Diversidade da mastofauna do arquipélago de Marajó

Abstract

With more than five hundred mammal species described for its territory, Brazil is the country with the richest mammal fauna in the West. Of Brazil's mammal species, approximately 60% occur in the Amazon region, and of these, about 59% are endemic. The Marajó archipelago, in the Amazon River estuary, is composed of islands of varied territorial extension, very distinct from each other in terms of fauna composition and vegetation physiognomy, with large extensions of beaches on the banks of the islands, and a complex hydrographic network in its interior. This makes up a true mosaic of different types of vegetation, with very particular ecological characteristics, which is possibly reflected in the variability of the fauna communities. Despite the constant expeditions of mastozoologists to this region, the Marajó archipelago has not yet been the target of a detailed examination of its mastofauna. However, it is expected that the richness of mammalian diversity in the archipelago corresponds to about half of the continental total, as already observed for primates. The present study aims to evaluate the state of knowledge about the diversity of mammals in the Marajó Archipelago, providing support for future decisions regarding the conservation of areas of higher species richness. The initial listing of taxa in the study area predicts the occurrence of 71 species, distributed in 28 families of all eleven orders described for the Amazon. This inventory was based on records from the collection of the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, the Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo, the Museu Nacional of the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, and on the review of available literature. However, these numbers are not definitive and will increase as new inventories and systematic revisions are made of groups that have been little studied and whose taxonomy is still confused. The georeferencing of the localities of record was completed and is being used to generate a map of the mammalian record points in the archipelago in order to determine priority areas and taxonomic groups for conservation, and also to conduct new studies.