Small mammals from the Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests of the Huallaga river basin and new records for San Martín department, Peru

Abstract

The Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests in Peru are well known for their bird and plant diversity and endemicity, but little is known about the diversity of small mammals. We report the diversity of small volant and non-volant mammals from the Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests of the Huallaga river basin in the San Martín Department, working on both sides of the river, making a sampling effort of 3060 traps-night for non-volant and 104 mist nets-night for volant mammals. We recorded 29 species, including five marsupials, three rodents, and 21 bats. Among the bats, phyllostomids were the most diverse group with 16 species. Short-tailed Spiny-rat, Proechimys brevicauda (Günther, 1877) and Seba's Short-tailed Bat, Carollia perspicillata (Linnaeus, 1758), featured the highest relative abundance. In addition, we report the first records for the San Martín Department of Peropteryx macrotis (Wagner, 1843), Saccopteryx bilineata (Temminck, 1838), Lonchorhina aurita Tomes, 1863, Vampyriscus bidens (Dobson, 1878), and Myotis simus Thomas, 1901. The species richness and diversity indices indicate the study site has a high diversity value; however, fragmentation and rapid changes in land-use are the main threats faced by the biodiversity of these dry forests.