Abundance of Conepatus chinga (Carnivora, Mephitidae) and other medium-sized mammals in grasslands of southern Brazil

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Between January 2007 and December 2010, the abundance of medium-sized mammals was studied, with special focus on the Molina's hog-nosed skunk, Conepatus chinga (Molina, 1782), at four locations in southern Brazil. In this study, transect line methodology was used to obtain data for Distance Analyses. Transects were traveled by car at night, searching with spotlights along the edges of secondary roads in agricultural landscapes. Along 1,811 km, we obtained 620 observations of 20 mammal species. The most common species was the exotic European hare, Lepus europaeus (Pallas, 1778); the highest abundance estimated for South America was observed in one of the study areas, where its density was estimated as 32 individuals/km². Carnivores were the most commonly recorded mammals, represented by 10 species and comprising 51% of all observations. Molina's hog-nosed skunk occurred in all study areas, but occurred in sufficient numbers to obtain density estimates in only two of the areas. We estimated 1.4 to 3.8 individuals/km², in the first density estimate made by the transect method for a member of Conepatus in the Neotropics. These values are similar to those estimated for North American species of Mephitidae. In Brazil, C. chinga is apparently more abundant in the Pampa biome than in the grasslands of the Atlantic Forest. For two other carnivores, Lycalopex gymnocercus (Fisher, 1814) and Cerdocyon thous (Linnaeus, 1766), we estimated preliminary densities that were similar to those previously cited for different regions.

Trophic relationships of sympatric small carnivores in fragmented landscapes of southern Brazil: niche overlap and potential for competition

“…Similarly, Zapata et al (2005) found a diet based on rodents (56% of biomass) and lagomorphs (34.5%) from the southern limit of the species' distribution, while Ebensperger et al (1991) described G. cuja as preying on rabbits, rodents, and small marsupials in central Chile. However, in our study, we found no evidence that the grison consumed lagomorphs, despite the high abundance of Lepus europaeus (Pallas, 1778) in some parts of Rio Grande do Sul (Kasper et al 2012a).…”

Home range and activity patterns of Conepatus semistriatus (Carnivora, Mephitidae) in Emas National Park, Brazil

“…Our estimates are more than double the largest previously estimated home range for the species, also using MCP, wbereby Sunquist et al (1989) determined the bome range area of tbeir subjects in the Venezuelan llanos to be 0.18 km^ in the wet season and 0.54 km^ in the dry season. There is little information available regarding the home ranges of other Mepbitid species in South American, aside from a few area estimates ranging from 1.95 to 0.55 km^ for C. chinga (Donadio et al, 2001;Reppucci et al, 2009;Kasper et al, 2012a) and 0.09 to 0.16 km^ for C. Humboldt (Fuller et al, 1987;Johnson et al, 1988), which are summarized in table 2. Different methods, different ecological requirements of each species, tbe relative abundance of Sunquist et al,, 1989 This study Kasperetal,, 2012bKasper et al, 2012bReppucci et al,, 2009Donadio et al,, 2001Fuller et al, 1987Fuller et al, 1987Fuller et al, 1987Johnson et al, 1988Johnson et al, 1988Johnson et al, 1988 Juvenile.…”

“…In North America, other species of the skunk Family Mephitidae have received greater attention because some of them may be vectors for rabies (WadeSmith & Verts, 1982), and in some rare instances cause crop damage (Olson & Lewis, 1999), while other species have shown dramatic population declines (Gompper & Hackett, 2005). For species occurring in South America, data on activity patterns, home range and habitat use (Donadio et al, 2001;Kasper et al, 2009;Reppucci et al, 2009;Kasper et al, 2012b), diet (Travaini et al, 1998;Donadio et al, 2004;Montalvo et al, 2008), and abundance (Kasper et al, 2012a) have been collected for C. chinga. Also, Johnson et al (1988) discussed the influence of seasonal changes on the activity patterns of C. humboldti and assessed the home range area of this species in Chile.…”

New records and description of the microstructural patterns of guard hair in Conepatus chinga (Molina, 1782) (Carnivora, Skunk) for the states of Paraná and Santa Catarina, southern Brazil

“…There are records of the species using forest (CHEREM et al, 2004;CHEREM, 2005;KASPER et al, 2012), showing the huge impact of roads on wildlife.…”