Conservation units in the core area of the Cerrado domain: an overview on the small nonvolant mammals (Rodentia and Didelphimorphia)

Abstract

A review of small non-volant mammal species of the APA Gama e Cabeça de Veado was carried out, including new surveys in the “Estação Ecológica do Jardim Botânico” (EEJBB) and “Reserva Ecológica do Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística” (REIBGE). Thirty-one small mammal’s species are registered for the APA Gama and Cabeça de Veado, including one exotic species. Didelphis albiventris, Hylaeamys megacephalus, and Oxymycterus delator were collected for the first time in EEJBB. The APA Gama-Cabeça de Veado has a central position in the Cerrado domain sharing six species with the Amazon domain, five with Atlantic Forest, and 13 with Caatinga. The APA Gama-Cabeça de Veado encompasses the home range of at least six non-volant small mammal species endemic of Cerrado domain, and it has an important role in the protection of these endemic species and species that occurs in those four South America morphoclimatic domains.

Habitat Heterogeneity and Geographic Location as Major Drivers of Cerrado Small Mammal Diversity Across Multiple Spatial Scales

“…This is the first study to analyze this variable in a standardized way, evidencing rich small mammal assemblages throughout the Cerrado, reinforcing the high richness previously found in independent surveys at different portions of the biome (12-24 species; e.g., Bonvicino et al, 2005Bonvicino et al, , 2012Bonvicino et al, , 2014bCáceres et al, 2007Cáceres et al, , 2011aBezerra et al, 2009;Pereira and Geise, 2009;Carmignotto and Aires, 2011;Rocha R. G. et al, 2011Rocha R. G. et al, , 2014Santos-Filho et al, 2012;Carmignotto et al, 2014;Gomes et al, 2015;Carmignotto, 2019;Ribeiro et al, 2020). Long-term inventories comprising the wet and dry seasons typical of the Cerrado may also yield a higher number of individuals and species, especially considering naturally rare species (e.g., 1-4 individuals across localities), and those that present a great variation in abundance between seasons (Bonvicino et al, 2014b;Gomes et al, 2015;Rocha et al, 2017;Ribeiro et al, 2019). In fact, higher sampling effort in the NORTH raised the previous species richness to 23 (Carmignotto and Aires, 2011), and the same was found for NORTHWEST (21 species; Santos-Filho et al, 2012); SOUTHEAST (18 species; Furtado et al, 2021), and CENTRAL (16 species;Carmignotto, 2005).…”