Mammals of a restinga forest in Mataraca, Paraíba, northeastern Brazil, and its affinities to restinga areas in Brazil

Abstract

The Restinga forests are plant formations associated to the Atlantic Forest which still have not been much studied in terms of their mastofauna. The objective of the present work was to list for the first time the mammal species found in a Restinga on northeastern Brazil and show the similarities on species composition to other areas of the same environment and of Atlantic Forest. Our records were based on several complementary approaches: field survey, interviews, and museum collections. Subsequently, we performed similarity analysis between Restinga areas along Brazil and Atlantic Forest areas. We found a total of 30 species of mammals distributed in 28 genera, 16 families and 7 orders for Restinga of Mataraca. Species richness was similar to other Restinga areas and similarity analyzes pointed out that Restingas are more closely related to adjacent Atlantic Forest areas than to other Restingas in the country. This suggests that Restingas do not exhibit an autochthone fauna, but rather a faunal subsample of neighbor Atlantic Forest. Therefore, conservations policies for the Restinga habitat depends not only on actions focused on this habitat, but on initiatives that encompass nearby Atlantic Forest remnants, allowing the connectivity between these habitats. Keywords: Atlantic Forest, Mammals, Restinga, Mataraca, Paraíba. Mamíferos de uma floresta de Restinga em Mataraca, Paraíba, Nordeste do Brasil e suas afinidades com áreas de Restinga no BrasilResumo: As restingas são formações vegetais associadas à Floresta Atlântica e ainda pouco exploradas em relação a sua mastofauna. O objetivo desse trabalho foi listar pela primeira vez as espécies de mamíferos presentes em uma restinga no nordeste do Brasil e mostrar sua similaridade com outras áreas do mesmo ambiente e de Mata Atlântica. A listagem foi baseada em diversas abordagens complementares: coletas, entrevistas, material em coleção. Posteriormente realizamos análises de similaridade entre áreas de restinga ao longo do Brasil e áreas de Mata Atlântica. Encontramos um total de 30 espécies de mamíferos distribuídas em 28 gêneros, 16 famílias e sete ordens para restinga de Mataraca.A riqueza ficou próxima a de outras áreas de restinga e as análises de similaridade apontaram que as restingas são mais proximamente relacionadas com as áreas adjacentes de Floresta Atlântica do que com as outras restingas no país. Isso sugere que as Restingas não exibem uma fauna autóctone ou endêmica, mas que sua fauna representa um subconjunto da fauna da Floresta Atlântica mais próxima. Dessa forma, estratégias para a conservação das Restingas não dependem apenas de ações nesse ambiente, mas de iniciativas que atinjam áreas de Mata Atlântica próximas, que garantam a conectividade entre estas.

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“…Knowledge about the PEC mammals is still dramatically scarce and needs to advance to support conservation and management actions in an intensely fragmented landscape (Carvalho et al, 2021). Although our record is more than 10 years old and may generate some uncertainty about the current occurrence of the species in the area, the relative protection provided by the presence of a private reserve, as well as more recent interview data of a close region in Paraíba (Campos et al, 2018), suggest that the species should persist in the region, as advocated by Garbino et al (2018). New surveys, however, are needed to confirm its current presence and define its population status and distribution in other fragments of the region.…”

“…1, Table 1). Reports obtained from interviews point to the presence of the species in Mataraca, Paraíba, a municipality bordering Baía Formosa (Campos et al, 2018), 10 km from Mata Estrela Private Reserve (Fig. 1, Table 1).…”

Bats in a restinga area in Sergipe, Northeastern Brazil

“…Despite the increase in the number of studies with bats in this environment in recent years (Bôlla et al, 2017), most of these are concentrated in the south and southeast regions of the country in the states of Rio de Janeiro (Cerqueira et al, 1990;Pessôa et al, 2010;Luz et al, 2011;Gomes et al, 2016), Espírito Santo (Luz et al, 2009;Oprea et al, 2009), Santa Catarina (Carvalho et al, 2009;Bôlla et al, 2017), and Paraná (Fogaça & Reis, 2008). In the northeast of the country, studies with this group in restingas have only been carried out in Paraíba (Campos et al, 2018), Rio Grande do Norte (Soares et al, 2018), and Sergipe (Rocha et al, 2017).…”