The maned wolf's food web in agricultural landscape revealed by stable isotopes

• Grant number: 15/15110-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: October 17, 2015
• End date: January 30, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Applied Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Plínio Barbosa de Camargo
• Grantee: Thaís Rovere Diniz Reis
• Supervisor: Keith Alan Hobson
• Host Institution: Centro de Energia Nuclear na Agricultura (CENA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of Saskatchewan (USASK), Canada
• Associated to the scholarship: 11/22910-3 - Spatial ecology of wild canids in a silvicultural landscape on state of Sao Paulo, BP.DR

Abstract

Data on food web are essential to effective wildlife management, especially in agricultural landscapes. Although it is scarce for most neotropical species, including the threatened maned wolf. Since this charismatic canid is an omnivore predator of several prey species, it could be a key-species on ecological investigations of ecosystems trophic function and services. Therefore, this project aims to investigate the food web structure of the maned wolf in agricultural landscape of Sao Paulo, Brazil. For this, we will use non-invasive approaches as stable isotope analysis (d13C and d15N) of macroscopic non-digested prey remains (i.e., fruits, invertebrates and small vertebrates), as well as maned wolf hair found in its faeces. The food web structure will be modelled at specific software based on taxonomy and isotope values of prey and predator to identify the key-species of prey and its foraging use of space. The novel findings might enhance the ecological understanding of maned wolf trophic behaviour, particularly in agricultural landscapes, which are still an obscure habitat for Brazilian wildlife and neglected in their conservation plans.