Diet of Lycalopex vetulus (fox) and its role as seed disperser in a silvicultural landscape of São Paulo state

• Grant number: 12/23186-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: February 01, 2013
• End date: January 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Applied Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Carla Gheler Costa
• Grantee: Lais Reia
• Host Institution: Pró-Reitoria de Pesquisa e Pós-Graduação. Universidade do Sagrado Coração (USC). Bauru , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Carnivores act as important ecological components of ecosystems, because they control the abundance, distribution and diversity of the populations of their prey. Thus, they are considered as key species in the restoration and maintenance of diversity and ecosystem resilience. Most species of carnivores has certain specifics related mainly to the size of the area of lifestyle and diet. Changes in anthropogenic landscape changes in diet cause the species, ie, some adaptations to the new composition of the landscape occur over time mainly due to dietary factors such as reduction of preferred prey. Although the fox, Lycalopex vetulus, is a relatively common canid, there is not much information about your diet and its role as a seed disperser in the different habitats where it occurs mainly in the case of altered landscapes predominantly forestry. Thus, this study aims to report the diet of L. vetulus and its importance as dispersers and / or seed predator, and to test the rate of seed germination after they pass through the digestive tract. Information from the diet will indicate the possible paths found by adaptive species for survival in a fragmented landscape with agricultural and urban components.(AU)