MAMÍFEROS CARNÍVOROS DAS UNIDADES DE CONSERVAÇÃO DO BRASIL: COMPOSIÇÃO, RIQUEZA E CONSERVAÇÃO

Abstract

The biodiversity loss caused by human actions that lead to environmental degradation profoundly affects the natural ecosystems maintenance, then the creation of Conservation Units (CUs) is one of the strategies that have been implemented to mitigate human actions that cause damage to natural environments. Carnivorous mammals are negatively affected by habitat loss, hunting and roadkill resulting from the use and modification of landscapes, which highlights the importance of conservation units. This study was carried out to investigate the importance of Conservation Units in Brazil in the carnivores’ conservation. Between August and December 2021, a survey was carried out on published documents that addressed the topic related to carnivores in Conservation Units in Brazil. The search was performed by combining the words: mammal*, carnivore, felidae, canidae, mustelidae, mephitidae, procyonidae AND “protected area”, “conservation unit” AND “Cerrado”, “Brazilian Savanna”, “Amazon*”, “Amazon rainforest”, “Wetlands”, “Caatinga”, “Atlantic forest”, “Pampa”. The searches for publications were made through the Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar databases, which cover the main articles published in the world. All analyzes were performed in the R Program, version 4.0.2 (R Core Team, 2020). A total of 86 documents were found, distributed in 73 different CUs, of which 49 are Integral Protection and 24 are of sustainable use, 16 of these still do not have a management plan. Twenty-six species of carnivorous mammals were present in the CUs listed in this study. The species S. venaticus, C. brachyurus, A. microtis, L. vetulus, L. guttulus, L. wiedii, L. tigrinus, L. geoffroyi, P. onca, H. yagouaroundi and P. brasiliensis that were recorded, are part from the Official List of Endangered Brazilian Fauna. The size of the area did not influence the species richness, but it influenced the composition of mammals.