Pereira and Geise 2009;Carmignotto and Aires 2011); and finally, group V and site 29 have influence of Atlantic forest, accounting with species such as Marmosops incanus and Philander frenatus (Rodrigues et al 2002;Carmignotto 2005;Paglia et al 2005;Gheler-Costa et al 2012).…”

Veredas and their use by birds in the Cerrado, South America: a review

“…Veredas harbor a considerable species richness of grasses, shrubs and trees (Silva & Felfili 1998, Filgueiras 2002. Also, veredas are among the habitat requirements of a diverse range of wildlife (Villalobos 1994, Marinho et al 1998, Bonvicino et al 2005.…”

Astyanax goyanensis (Miranda-Ribeiro, 1944), new combination and Astyanax courensis, new species (Ostariophysi: Characiformes): two Characidae from the upper rio Tocantins basin, Central Brazil

“…The Chapada dos Veadeiros region inserted in the Brazilian Cerrado, is one of the world's biodiversity hotspots (Myers et al, 2000;Silva & Bates, 2002;Klink & Machado, 2005), sheltering endemic species in Plantae (Irwin & Arroyo, 1973;Pastore & Cavalcante, 2008;Pastore & Marques, 2009), Trichoptera (Calor, 2008), Anura (Bockermann, 1975;Caramaschi & Cruz, 2000), Aves (Silva, 1997;Tubelis, 2009), and Mammalia (Bonvicino et al, 2005). The lack of recognition of endemic species leads to their exclusion/forgetfulness from lists of threatened species, and the consequent absence of efforts and funds for their conservation and of the ecoregions that harbor them.…”