Ecologia alimentar de duas especies de felinos do genero Leopardus em uma floresta secundaria no sudeste do Brasil

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2002

RESUMO

A knowledge of the food habits of a carnivore is central to understanding many aspects of its behavior and ecology. The main objective of this study was to describe and to compare the diet of two Leopardus species, L. tigrinus (oncilla) and L. pardalis (ocelot) in a secondary forest fragment in Southeastern Brazil. The field work was carried out in the Parque Florestal do Itapetinga, Atibaia, São Paulo. The food habits were studied by scat ana1ysis. To estimate prey availability in the area, four trimestrial trap samplings of small mammals were done from August/97 to May/98. A total of 392 scats was ana1yzed, 214 (54.6%) from the oncilla and 34 from the ocelot (8.7%). Murid rodents were the most frequent prey of the oncilla, representing 66.1 % of the items and occurring in 91.6% of the scats. The mean mass of vertebrate-prey was 53.1 g, about 2.5% of the mass of an adult oncilla. The mean biomass of the mammalian prey in individual scats was 71.7 g. The relative occurrence of the four main murid rodent species in the diet of the oncilla did not differ from that observed in the field. The category of prey with greatest relative frequency in the diet of ocelot was rodents (63.9%) and marsupials (18.0%). The porcupine (Sphiggurus villosus) was the most frequent species, representing 46.2% of the biomass of the consumed mammals. Murid rodents (<110 g) represented 39.3% of the prey, but on1y 3.0% of the biomass. The mean mass of the mammalian prey was 1,269.0 g, approximately 12% of the mass of an adult ocelot. The mean biomass of the mammalian prey represented in each scat was 755.3 g. The most frequent prey species of the oncilla were of little importance in the diet of the ocelot, resulting in a low overlapping of the food niche between the two cat species (33.8%). The diet of the oncilla was less diversified than that of the ocelot, with one species (Akodon sp.) representing approximately 30% of the prey. Morphological differences may explain the low overlapping of the food niche and the more diversified diet of the ocelot. The ability of the ocelot to forage on a great variety of prey and the predominance of small and abundant prey in the diet of the oncilla probably are determinating factors for the permanence of these cat species in forest fragments in Southeastern Brazil

ASSUNTO(S)

mamifero mata atlantica habitos alimentares

ACESSO AO ARTIGO

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