Diversidade de mamíferos do baixo Rio Jufari, Roraima, Brasil

Abstract

Faunal inventories are essential to directly access the diversity of a region. Although the Amazon rainforest exhibit large estimates of mammal species richness, the region still exhibits large sampling gaps. Aiming to fill a sampling gap on the mammalian diversity in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest, we conducted an inventory of non-volant mammals at “terra firme” forest near the mouth of Rio Jufari, an affluent of north bank of Rio Negro, near its confluence with Rio Branco. To sample small mammals, we applied a total effort of 3,673 live trap nights, and 2,700 pitfall trap nights. For large mammals we performed unstandardized line transect census, and included, as well, records from occasional encounters and material donated by Caicubi community members. The pitfall traps proved to be extremely valuable for the small mammals sampling. We observed a low mammalian diversity when compared to other inventories throughout the Amazon basin. We recorded 27 species belonging to 25 genera, 16 families and nine orders of the Class Mammalia. The majority of recorded species is known from Guianan subregion. However, we present: extension on the known distribution records for Marmosops bishopi; taxonomic comments on the marsupial Monodelphis brevicaudata; and new collection record for species of the genera Oecomys and Makalata. It is remarkable the extremely low number of species from the order Primates. Data based on interviews suggested that this small number of primate specimens is historical, and areas closer to Rio Negro and Rio Branco exhibit higher diversity. Our samples showed that Rio Negro-Rio Branco confluence do not present an endemic mammalian fauna, once the region shares its mammalian composition with other confluence areas in the Amazon basin, especially with those on the northeastern Amazon region.