Primate and ungulate responses to teak agroforestry in a southern Amazonian landscape

Publication date: Available online 1 April 2019Source: Mammalian BiologyAuthor(s): Angele Tatiane Martins Oliveira, Christine Steiner São Bernardo, Fabiano Rodrigues de Melo, Manoel dos Santos-Filho, Carlos Augusto Peres, Gustavo Rodrigues CanaleAbstractAgroforestry systems are widely extolled as a biodiversity-friendly alternative to food and wood production. However, few studies on large-vertebrates in the tropics consistently support this assumption. In the Amazonian ‘arch of deforestation’, commodity cropland and pastures for beef production have relentlessly replaced native forests. Agroforestry should therefore be both economically profitable and a more wildlife-friendly land-use alternative. Here we assess the local abundance and habitat use by forest primates and ungulates in a landscape mosaic containing large areas of primary forest and teak (Tectona grandis) agroforestry. We focused on animals of these groups because they have similar day ranges and home ranges, and are at the same trophic level. We surveyed 12 transects in both of these environments, totalling 485 km walked. We recorded four ungulate (Tayassu pecari, Pecari tajacu, Mazama americana, and Tapirus terrestris) and seven primate species (Ateles chamek, Lagothrix cana, Sapajus apella, Saimiri ustus, Chiropotes albinasus, Plecturocebus cf. moloch and Mico cf. emiliae). We indicate the importance of a species-level approach to evaluate the contribution of agroforests to population persistence. Larg...
Source: Mammalian Biology - Category: Biology Source Type: research