Rodents from historical and modern owl pellets in the karst region of central Minas Gerais, Brazil

BORONI, N.; PARDIÑAS, U.F.J.; LESSA, G.

Mar del Plata

Jornada; 26 Jornadas Argentinas de Mastozoología; 2013

SAREM - Univ. Nac. Mar del Plata

As a result of the work of Peter Lund in the nineteenth century, the Lagoa Santa Karst and its surroundings is considered the region with the better known mammalian fauna, both living and extinct, all over Brazil. Despite the pioneering work of Lund in the region, few recent studies on the fauna of rodents were conducted and there are still many gaps in knowledge of the group. Thus, the aim of this study was to inventory the current fauna of small rodents in the region. We analyzed owl pellets (historical and modern) collected in limestone caves in the region of Cordisburgo, Lagoa Santa, Pedro Leopoldo and Sete Lagoas. Fifteen genera and 18 species were identified (NISP = 7941 and MNI = 2948).We found a high richness in the region, the largest ever reported for studies with pellets in Cerrado and Atlantic Forest. However, there was a moderate diversity since there was a great predominance of Calomys tener and Calomys expulsus. The fauna of historical and modern pellets were similar but two species of Echymyidae were restricted to the ancient sample. The Shanon Index (H?) shows a lower diversity in modern pellets when compared to historical pellets (P < 0,05). There were statistically significant differences in the proportion of some species between historical and modern samples (Calomys sp., Oligoryzomys sp., Thalpomys lasiotis, Akodon cf. A. cursor, Necromys lasiurus). It is likely that these differences in the community are due to changes in habitat over the past two hundred years, especially the destruction of natural vegetation caused by anthropogenic activities. The results presented here suggest changes in the rodent community in the region over the past years and future studies should be conducted to better understand these changes.