Research on bats in the state of Rio de Janeiro, southeastern Brazil

Carlos E. L. Esbérard^1,2 and Helena G. Bergallo²

¹ Projeto Morcegos Urbanos, Fundação RIOZOO, Quinta da Boa Vista, s/n o, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil, 20.940-040, cesberard@terra.com.br. ² Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rua São Francisco Xavier 524, 20559-900, RJ, Brasil, bergallo@uerj.br.

Key words: Bat history. Bat list. Bat research. Bat richness.

   Rio de Janeiro (Fig. 1) is one of the most well studied states of Brazil in regard to its bat fauna, due to the concentration of universities and researchers (Bergallo et al., 2003). The first bat mentioned in the literature for Rio de Janeiro was the common vampire bat, Desmodus rotundus, by Hans Staden (1557, apud Tribe, 1987). However, the first scientific citation was of Anoura caudifer (E. Geoffroy, 1818), for which the State of Rio de Janeiro is the type-locality (Lima, 1926).

Fig. 1. Location of the state of Rio de Janeiro in Southeastern Brazil and South America.

   Until the 1970s, most research on bats was done by capturing the animals directly in their refuges or by shooting. The use of mist nets greatly increased the efficiency of capture (see Handley, 1967), resulting in an increase in the knowledge of bat biology and distribution in this geographical unit (Fig. 2). The first reference to the use of mist nets in Rio de Janeiro State dates from 1967 (Peracchi and Albuquerque, 1971).

Fig. 2. Historic evolution of accumulated number of bat species recorded at Rio de Janeiro, southeastern Brazil.

   The first species list for the state, published by Peracchi and Albuquerque (1971), included 12 new records, subsequently complemented with another five species (Peracchi and Albuquerque, 1986).
   In the last 40 years, this list grew rapidly (Fig. 2) due to an increase in the number of researchers, as well as institutions interested in the study of bats. In 1997, a meeting was held to produce a list of threatened species and analyze their conservation status (Bergallo et al., 2000); 62 species were recognized for the Rio de Janeiro state (Rocha et al., 2004).
   Currently, Rio de Janeiro is the most thoroughly sampled state in Brazil, in terms of bats (Bergallo et al., 2003). However, even considering there are inventories in more than 30 different areas, several sites in the state remain poorly sampled, such as the northwestern and the montane areas. Since the 1997 list, new surveys of previously unexplored areas have confirmed the presence of Furipterus horrens in the south (Pol et al., 2003), Myotis levis in a montane area in the south (A. Pol, personal communication), Neoplatymops mattogrossensis and Uroderma bilobatum in the northern part of the state (Avila et al., 2001) and Micronycteris hirsuta (Esbérard, 2004a) and Tonatia brasiliensis (unpublished results) in the northern and central part of the state.
   Additionally, increased sampling efforts in previously sampled areas, such as the Maciço da Tijuca, have confirmed the occurrence of species not previously recorded, despite extensive inventories totaling more than 4000 bats in 189 nights (Esbérard, 1999). That is the case of Uroderma magnirostrum (Nogueira et al., 2003), Phyllostomus discolor (Esbérard, 2003) and Nictynomops laticaudata (unpublished data).
   The total number of species confirmed for the State of Rio de Janeiro in this report (71 species) is larger than previous estimates for this latitude (Findley, 1993) or for the state (Marinho-Filho, 1996) (Table 1). Estimates throughout the latitude have been lower than the observed richness, as in the State of Paraná, where 41 species and 6 families were expected (Marinho-Filho, 1996) and, up to the present, 53 species from 5 families have been recorded (Miretzki, 2003).

   Eight of the 9 bat families occurring in Brazil are represented in the State of Rio de Janeiro, with 41 genera and 71 species (Table 2). This corresponds to 52% of all species known to occur in Brazil, and 74% of all species recorded in the Atlantic Forest biome (Marinho-Filho and Sazima, 1998). About 53% of all phyllostomid species known to occur in Brazil have been recorded in Rio de Janeiro State, as well as 61% of all Vespertilionidae, 56% of Molossidae and 33% of Emballonuridae species.

