Habitat use and home range of neotropical cats in Brazilian Cerrado. — Promaco Conventions

Habitat use and home range of neotropical cats in Brazilian Cerrado. (#718)

Roberto Guilherme Trovati 1 , Bernado Ferreira Alves de Brito 2 , José Mauricio Barbanti Duarte 3
  1. Animal Ecology Laboratory, ESALQ - University of São Paulo, Sydney/Crows Nest, New South Wales, Australia
  2. Directorate of Conservation Units Creation , ICMBio, Brasília, DF, Brazil
  3. Departament Zootecnia, FCAV / UNESP - Center for Research and Conservation of Cervidae, Jaboticabal, São Paulo, Brazil

The majority of neotropical cats are sympatric in almost all Brazilian biomes. The aim of this study was to determine the habitat use and home range of three neotropical cat species in Brazilian Cerrado. Two Leopardus guttulus (males), two Puma yagouaroundi (male and female) and one Leopardus pardalis (male) were monitored by radio-tracking. All animals’ demonstrated preference for gallery forest, with a mean of 83.5%. L. guttulus had the largest preference for open areas (30%) compared with other species. L. guttulus had the smallest home range by Minimum Convex Polygon (MCP 100%) of 4.67–4.93 km2 and Harmonic Mean (HM 95%) of 4.83–5.45 km². P. yagouaroundi home range was 17.97 for female and 25.32 km2 for male by MCP and by HM 95%. We observed the formation of two home ranges per animal (female 6.22 km2 and 15.44km2; male 11.90 km2 and 20.25 km2). The home range of L. pardalis was 19.21 km2 by MCP and the two home ranges observed by HM 95% were 8.42 km2 and 15.11 km2. L. guttulus core area (HM 75%) varied 46.6 to 60% of the home range. The core area of P. yagouaroundi was 5.3% of small and 39% of large female home range, and 16% and 23% of male home range, respectively. L. pardalis core area was 22% of small and 53.6% of large home range. This study provides basic information about the ecology of these species in Cerrado.

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