Abstract

MOSQUERA-GUERRA, Federico; TRUJILLO, Fernando; DIAZ-PULIDO, Angélica P.  and  MANTILLA-MELUK, Hugo. Diversity, relative abundance and activity patterns for medium and large mammals of the riparian forests of the Bita River, Vichada, Colombia. Biota colombiana [online]. 2018, vol.19, n.1, pp.202-218. ISSN 0124-5376.  https://doi.org/10.21068/c2018v19n01a13.

The diversity of mammals in the Orinoco River basin is derived from the mixture of species from different biogeographic regions and remains poorly known. Therefore, we used camera trapping techniques for the registration of the large and medium mammals associated to the riparian forest in the upper and middle basins of the Bita River, Vichada, Colombia. Diversity, relative abundance index and activity patterns were estimated. Seventy-seven camera traps were installed along 200 km of the river in two hydroclimatic periods (low and high precipitation). A total of 16439 images were obtained with a sampling effort of 7700 traps-days. Twenty-four species of mammals were recorded, corresponding to 17 families and 9 orders. The Shannon-Wiener diversity index obtained through this method was H´=1.995, the best-represented species through the relative abundance index were Tayassu pecari (IAR = 0.176, n = 1360), Cuniculus paca (IAR = 0.174, n = 1346), Tapirus terrestris (IAR = 0.144, n = 1114) and Dasyprocta fuliginosa (IAR = 0.116, n = 900). In terms of activity patterns, Dasyprocta fuliginosa showed a pattern of diurnal activity, Leopardus pardalis catemeral, Tayassu pecari morning twilight, Cuniculus paca and Didelphis marsupialis nocturnal and Tapirus terrestris twilight evening. This information may be useful to plan conservation and management actions for the mastofauna of the Bita River basin.

Keywords : Colombian Orinoquia; Conservation; Guyanese shield; Trap cameras.

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