Movimentação de pequenos mamíferos em fragmentos florestais na cidade de Cerro Largo, RS

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze the movement of small mammals in two Atlantic forest fragments in the municipality of Cerro Largo, northwest of the Rio Grande do Sul state, where I examine the factors that influence the movement of four small mammal species. For data collection, we carry out the seasonal field sessions in two forest fragments, where each fragment was sampled with three transects with 7 capture points each, and at each point two live traps were placed. I used Sherman and Tomahawk live traps. To analyze the factors that influence small mammal movement, I used as independent variables animal sex (female or male), body weight and season of the year (winter, spring, summer or autumn) in relation to animal movement. The species collected were Akodon montensis, Oligorizomys flavescens, Oryzomys sp. and Didelphis albiventris, 3 species of the order Rodentia and one of the order Didelphimorphia. For the rodents species, the main factor that influenced movement behavior was the animal sex. Males tend to moved more than females. To the marsupial, D. albiventris, none of the factors analyzed seems to influence its movement behavior. According to the bibliography, males tend to move mainly searching for females for mating, and therefore they tend to cover the home range of more than one female. On the other hand, females movement occurs mainly for food resource searching only.