Trophic Niche Overlap and Resource Partitioning Among Wild Canids in an Anthropized Neotropical Ecotone

Trypanosomatids in Small Mammals of an Agroecosystem in Central Brazil: Another Piece in the Puzzle of Parasite Transmission in an Anthropogenic Landscape

“…In the specific case of G. agilis, this marsupial species represents less than 5% of the diet of wild canids (C. thous, C. brachyurus, and L. vetulus). This indicates that canids in the Limoeiro region do not frequently consume this marsupial [21], especially in the case of hoary fox, which was the species with the highest T. cruzi infection rates in the area. On the other hand, it is worth mentioning that one-time consumption of an infected animal is enough for the canid to become infected during its whole life, especially when considering that the lifetime of canids is about four or five times longer than that of small mammals, which increases the chances of being infected.…”

“…On the other hand, it is worth mentioning that one-time consumption of an infected animal is enough for the canid to become infected during its whole life, especially when considering that the lifetime of canids is about four or five times longer than that of small mammals, which increases the chances of being infected. On the other hand, rodents are consumed at much higher frequencies by the three canine species and they are constantly seen on pastures, areas widely used by these canids [21]. However, the intense heating that could favor death of small mammals inside the traps and the abundance of cattle were factors that impaired our sampling in this environment.…”

“…However, the intense heating that could favor death of small mammals inside the traps and the abundance of cattle were factors that impaired our sampling in this environment. For this reason, and knowing that wild canids rarely enter forested habitats, preferring edges of forest fragments and/or open areas of Cerrado [21], transects to capture small mammals were installed at the edges of fragments, or near fragments, and this might have increased the chance of capturing arboreal species, such as G. agilis.…”

“…The destruction of ecosystems leads to habitat decline, food restriction, and, in some cases, species extinction, leading populations of wild mammals to areas that bring them into contact with humans and domestic animals [19]. It is known that canids may make long displacements, through different types of habitats, such as open areas, forests, and remnants, where small mammals are present and can serve as a food source for them [20,21]. Canids may also act as bio-accumulators of parasites, since they are top chain predators [5], and these factors favor the spread of parasites in the environment.It is in this scenario that the Limoeiro region (Cumari Municipality, Goiás, Brazil) is located, an area of Cerrado quite anthropically altered, where the Mammals from Cerrado Conservation Program (PCMC) develops conservation actions that are focused on endangered species of mammals.…”

Wild and Domestic Canids and Their Interactions in the Transmission Cycles of Trypanosoma Cruzi and Leishmania spp. in an Area of the Brazilian Cerrado

“…Except for A. microtis and L. gymnocercus , the other species are widely observed in the Brazilian savannah biome, the Cerrado, with L. vetulus being an endemic species of this ecosystem [ 5 , 6 ]. Most of them are omnivorous, including in their diet a wide variety of items of animal origins and fruits, both vertebrate and invertebrate [ 5 , 7 , 8 , 9 ]. Occupying high levels in the trophic net, for preying on mammals, lizards, snakes, frogs and insects, wild canids can be considered bioaccumulators of parasites, especially those that may be orally transmitted such as T. cruzi.…”