Camera traps became the main observational method of a myriad of species over large areas. Data sets from camera traps can be used to describe the patterns and monitor the occupancy, abundance, and richness of wildlife, essential information for conservation in times of rapid climate and land-cover changes. Habitat loss and poaching are responsible for historical population losses of mammals in the Atlantic Forest biodiversity hotspot, especially for medium to large-sized species.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Its wide karyotypic variation characterizes the genus Ctenomys, and in Brazil, the genus is distributed in the country's southern, Midwest, and northern regions. Recently, populations of Ctenomys have been found in the Midwest and northern Brazil, with two new lineages named C. sp.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRampant urbanization in coastal environments turns areas close to the seafront into a highly impacted ecosystem, possibly affecting the health and well-being of resident animal species. The tuco-tuco Ctenomys flamarioni is an endemic and endangered subterranean mammal from southern Brazil, and the anthropic influence was considered one of the main threats to the species. In this context, the present study aimed to investigate the patterns of oxidative status of the species in natural areas with different levels of anthropogenic disturbance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Neotropical region hosts 4225 freshwater fish species, ranking first among the world's most diverse regions for freshwater fishes. Our NEOTROPICAL FRESHWATER FISHES data set is the first to produce a large-scale Neotropical freshwater fish inventory, covering the entire Neotropical region from Mexico and the Caribbean in the north to the southern limits in Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, and Uruguay. We compiled 185,787 distribution records, with unique georeferenced coordinates, for the 4225 species, represented by occurrence and abundance data.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMammalian carnivores are considered a key group in maintaining ecological health and can indicate potential ecological integrity in landscapes where they occur. Carnivores also hold high conservation value and their habitat requirements can guide management and conservation plans. The order Carnivora has 84 species from 8 families in the Neotropical region: Canidae; Felidae; Mephitidae; Mustelidae; Otariidae; Phocidae; Procyonidae; and Ursidae.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiological invasion is one of the main threats to native biodiversity. For a species to become invasive, it must be voluntarily or involuntarily introduced by humans into a nonnative habitat. Mammals were among first taxa to be introduced worldwide for game, meat, and labor, yet the number of species introduced in the Neotropics remains unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFKnowledge of how animal species use food resources available in the environment can increase our understanding of many ecological processes. However, obtaining this information using traditional methods is difficult for species feeding on a large variety of food items in highly diverse environments. We amplified the DNA of plants for 306 scat and 40 soil samples, and applied an environmental DNA metabarcoding approach to investigate food preferences, degree of diet specialization and diet overlap of seven herbivore rodent species of the genus Ctenomys distributed in southern and midwestern Brazil.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFReproductive compatibility usually decreases according to increasing genetic difference and the time of divergence between species. However, the amount of modification required to influence hybridization may vary in different species. Thus, it is extremely important to conduct studies that seek to understand what and how variables influence the reproductive isolation of species.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSpecies with similar ecological requirements coexisting in the same geographic region are prone to competitively exclude each other. Alternatively, they may coexist if character displacement acts to change the niche requirements of one or both species. We used two methodological approaches (ecological niche modeling [ENM] and geometric morphometrics) to test two hypotheses: given their behavioral, morphological, and ecological similarities, one species competitively excludes the other; and, character displacement enables their coexistence at two sites in which the species are known to occur in sympatry.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSubterranean rodents of the genus Ctenomys usually present an allopatric or parapatric distribution. Currently, two cases of sympatry have been recognized for the genus in the coastal dunes of southern Argentina and southern Brazil. In this context, they are ideal models to test hypotheses about the factors that delimit the patterns of space use and to understand interspecific interactions in small mammals.
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