Bat assemblage in savanna remnants of Sonora, central-western Brazil

Abstract

Abstract:The Cerrado (savanna) is a wide Neotropical formation, but the knowledge on the occurrence and distribution of bat species for this phytogeographic region is scarce, especially in the western portion. Here we address what are the bat species and their relative abundances in a western Cerrado site, municipality of Sonora, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. Bats were mist-netted in eight non consecutive months over the course of two years. Sampled bats (n = 507) belonged to 18 species. The estimator Jackknife 1 estimated 22 species, and diversity (H') was 1.6. Richness and diversity of bats in Sonora were slightly higher than in the southern Cerrado, and similar to or lower than in the central Cerrado. Frugivorous species predominated, as expected, however richness and abundance of nectarivorous were unexpectedly high. Carollia perspicillata was the dominant species. The endemic bat Lonchophylla dekeyseri was highly abundant in Sonora, which enhances the importance of conserving the savanna remnants in this region. Resumo: O Cerrado (savana) é uma ampla formação neotropical, porém o conhecimento sobre a ocorrência e distribuição de espécies de morcegos é escasso para esta região fitogeográfica, principalmente na porção oeste. Estudamos aqui quais são as espécies de morcegos e suas abundâncias relativas em uma localidade da porção oeste do Cerrado, no município de Sonora, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brasil. Morcegos foram capturados em redes-de-neblina em oito meses não consecutivos ao longo de dois anos. Os morcegos amostrados (n = 507) pertenceram a 18 espécies. O estimador Jackknife 1 estimou 22 espécies, e a diversidade (H') foi 1,6. A riqueza e a diversidade de morcegos em Sonora foram pouco maiores que na porção sul do Cerrado, e semelhantes ou menores que no Cerrado central. Espécies frugívoras predominaram, como esperado, porém a riqueza e abundância de nectarívoras foram inesperadamente altas. Carollia perspicillata foi a espécie dominante. O morcego endêmico Lonchophylla dekeyseri foi muito abundante em Sonora, fato que aumenta a importância de conservar os remanescentes de savana dessa região. We evaluated suffi ciency of sampling using rarefaction curves based on the cumulative quantity of captured individuals, and estimated total expected richness with Jackknife 1 estimator (1000 randomizations) based on sampling nights. Shannon's diversity index (H'), using neperian logarithm and the 95% CI (bootstrap, 1000 randomizations), were calculated for the bat assemblage. Analyses were done in the Vegan package (Oksanen et al. 2010), R program (R Development Core Team 2010). ResultsWe captured 507 individuals belonging to four families, 14 genera and 18 species ( Table 1). The rarefaction curve (Figure 1) showed that capture effort was suffi cient to include most of the species at the study site. The Jackknife 1 estimated 22 ± 1.9 (mean ± SD) species of bats, thus our observed richness (n = 18) included approximately 82% of the bat species which could be captured in mist-nets. The diversity (H') was 1.6, with 95% CI...

Bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera) in a cerrado landscape in São Carlos, southeastern Brazil

“…Despite this low capture effort, our results are consistent with other results obtained in cerrado and dry forest mosaics (e.g. Cunha et al 2011;Avilla-Cabadilla et al 2014). Our sampling was based only in mist netting, so other nonphyllostomid bat species that may occur in the area might have passed undetected, since mist nets are selective (Kunz and Parsons 2009).…”

“…Our study recorded a larger number of species than other studies with similar effort (e.g., 18 species in the Sonora savanna, Cunha et al 2011) and in well-preserved cerrados (Zortéa and Alho 2008). A possible explanation for that may be our distribution of the sampling effort over seven different kinds of habitat.…”

Bat fauna of the Cerrado savanna of eastern Maranhão, Brazil, with new species occurrences

“…The results of the present study were consistent with those of Cunha et al (2011), Ávilla-Cabadilla et al (2014, and Muylaert et al (2014) in the Cerrado, in which the cumulative species curves also failed to reach an asymptote. This may have been related to the exclusive use of mist-nets for the collection of specimens, given that this technique favors the capture of phyllostomids, to the detriment of species of other families (Kunz & Parsons 2009), even though specimens of both vespertilionids and molossids were collected in the present study, despite the fact that they tend to fly at very high levels and are not usually collected in mist-nets (Muylaert et al 2014).…”

Checklist of mammals from Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil

“…The specimens examined by other authors are followed by the reference to the correspondent publication. The taxons follow an alphabetical order, independent of their higher level taxonomic classification (Subfamily, Family, Order (Bordignon, 2006); ZUFMS 230 (Camargo et al, 2009);ZUFMS 453 (Fernandes, 2009); ZUFMS 500 (Ferreira et al, 2010); ZUFMS 293, 292 (Cunha et al, 2011);ZUFMS 188, 192 (Erickson et al, 2011). Anoura geoffroyi ZUFMS 0151, 0368, 0454; ZUFMS 0292, 0293 (Cunha et al, 2011);ZUFMS 454 (Fernandes, 2009).…”