Table 2
Species of bats recorded in the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Species marked with an asterisk were listed during the specialist workshop in 1997 (Bergallo et al., 2000). (1) The earlier record of Tonatia brasiliensis was erroneous (see Peracchi and Albuquerque, 1971); (2) Cynomops abrasus includes Molossops brachymeles (Goodwin, 1958).

   These general figures are still an underestimation, since most published studies used only mist net sampling (Bergallo et al., 2003), which underestimates the richness and abundance of insectivorous species (Voss and Emmons, 1996). Few researchers performed captures in refuges. Diversification of capture methods and use of bioacoustical techniques would likely increase or confirm the occurrence of some insectivorous species, as well as species with wider flight areas (Kalko et al., 1996; Voss and Emmons, 1996). Marinho-Filho (1996) listed five species that were not yet recorded in Rio de Janeiro but that, based on their geographical distribution (Fig. 1), should occur there: Noctilio albiventris (present in the states of São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo), Sturnira tildae (distributed from the State of Rio Grande do Sul to the State of São Paulo), Myotis riparius (distributed from the State of Santa Catarina to the State of São Paulo), Eumops bonariensis (present in the State of São Paulo) and Nictynomops aurispinosus (present in the states of São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo) (Fig. 2).
   The state of Rio de Janeiro with its 43 910 km², and only 17% of its original forest cover (Rocha et al., 2003), represents 0.5% of the Brazilian territory and harbors one of the richest bat faunas in the country. The record of Rhinophylla pumilio in the border of Rio de Janeiro and Espírito Santo states (Tribe, 1987), and the curve of accumulated number of species we obtained (Fig. 2), reinforces the idea that even more species should be confirmed for Rio de Janeiro in the future.

The criticisms and contributions made by Lena Geise, Adriano L. Peracchi, Rui Cerqueira and Davor Vrcibradic and an anonymous referee are gratefully acknowledged; we also thank André Pol, Daniela Dias and Marcia Batista for their help in the bibliography and occurrence records.

LITERATURE CITED

ALLEN JA. 1916. Mammals collected on the Roosevelt Brazilian Expedition (1913-14) with field notes by Leo E. Miller. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 35:559-611.         [ Links ]

AVILLA LS, AMS ROZENSZTRANCH, and EAL ABRANTES. 2001. First record of the South American Flat-Headed Bat Neoplatymops mattogrossensis (Vieira, 1942) in Southeastern Brazil (Chiroptera, Molossidae). Boletim do Museu Nacional, Rio de Janeiro 463:1-6.         [ Links ]

ÁVILA-PIRES FD and E GOUVEIA. 1977. Mamíferos do Parque Nacional do Itatiaia. Boletim do Museu Nacional, Rio de Janeiro 291:1-29.         [ Links ]

BAPTISTA M, and MAR MELLO. 2001. Preliminary inventory of the bat species of the Poço das Antas Reserve, RJ. Chiroptera Neotropical 7(1-2):133-135.         [ Links ]

BERGALLO HG, CEL ESBÉRARD, MAR MELLO, V LINS, R MANGOLIN, and M BAPTISTA. 2003. Bat species richness in Atlantic Forest: What is the minimum sampling effort? Biotropica 35(2):278-288.         [ Links ]

BERGALLO HG, L GEISE, CR BONVICINO, R CERQUEIRA, PS D'ANDREA, CEL ESBERÁRD, FAS FERNANDEZ, CE GRELLE, A PERACCHI, S SICILIANO, and SM VAZ. 2000. Mamíferos. Pp. 125-136, in: A fauna ameaçada de extinção do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (HG Bergallo, CFD Rocha, MAS Alves and MV Sluys, Eds.). EdUERJ, Rio de Janeiro, RJ.         [ Links ]

DAVIS DE. 1947. Notes on the life histories of some Brazilian mammals. Boletim do Museu Nacional, Rio de Janeiro 76:1-8.         [ Links ]

