Food habits of three carnivores in a mosaic landscape of São Paulo state, Brazil

São Paulo is the most developed state in Brazil, but despite intense land use changes, some mammal species still inhabit remnant fragments of native vegetation of the state. We used fecal analyses to investigate prey diversity, trophic niche breadth, and trophic niche overlap of pumas, ocelots, and...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European journal of wildlife research 2018-04, Vol.64 (2), p.1-5, Article 15
Main Authors: Giordano, C., Lyra-Jorge, M. C., Miotto, R. A., Pivello, V. R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Carnivores
Chrysocyon brachyurus
Diet
Ecology
Fish & Wildlife Biology & Management
Food
Food habits
Food preferences
Habits
Indigenous species
Introduced species
Land use
Landscape
Landscape ecology
Leopardus pardalis
Lepus europaeus
Life Sciences
Niche breadth
Niche overlap
Prey
Protected areas
Rainy season
Short Communication
Trails
Wolves
Zoology
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Summary:São Paulo is the most developed state in Brazil, but despite intense land use changes, some mammal species still inhabit remnant fragments of native vegetation of the state. We used fecal analyses to investigate prey diversity, trophic niche breadth, and trophic niche overlap of pumas, ocelots, and maned wolves in protected and non-protected areas in São Paulo state. During 18 months, we inspected more than 10,000 km of roads and trails and collected 233 fecal samples. Maned wolves showed generalist food habit, ocelots were predominantly carnivores, and pumas were strict carnivores. The European hare, an exotic species which had not yet been reported in the study area, was identified in the feces of a puma. Trophic niche breadth was the lowest for maned wolves ( BA  = 0.339) and the highest for pumas ( BA  = 0.723). Trophic niche overlap was high between maned wolves and ocelots ( O jk  = 0.765) and between pumas and ocelots ( O jk  = 0.639). Significantly different diets of maned wolves and ocelots were observed between dry and rainy seasons. Our findings indicate that these three species may adapt their diets to the disturbed landscapes. This is the second study characterizing food habits of ocelots in Cerrado areas but the first considering a large number of samples.
ISSN:1612-4642
1439-0574
DOI:10.1007/s10344-018-1172-3