Richness and relative abundance of large and medium-sized mammals in the remains of a xerophilous forest in Carcarañá river middle basin (Santa Fe Province)

RIMOLDI, PABLO G.; NORIEGA, JORGE I.

Casilda

Congreso; XIV Congress - XXXII Annual Meeting; 2012

Sociedad de Biología de Rosario

The knowledge of diversity in large and medium-sized mammals from Santa Fe province has highly increased in recent times. Nevertheless, a vast area of this region is still unexplored. The aim of this work is to present the specific richness and relative abundance in the remains of a xerophilous forest in Carcarañá River Middle Basin. (32° 55? 38?S 61° 13? 53?O). Having indigenous vegetable formations from the fitogeographic province of El Espinal, the landscape?s physiognomy in this region is characterized by remarkable variations in relative reduced spaces. The methodology used consisted of a standardized path of lineal transects in search of activity signs (faeces, animals? tracks and other traces) as well as direct observation. The information obtained from the traces found was used to calculate the relative abundance index. A specifi c richness (S) of 8 species grouped in 8 families and 4 orders was registered, being the indirect registers the most effective methodology. According to the relative abundance of the registered species, the fox (Pseudalopex gymnosercus) has the highest occurrence value (0.0013ind/m).The lowest occurrence values, on the other hand, are for two other species: the skunk(Conepatus chinga) and the capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) with an abundance index of 0.0002 ind/m each. The obtained results pretend to lay the foundations for future monitoring programs and ecological research on mammals? colonies.