DIAS D, SSP SILVA, and AL PERACCHI. 2002. Quirópteros do Parque Estadual da Pedra Branca, Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Mammalia: Chiroptera). Revista Brasileira de Zoologia 19 (supl. 2):113-140.         [ Links ]

DIAS D, SP SILVA, and AL PERACCHI. 2003. Ocorrência de Glyphonycteris sylvestris Thomas (Chiroptera, Phyllostomidae) no Estado do Rio de Janeiro, sudeste do Brasil. Revista Brasileira de Zoologia 20(2):365-366.         [ Links ]

DOBSON GE. 1878. Catalogue of the Chiroptera in the collection of the British Museum. Taylor and Francis Limited, London, xlii+567 pp.         [ Links ]

ESBÉRARD CEL, AS CHAGAS, M BAPTISTA, EM LUZ, and CS PEREIRA. 1996. Observações sobre Chiroderma doriae Thomas, 1891 no Município do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro (Mammalia: Chiroptera). Revista Brasileira de Biologia 56(4):651-654.         [ Links ]

ESBÉRARD CEL, LFS MARTINS, RC CRUZ, RC COSTA, MS NUNES, EM LUZ, and AS CHAGAS. 1998. Aspectos da biologia de Lonchorhina aurita no Estado do Rio de Janeiro (Mammalia: Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae). Bioikos 10(1-2):46-49.         [ Links ]

ESBÉRARD CEL. 2003. Diversidade de morcegos em uma área de Mata Atlântica regenerada no sudeste do Brasil (Mammalia: Chiroptera). Revista Brasileira de Zoociências 5(2):189-204.         [ Links ]

ESBÉRARD CEL. 2004 a. Novo registro de Micronycteris hirsuta (Peters) na Mata Atlântica (Mammalia: Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae). Revista Brasileira de Zoologia 21(2):403-404.         [ Links ]

ESBÉRARD CEL. 2004 b. Morcegos no Estado do Rio de Janeiro. Doctoral Thesis, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro 236 p.         [ Links ]

FENTON MB, L ACHARYA, D AUDET, MBC HICKEY, C MERRIMAN, MK OBRIST, DM SYME, and B ADKINS. 1992. Phyllostomid bats (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae) as indicators of habitat disruption in the Neotropics. Biotropica 24(3):440-446.         [ Links ]

FINDLEY JS. 1993. Bats: a community perspective. Cambridge Studies in ecology, Cambridge University Press 167 pp.         [ Links ]

HANDLEY CO Jr. 1967. Bats of the canopy of an Amazonian forest. Pp. 211-221, in: Atas do Simpósio sôbre a Biota Amazônica (H Lent, ed.). Vol. 5, Conselho Nacional de Pesquisas, Rio de Janeiro.         [ Links ]

KALKO EKV, CO HANDLEY Jr., and D HANDLEY. 1996. Organization, diversity and long-term dynamics of a Neotropical bat community. Pp. 503-553, in: Long-term studies of vertebrate communities (ML Cody and JA Smallwood, eds). Academic Press 597 pp.         [ Links ]

LIMA JL. 1926. Os morcegos do Museu Paulista. Revista do Museu Paulista 14:42-127.         [ Links ]

MARINHO-FILHO JM. 1996. Distribution of bat diversity in the southeastern Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Chiroptera Neotropical 2(2):51-54.         [ Links ]

MARINHO-FILHO JM and I SAZIMA. 1998. Brazilian bats and conservation biology: a first survey. In: Bats: Phylogeny, Morphology, Echolocation and Conservation Biology (TH Kunz and PA Racey, eds.). Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington.         [ Links ]

MIRETZKI M. 2003. Morcegos do Estado do Paraná, Brasil (Mammalia, Chiroptera): riqueza de espécies, distribuição e síntese do conhecimento atual. Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia (São Paulo) 43(6):101-138.         [ Links ]

MIRETZKI M. 2000. Morcegos do Estado do Paraná (Mammalia, Chiroptera). Tese de Mestrado, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Departamento de Zoologia 97 pp.         [ Links ]

