Padrão de atividade temporal e uso do habitat por Crax Globulosa e Pauxi Tuberosa em floresta de várzea e terra firme na Amazônia brasileira

Abstract

The evaluation of how species use habitat in areas well conserved is an important tool to understand their ecological niches. In this study, we aimed to determine the diel activity pattern and how inundation height, distance to the nearest water body, number of feline records and presence of baits influence habitat use by two curassow species, Crax globulosa and Pauxi tuberosa, in flooded and unflooded forests in Amazonia. Camera-trap stations were installed in the dry season, during five consecutive years in the flooded forest and three years in unflooded forest. The diel activity patterns of the species in the flooded forest were similar, as they were in flooded and unflooded forest. The number of feline records did not affect curassow distribution in any of the studied environments. However, in unflooded forest, P. tuberosa used sites with baits more often, whereas C. globulosa in flooded florest was more frequently recorded where inundation was shallow. Further, in flooded forest, both species responded to distance to the nearest water body, but in opposite ways: C. globulosa used more often sites near water bodies and P. tuberosa was recorded more often away from water bodies. These results suggest that there is no temporal partitioning in habitat use between the studied curassow species. Rather, the species tend to segregate spatially in response to the distribution of water bodies, possibly reflecting variation in available resources. This study allowed to increase the knowledge of the ecological niche and habitat use by C. globulosa and P. tuberosa, besides providing the first information about iterespecific relation of these species in the Brazilian Amazonian forest.