Occurrence and distribution dataset of medium and large-sized terrestrial mammal communities in a neotropical savanna

FAPEMIG - Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Minas GeraisTrabalho de Conclusão de Curso (Graduação)There is a growing need for a baseline ecological information to comprehend the distribution of species around the environment. Surveys based on camera traps data have provided a great advance on the monitoring of terrestrial mammals and can be used for multiple conservation purposes. Here is presented a compilation of medium to large-sized terrestrial mammals records from camera trap surveys in a neotropical savanna, resulting in 122 studies that sampled 259 occurrence areas of 52 species, covering all of Cerrado’s phytophysiognomies. The complete dataset comprises a total sampling effort of 96.789 days, capturing 8 orders, 17 families and 37 genera. All species occur in at least two singletons of the full sampled areas. The most frequent species records were from Puma concolor, Cerdocyon thous, Leopardus pardalis and Chrysocyon brachyurus. This dataset represents a massive effort to understand the dynamic and composition of the medium-to-large mammals’ community in Cerrado, helping identifying macroecological patterns

Jaguar distribution in Brazil: integrating landscape features and population dynamics to predict habitat suitability

Assessments on distribution and environmental suitability for large and wide-ranging carnivores became a global demand as an important tool to evaluate minimum ecological requirements and the impacts of critical anthropogenic factors on species’ occurrence. However, predictive models often fall short in representing the reality of the observed patterns in the landscape. In this regard, we developed dynamic models of jaguar’s geographic distribution in Brazil, integrating the synergistic effects of environmental suitability requirements and current habitat loss, as well as aspects of population dynamics on a broader scale. Additionally, we aimed to understand how environmental suitability and different vegetation cover thresholds affect landscape connectivity for this species, being able to predict jaguar range shifts as a proxy for its vulnerability at the scale of landscape fragments. Our results highlight the loss of suitable areas across all biomes, especially for Cerrado, Amazon-Cerrado ecotone, and Pantanal. We conclude that landscape connectivity is highly sensitive to the thresholds used to identify suitable areas and recommend the urgent need of conducting more sensitivity analyses, such as the one introduced here, to provide accurate information capable of subordinating the prioritization and management in crucial areas for jaguar persistence.CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível SuperiorDissertação (Mestrado)Avaliações sobre a distribuição atual e adequabilidade ambiental para grandes carnívoros de distribuição geográfica abrangente tornaram-se uma demanda global como uma ferramenta importante para avaliar os requisitos ecológicos mínimos e o impacto dos fatores antrópicos críticos na ocorrência das espécies. No entanto, os modelos preditivos muitas vezes deixam de representar a realidade dos padrões observados na natureza. Nesse sentido, desenvolvemos modelos dinâmicos de distribuição geográfica da onça-pintada no Brasil, integrando os efeitos sinérgicos dos requisitos de adequabilidade ambiental e perda de habitat atual, bem como aspectos da dinâmica populacional em uma escala mais ampla. Além disso, objetivamos entender como a adequabilidade ambiental e diferentes limiares de cobertura vegetal afetam a conectividade da paisagem para esta espécie, sendo capaz de prever mudanças nas taxas de dispersão de onça-pintada como um proxy para sua vulnerabilidade na escala de fragmentos de paisagem. Nossos resultados destacam com maior detalhamento a perda de áreas adequadas em todos os biomas, especialmente para o Cerrado, ecótono Amazônia-Cerrado e Pantanal. Concluímos que a conectividade da paisagem é altamente sensível aos limiares usados para identificar áreas adequadas e recomendamos a necessidade de realizar análises com poder preditivo mais acurado, como a aqui apresentada, para fornecer informações precisas capazes de auxiliar na priorização e manejo em áreas cruciais para a persistência de onça-pintada

AMAZONIA CAMTRAP: A data set of mammal, bird, and reptile species recorded with camera traps in the Amazon forest

The Amazon forest has the highest biodiversity on Earth. However, information on Amazonian vertebrate diversity is still deficient and scattered across the published, peer-reviewed, and gray literature and in unpublished raw data. Camera traps are an effective non-invasive method of surveying vertebrates, applicable to different scales of time and space. In this study, we organized and standardized camera trap records from different Amazon regions to compile the most extensive data set of inventories of mammal, bird, and reptile species ever assembled for the area. The complete data set comprises 154,123 records of 317 species (185 birds, 119 mammals, and 13 reptiles) gathered from surveys from the Amazonian portion of eight countries (Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela). The most frequently recorded species per taxa were: mammals: Cuniculus paca (11,907 records); birds: Pauxi tuberosa (3713 records); and reptiles: Tupinambis teguixin (716 records). The information detailed in this data paper opens up opportunities for new ecological studies at different spatial and temporal scales, allowing for a more accurate evaluation of the effects of habitat loss, fragmentation, climate change, and other human-mediated defaunation processes in one of the most important and threatened tropical environments in the world. The data set is not copyright restricted; please cite this data paper when using its data in publications and we also request that researchers and educators inform us of how they are using these data

NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES: a data set on carnivore distribution in the Neotropics

Mammalian carnivores are considered a key group in maintaining ecological health and can indicate potential ecological integrity in landscapes where they occur. Carnivores also hold high conservation value and their habitat requirements can guide management and conservation plans. The order Carnivora has 84 species from 8 families in the Neotropical region: Canidae; Felidae; Mephitidae; Mustelidae; Otariidae; Phocidae; Procyonidae; and Ursidae. Herein, we include published and unpublished data on native terrestrial Neotropical carnivores (Canidae; Felidae; Mephitidae; Mustelidae; Procyonidae; and Ursidae). NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES is a publicly available data set that includes 99,605 data entries from 35,511 unique georeferenced coordinates. Detection/non-detection and quantitative data were obtained from 1818 to 2018 by researchers, governmental agencies, non-governmental organizations, and private consultants. Data were collected using several methods including camera trapping, museum collections, roadkill, line transect, and opportunistic records. Literature (peer-reviewed and grey literature) from Portuguese, Spanish and English were incorporated in this compilation. Most of the data set consists of detection data entries (n = 79,343; 79.7%) but also includes non-detection data (n = 20,262; 20.3%). Of those, 43.3% also include count data (n = 43,151). The information available in NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES will contribute to macroecological, ecological, and conservation questions in multiple spatio-temporal perspectives. As carnivores play key roles in trophic interactions, a better understanding of their distribution and habitat requirements are essential to establish conservation management plans and safeguard the future ecological health of Neotropical ecosystems. Our data paper, combined with other large-scale data sets, has great potential to clarify species distribution and related ecological processes within the Neotropics. There are no copyright restrictions and no restriction for using data from this data paper, as long as the data paper is cited as the source of the information used. We also request that users inform us of how they intend to use the data