Managed forest as habitat for gray brocket deer (Mazama gouazoubira) in agricultural landscapes of southeastern Brazil

Abstract

Because of massive conversion of natural habitat into cropland, the future of many tropical mammals depends on understanding how agricultural landscapes influence biodiversity. We assessed the effects of natural and anthropogenic land covers and disturbances on occupancy of gray brocket deer (Mazama gouazoubira) in 3 agricultural landscapes in the Brazilian Cerrado where sugarcane or managed forest cover most (> 50%) of the landscape. We used camera-trap surveys to quantify the relationships between deer occurrence and land cover, unpaved roads, urban areas, waterways, and degrees of legal protection. We found a strong and positive effect of managed forests, indicating that this land cover is good habitat for the brocket deer in our region. Native forests and sugarcane had, surprisingly, weaker effects on deer occupancy. Furthermore, the effect of sugarcane varied according to the amount of remaining natural forest: when the amount of natural forest surrounding the camera point was scarce, sugarcane had a negative effect on deer occupancy, but the effect was positive when natural forest was abundant. Our results confirm the ecological flexibility of gray brocket deer, even in landscapes where sugarcane monocultures or Eucalyptus plantations predominate. We caution however that the responses of deer might be different in landscapes more severely depleted of natural vegetation (< 20% at the landscape level). We therefore suggest that future research assess the population status of this deer in more deforested landscapes, and also consider the temporal dynamics of managed forests and sugarcane, as the vegetation cover can change drastically.

Craniometrical differentiation of gray brocket deer species from Brazil

“…This diversity of ecosystems and seasonal regimes can influence several aspects of their ecology (selection, habitat, diet, density and reproduction), in addition to their social behaviour, causing certain variations within and between populations. This species is relatively resilient; being capable to live in agroecosystems intermixed with small forest fragments (Pinder & Leeuwenberg, 1997;Rodrigues et al, 2014Rodrigues et al, , 2017. In the Amazonian region, it is probably replaced by Mazama nemorivaga, a hypothesis that has not been fully tested (Duarte, 1996;Rossi, 2000;Black-Decima et al, 2010;Rossi et al, 2010)…”

Peer Review #2 of "Habitat suitability and connectivity inform a co-management policy of protected area network for Asian elephants in China (v0.2)"

“…For example, selectively logged forests appear to maintain ~90% of the original biodiversity compared to primary forest (Berry et al, 2010, Brodie et al, 2014, and retention forestry, whereby a proportion of original vegetation is left unlogged, further reduces the negative impacts on biodiversity (Gaveau et al, 2013, Fedrowitz et al, 2014. Among NRs, efforts should be paid to protect community-owned forests, which represent a major proportion of natural forests and are critical for elephants (Kumar et al, 2010, Evans et al, 2018 and other wildlife (Rodrigues et al, 2017, Rodrigues & Chiarello, 2018. Meanwhile, integrating traditional farmlands into PANs can fulfill human needs and encourage the participation of villagers.…”

Occurrence of tayras (Eira barbara Linnaeus, 1758) with anomalous coloration in Cerrado remnants in the state of São Paulo, Brazil

“…The data presented here was collected during a project evaluating the effects of environmental variables and anthropogenic disturbance on occupancy of mammal species in southeast Brazil (Paolino et al 2016, Rodrigues et al 2017. The study was carried out in three agricultural landscapes within the Cerrado domain in São Paulo state ( Figure 1).…”

“…The region is also a transition zone between Cerrado and Atlantic Forest, characterized often by remnants of Cerrado physiognomies, mostly "Cerradão" (sclerophyllous woodland, Toppa 2004). The remnants are surrounded by a heterogeneous matrix made up of Eucalyptus and sugarcane plantations, other agricultural crops and urban areas (Rodrigues et al 2017). Each of the three study landscapes differed in land cover type composition.…”