Behavior preferences between medium-large mammals in Atlantic Forest and Cerrado inside a public university of Southeastern Brazil

We studied large and medium-sized mammals in a modified landscape between the Atlantic Forest and a Cerrado transitional zone (Brazil). We used eight camera traps between August 2016 and August 2017, totaling 75840 camera hours or 3,160 camera trap days. The sampling effort was evaluated from a rarefaction curve based on the daily sampling. We conducted comparative univariate and multivariate ordination statistical analyses. We recorded 19 species in 13 families. The most recorded species were S. scrofa and Cerdocyon thous , while the least recorded were Cuniculus paca, Didelphis albiventris and Tamandua tetradactyla. Richness and total records do not differ among day period, month, season, vegetation type, and moon phase. Individually, species abundance nevertheless sometimes showed trends for these factors. S. scrofa dominated all landscapes and periods of the year because it is an opportunist species that rapidly reproduces and lacks natural efficient predators. The presence of this species reduces the dissimilarity of the community, but when it is removed, the dissimilarity of native species increases. The modified landscape studied here is an important area for mammalian fauna owing to high richness; some species in the area are threatened with extinction. The wide temporal sampling effort contributed to a high number of mammal species records, although without spatial variation.