Bats in Three Protected Areas of the Central Amazon Ecological Corridor in Brazil

Abstract

Bats have the second highest mammalian species richness globally, and account for about half of the mammal species diversity in tropical forests. In the Neotropical region, Brazil is the second most bat species-rich country, and the Brazilian Amazonia harbours most of the Brazilian bat diversity. However, many areas of the Amazon have sampling gaps in biodiversity inventories, and this is the situation of most Protected Areas (PAs) of the Central Amazon Ecological Corridor (CAEC) of Brazil. In the CAEC, there are PAs that are relatively intact, globally relevant for biodiversity, having high priority for conservation at the regional scale, but are greatly deficient in faunal inventories. In this sense, species inventories are the first step to consolidate management plans for PAs, as well as the conservation of the species occurring there. Thus, in this study we survey the bat assemblages in three PAs in the CAEC of Brazil: Jutai River Extractive Reserve (JRER), Jutai-Solimoes Ecological Station (JSES) and Auati-Parana Extractive Reserve (APER). In addition, we compared the bat diversity of these three areas with a compilation of data from 44 localities in the Amazon biome in two different biogeographic contexts. The first involves three geographic regions separated by large Amazonian rivers (Eastern Amazonia, Western Amazonia and the Guiana Shield) and the second based on three biogeographic dominions (Boreal Brazilian, Southeastern Amazonia and South Brazilian). We recorded 36 species at JRER in ten nights of sampling, 33 species at JSES in nine nights, and 55 species at APER in 17 nights. Of the total number of species, 20 were captured exclusively at APER, seven at JSES and only four at JRER, with 21 species being common to the three PAs. One species (Artibeus bogotensis) was recorded for the first time in Brazil. In a biogeographic context, species composition differed among biogeographic regions. This suggests that when designing strategies of conservation to protect the rich diversity of the large-scale bat fauna of the Amazon, considering the location of PAs, as well as the biogeographic regions is key. Although there have been major efforts in Brazil to identify priority conservation areas, for most priority areas of Amazon, bat surveys have not been performed, highlighting the urgent need for further studies. © Museum and Institute of Zoology PAS.