Sloths of the Atlantic Forest in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries

Moreira, Danielle Oliveira; Mendes, Sérgio Lucena

doi:10.1590/0001-3765201620150758

Cited by 4 publications

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References 3 publications

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“…Moreover, individual three-toed sloths are specialists, roosting and consuming leaves from only a few tree species within the forest [28]. Several authors have proposed that three-toed sloths exhibit a strong relationship with Cecropia trees [29,30]-trees that exhibit a high ratio of protein content and a low fibre and chemical defences content [31,32]-and for many years, it was believed that three-toed sloths only consumed Cecropia leaves [33,34]. Indeed, the distribution of Bradypus spp.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The demography of a resource specialist in the tropics: Cecropia trees and the fitness of three-toed sloths

2019

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Resource specialists persist in a narrow range of resources. Consequently, the abundance of key resources should drive vital rates, individual fitness, and population viability. While Neotropical forests feature both high levels of biodiversity and numbers of specialist species, no studies have directly evaluated how the variation of key resources affects the fitness of a tropical specialist. Here, we quantified the effect of key tree species density and forest cover on the fitness of three-toed sloths (Bradypus variegatus), an arboreal folivore strongly associated with Cecropia trees in Costa Rica, using a multi-year demographic, genetic, and space-use dataset. We found that the density of Cecropia trees was strongly and positively related to both adult survival and reproductive output. A matrix model parametrized with Cecropia-demography relationships suggested positive growth of sloth populations, even at low densities of Cecropia (0.7 trees ha 21 ). Our study shows the first direct link between the density of a key resource to demographic consequences of a tropical specialist, underscoring the sensitivity of tropical specialists to the loss of a single key resource, but also point to targeted conservation measures to increase that resource. Finally, our study reveals that previously disturbed and regenerating environments can support viable populations of tropical specialists.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The demography of a resource specialist in the tropics: Cecropia trees and the fitness of three-toed sloths

2019

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Taxonomic revision of maned sloths, subgenusBradypus(Scaeopus), Pilosa, Bradypodidae, with revalidation ofBradypus crinitusGray, 1850

Miranda

Garbino

Machado

et al. 2022

Journal of Mammalogy

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We present a taxonomic revision of maned sloths, subgenus Bradypus (Scaeopus), a taxon endemic to the Brazilian Atlantic Forest and currently composed of a single species, the vulnerable Bradypus torquatus. Our review is based on coalescent species delimitation analyses using mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, morphological analyses, and field observations. Our integrative approach demonstrates that two species of maned sloth can be recognized: the northern maned sloth (Bradypus torquatusIlliger, 1811) occurring in the Brazilian states of Bahia and Sergipe, and the southern maned sloth (Bradypus crinitusGray, 1850), occurring in Rio de Janeiro and Espirito Santo states. The two species diverged in the Early Pliocene and are allopatrically distributed. We discuss the biogeographic pattern of the two maned sloth species, comparing it with other Atlantic Forest mammals. We also suggest that the conservation status of both maned sloths needs to be reassessed after this taxonomic rearrangement.

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Naming an unknown animal: the case of the sloth (Folivora)

Berrens

2020

Archives of Natural History

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The sloth (Folivora) is a mammal from Central and South America that struck the early modern ( c.1500–1800) European naturalists as especially odd. Hence, descriptions and depictions of this animal featured in many texts from this period. Apart from its physiognomy and its behaviour, the naming of the sloth was discussed in detail, and scholars came up with various names and etymologies for the animal. Several European and Amerindian languages were involved in this complex naming process, while Latin played a decisive role as the lingua franca in establishing a scholarly discourse. The paper focuses on written sources from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; it tries to reconstruct how the given names and their etymologies were connected to the perceived behaviour and the physiognomy, and what this might tell us about the conceptions behind these. The results are compared to similar findings from anthropology and ethnobiology.

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Sloths of the Atlantic Forest in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries

Cited by 4 publications

References 3 publications

The demography of a resource specialist in the tropics: Cecropia trees and the fitness of three-toed sloths

The demography of a resource specialist in the tropics: Cecropia trees and the fitness of three-toed sloths

Taxonomic revision of maned sloths, subgenusBradypus(Scaeopus), Pilosa, Bradypodidae, with revalidation ofBradypus crinitusGray, 1850

Naming an unknown animal: the case of the sloth (Folivora)

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