Living at the top of the forest line: medium and large mammals in a high-mountain ecotone in Peruvian Central Andes

Abstract: Among the ecoregions that comprise the high-Andean zone of the Tropical Andes, the Puna and the Yungas stand out for covering a large part of the Peruvian Eastern Andes. Located in the ecotone of these two ecoregions, the Pampa Hermosa National Sanctuary (PHNS) houses one of the priority areas for conservation in Peru. However, the biodiversity of the high-Andean zone of the sanctuary and its surroundings remains poorly studied. Thus, through camera traps and transects, we sought to inventory for the first time the medium and large mammals from the high-Andean region of the PHNS and its buffer zone. We recorded 11 native and three domestic species of medium and large mammals. The richness of native mammals sampled reached 91.7% of the estimated richness (S est.= 11.99 ± 1.85). Among the native species Odocoileus virginianus had the highest relative frequency (56%). We recorded three endemic mammals from the Tropical Andes, Cuniculus taczanowskii, Tremarctos ornatus, and Pudu mephistopheles. The observed richness was higher than most surveys of medium and large mammals carried out in the Puna-forest ecotone in Peru, where the reported richness ranged from 4 to 13 species. In addition, our records of Leopardus pardalis and Eira barbara are the highest for all distribution of these two carnivores. Our results showed that more than 90% of the species recorded were found in it, demonstrating that the entire high-Andean region of the PHNS and its surroundings has an important value for the local mammal community.

摘要：在构成热带安第斯山脉高安第斯带的各类生态区中，普纳（Puna）与云加斯（Yungas）生态区覆盖了秘鲁东部安第斯山脉的大片范围，属于该区域的代表性生态区。坐落于这两大生态区生态交错带的潘帕·赫莫萨国家保护区（Pampa Hermosa National Sanctuary, PHNS），是秘鲁国家级优先保护区域之一。然而，当前学界对该保护区及其周边区域的高安第斯带生物多样性仍缺乏深入研究。为此，本研究采用红外相机陷阱（camera traps）与样线调查（transects）相结合的方法，首次对潘帕·赫莫萨国家保护区高安第斯带及其缓冲区（buffer zone）的大中型哺乳动物（medium and large mammals）开展本底调查。本次调查共记录到11种本土哺乳动物与3种家养哺乳动物。经测算，采样获取的本土哺乳动物物种丰富度达到预估物种丰富度的91.7%（预估丰富度S_est=11.99±1.85）。其中，白尾鹿（Odocoileus virginianus）的相对出现频率最高，达56%。本研究记录到3种热带安第斯山脉特有哺乳动物：塔氏刺豚鼠（Cuniculus taczanowskii）、眼镜熊（Tremarctos ornatus）以及安第斯普度鹿（Pudu mephistopheles）。本次观测到的物种丰富度，高于秘鲁境内多数在普纳-森林生态交错带开展的大中型哺乳动物调查，此类调查报告的物种丰富度多介于4至13种之间。此外，本研究记录到的虎猫（Leopardus pardalis）与狐鼬（Eira barbara）的分布记录，为这两种食肉动物的所有已知分布记录中数量最高者。本研究结果显示，本次记录的物种中超过90%均在该区域被发现，这表明潘帕·赫莫萨国家保护区的完整高安第斯带及其周边区域，对于当地哺乳动物群落具有极高的保护价值。