Inventário preliminar de pequenos mamíferos não-voadores da floresta nacional do tapirapé-aquiri, sudeste do Pará, Brasil

Abstract

The Amazon biome is the largest and most diverse tropical forest in the world, with most of its extension in the Brazilian territory. Despite its importance for biodiversity and the great effort of many biologists, there are still several gaps in knowledge about its mammals, especially in relation to small non-flying mammals. Among the eight areas of endemism recognized for this biome, the Xingu area, located between the Tocantins and Xingu rivers, is the one with the second smallest extension (about 392,468 krn') and the second highest percentage of deforestation (26.75% of the total area). Few studies on small non-flying mammals have been conducted in this area of endemism. This study aimed to inventory the small non-flying mammals of the Tapirapé Aquiri National Forest, located in the municipalities of Marabá and São Félix do Xingu, in the southeastern region of the state of Pará. Specimens were captured using Sherman and Tomahawk traps, placed both on the ground and in the understory (1-2 m high), during the 10 days of collection. The total capture effort was 6000 trap-nights (for each trap type there was an effort of 3000 trap-nights). 101 individuals were captured, belonging to six species of marsupials and six of rodents. The capture success for this first collection was 1.68%, the Sherman traps obtained a success of 1.66%, while the Tomahawk traps, 1.4%. Regarding the stratum in which the traps were located, those on the ground obtained a success rate of 1.22%, while those in the understory obtained 0.47%. The species accumulation curves for this collection and the number of species captured in other studies in the same region, showed that only part of the community was accessed, justifying the future collections that will be carried out for this inventory, which will allow an adequate characterization of the community of small non-flying mammals of the present study area. Although preliminary, the results presented here suggest that the Tapirapé-Aquiri Flona has a rich fauna of small non-flying mammals.