Abstract

DE ALMEIDA E SILVA, Anne Sophie; BARBISAN FORTES, Vanessa  and  VOLTOLINI, Julio Cesar. Effect of the landscape on the presence and abundace of the brown howler Alouatta guariba clamitans in forest fragments of southeastern Brazil. Mastozool. neotrop. [online]. 2017, vol.24, n.2, pp.323-331. ISSN 0327-9383.

This study evaluated the influence of landscape’s metrics on the presence and abundance of Alouatta guariba clamitans in 21 Atlantic Rainforest fragments in Taubaté, Southeastern Brazil. Using broad surveys completed between August 2014 and July 2015, we walked trails in the forest from 8:00 to 12:00 and from 13:00 to 17:00 hs, totalizing 672 hours of observation. Both direct and indirect records were considered to confirm the presence of the species. Landscape metrics were analysed in ArcGIS v.9.3. Multiple logistic regression and multiple linear regression analyses were performed in BioEstat v.5.0. The brown howler monkey was present in 57.14% (n = 12) of the fragments. A positive association between the presence of this primate and the area of the fragment was detected (χ² = 1.16, P<0.01). Occupation was not associated to the average distance from the surrounding fragments (χ² = 1.19, P = 0.31) or to the shape index of the fragment (χ² = 0.53, P = 0.37). A negative association was observed between fragment area and howler popula­tion abundance (r² = -0.64, P = 0.02). Therefore, area was the most important explanatory variable and should be incorporated in the elaboration of predictive models of brown howler monkey occurrence. Although hypothesis of metapopulation configuration needs to be better investigated, our results suggest that the maintenance of small and medium fragments (4.1-35 ha) may be important for the conservation of the species in this region.

Keywords : Atlantic rainforest; Habitat fragmentation; Metapopulations; Primates.

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