NOGUEIRA MR, VC TAVARES, and AL PERACCHI. 2003. New records of Uroderma magnirostrum Davis (Mammalia, Chiroptera) from southeastern Brazil, with comments on its natural history. Revista Brasileira de Zoologia 20(4):691-697.         [ Links ]

PELZELN A. 1883. Brasilische Saugethiere. Resultate von Johan Natterer's reisen in den Jahren 1817 bis 1835, Vienna, XXXIII, 140 pp.         [ Links ]

PERACCHI AL. 1968. Sobre os hábitos de " Histiotus velatus " (Geoffroy, 1824) (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae). Revista Brasileira de Biologia 28(4):469-473.         [ Links ]

PERACCHI AL and ST ALBUQUERQUE. 1971. Lista provisória dos Chiropteros dos Estados do Rio de Janeiro e Guanabara (Chiroptera: Mammalia). Revista Brasileira de Biologia 31:405-413.         [ Links ]

PERACCHI AL and ST ALBUQUERQUE. 1985. Considerações sobre a distribuição de algumas espécies do gênero Micronycteris Gray, 1866 (Mammalia: Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae). Arquivos da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro 8(12):23-26.         [ Links ]

PERACCHI AL and ST ALBUQUERQUE. 1986. Quirópteros do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil (Mammalia, Chiroptera). Publicações Avulsas, Museu Nacional 66:63-69.         [ Links ]

POL A, MR NOGUEIRA, and AL PERACCHI. 2003. Primeiro registro da família Furipteridae para o Estado do Rio de Janeiro (Chiroptera: Furipteridae). Revista Brasileira de Zoologia 20(3):561-563.         [ Links ]

ROCHA CFD, HG BERGALLO, MAS ALVES, and MV SLUYS. 2003. A biodiversidade nos grandes remanescentes florestais no Estado do Rio de Janeiro e nas restingas da Mata Atlântica. Rima Editora, São Carlos, SP 146 pp.         [ Links ]

ROCHA CFD, HG BERGALLO, HG POMBAL J r., L GEISE, M VAN SLUYS, R FERNANDES, and U CARAMASCHI. 2004. Lista de anfíbios, répteis e mamíferos do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Sudeste do Brasil. Publicações avulsas do Museu Nacional 104:1-24.         [ Links ]

SAMBORN CC. 1937. American bats of the subfamily Emballonuridae. Field Museum Publications, Zoological Series 20(24):321-354.         [ Links ]

TADDEI VA, LD VIZOTTO, and I SAZIMA. 1983. Uma nova espécie de Lonchophylla do Brasil e chave para identificação das espécies do gênero (Chiroptera; Phyllostomidae). Ciência e Cultura 35: 625-629.         [ Links ]

TADDEI VA, SA DE SOUZA, and JL MANUZZI. 1988. Notas sobre uma coleção de Lonchophylla bokermanni de Ilha Grande, Sudeste do Brasil (Mammalia: Chiroptera). Revista Brasileira de Biologia 48(4):851-855.         [ Links ]

TEIXEIRA SC and AL PERACCHI. 1996. Morcegos do Parque Estadual da Serra da Tiririca, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil (Mammalia: Chiroptera). Revista Brasileira de Zoologia 13:61-66.         [ Links ]

TRIBE CJ. 1987. A mastofauna do Rio de Janeiro, com especial referência a ordem Polyprotodontia (Marsupiais), Dissertação de Mestrado, UFRJ 244 pp.         [ Links ]

VIEIRA CO. 1942. Ensaio monográfico sobre os quirópteros do Brasil. Arquivos de Zoologia do Estado de São Paulo 3(8):422-471.         [ Links ]

VIEIRA CO. 1955. Lista remissiva dos Mamíferos do Brasil. Arquivos de Zoologia do São Paulo 8(11):341-474.         [ Links ]

VOSS RS and LH EMMONS. 1996. Mammalian diversity in Neotropical lowland rainforests: a preliminary assessment. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 230:1-115.         [ Links ]

Recibido 13 febrero 2004.
Aceptación final 1º junio 2005.