New records of Leopardus geoffroyi in the basin of the Carcarañá river, in the south of the province of Santa Fe

RIMOLDI, PABLO G.; NORIEGA, JORGE I.

Rosario

Congreso; XV Congress - XXXIII Annual Meeting; 2013

Sociedad de Biología de Rosario

The Geoffroy?s cat (Leopardus geoffroyi d´Orbigny y Gervais, 1844) is one of the predominant mammals in the pasture lands of the ?Pampa? region. On this work we present new records of L. Geoffroyi in the basin of the Carcaraña River and their association with some environmental variables. The methodology used was based on lineal transects in search of signs of activity. Trap cameras were used as support. In order to establish associations between the records of presence of L. Geoffroyi and the different environmental variables we produced a GIS- generated data base: 44 records of presence of L. geoffroyi were found in all the seasons. The relative abundance for the xerophilic forest was: 0, 52 signs/ km; 0, 31 signs / km for halophilic communities and 0.01 signs / km for farming lands. The distance to bodies of water showed variations from 0 to 606 m. The distance to towns was between 1850 and 11550 m. The distance to roads varied between 0 and 8120 m. The records were found at an average height of 67,65m (DS=20, 61) and the average grade of slope was 0, 94% (RQ=0, 47). On this research the biggest quantity of records was found in xerophilic forests and halophilic communities. This fact shows that although L. geoffroyi tolerates cultivated and peridomestic areas; it prefers areas with dense vegetation, mainly forests. To sum up, the highest index of relative abundance and records of presence of L. geoffroyi was obtained in xerophilic forests in the spring-summer season, reproductive period of the species.