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| Author(s): |
Renato Matos Marques
Total Authors: 1
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| Document type: | Master's Dissertation |
| Press: | Piracicaba. |
| Institution: | Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALA/BC) |
| Defense date: | 2004-12-20 |
| Examining board members: |
Mauro Galetti Rodrigues;
Wesley Rodrigues Silva;
Carlos Alberto Vettorazzi
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| Advisor: | Mauro Galetti Rodrigues |
| Abstract | |
The aim of this work was to estimate the abundance, diversity and population size of game birds and mammals from the rain forest at Serra do Mar State Park (Parque Estadual da Serra do Mar - PESM), and to identify the variables which influence the ocurrence and distribution of those species. The PESM has 3.150 km2 and is the major continuous remaining of Atlantic Forest in Brazil. A total of 633,55 km census using line transect method, distributed on 15 trails on the north-sector of PESM, resulted in 184 observations, which 77 of those were encounters with game mammals and 107 with birds. Eleven species of mammals and six of birds were recorded during the census. Among game birds the most abundant was the guan, Penelope spp. (0,99 encounters/10 km), and among the game mammals was the squirrel, Sciurus aestuans (0,48 encounters/10 km). The species presented different habitat uses, activity and ocurrence patterns, but when analysing the environmental variables with canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) we detected that the birds were correlated with fruit aviability, while mammals were more correlated to the vegetation structure, such as canopy cover, arboreal density and palms (not palmito) density, this last one specially to the whitelipped- peccaries (Tayassu pecari). The hunting pressure affected negatively most of the species, except for S. aestuans and Penelope spp., which seems to not be intensively hunted at the study areas. Using the densities obtained we estimated the remaining population to the study areas and also to the different scenarios proposed. Even considering only 500 as a minimum number of individuals necessary to guarantee the viability of those populations, the study areas, when analyzed separally, could not maintain most of the game species. It does get worst when considering higher numbers of minimum viable population. Moreover, the results indicate better chances of maintaining populations of the species when considering the area of the north-sector and higher chances when considering the entire park. This fact regards the importance of the connectivity between these areas and the necessity of maintaining large continuous block of forests. PESM can be considered one of the most important areas for the conservation of game species and its a strategic area in a context of an ecological corridor, due to its richness, quality of forest remains, presence of rare and threatened species, biogeographic localization and also by the altitudinal gradient. (AU) | |