Mammals of a restinga forest in Mataraca, Paraíba, northeastern Brazil, and its affinities to restinga areas in Brazil

Abstract The Restinga forests are plant formations associated to the Atlantic Forest which still have not been much studied in terms of their mastofauna. The objective of the present work was to list for the first time the mammal species found in a Restinga on northeastern Brazil and show the similarities on species composition to other areas of the same environment and of Atlantic Forest. Our records were based on several complementary approaches: field survey, interviews, and museum collections. Subsequently, we performed similarity analysis between Restinga areas along Brazil and Atlantic Forest areas. We found a total of 30 species of mammals distributed in 28 genera, 16 families and 7 orders for Restinga of Mataraca. Species richness was similar to other Restinga areas and similarity analyzes pointed out that Restingas are more closely related to adjacent Atlantic Forest areas than to other Restingas in the country. This suggests that Restingas do not exhibit an autochthone fauna, but rather a faunal subsample of neighbor Atlantic Forest. Therefore, conservations policies for the Restinga habitat depends not only on actions focused on this habitat, but on initiatives that encompass nearby Atlantic Forest remnants, allowing the connectivity between these habitats.

摘要 海滨沙原林（Restinga Forests）是与大西洋森林（Atlantic Forest）相关联的植物群落，但其哺乳类动物区系（mastofauna）迄今仍未得到充分研究。本研究的首要目标是首次整理记录巴西东北部一处海滨沙原林中的哺乳动物物种，并分析该区域与同类生境及大西洋森林其他区域的物种组成相似性。本次物种记录依托多种互补方法开展：野外调查、访谈以及馆藏标本核查。随后，我们针对巴西境内的海滨沙原区域与大西洋森林区域开展了物种组成相似性分析。针对马塔拉卡（Mataraca）海滨沙原林，本次调查共记录到30种哺乳动物，隶属于7目、16科、28属。其物种丰富度与其他海滨沙原区域相近；相似性分析结果显示，巴西境内的海滨沙原林与邻近的大西洋森林区域的亲缘关系，较其与本国其他海滨沙原林的关系更为紧密。这表明海滨沙原林并不具备本土特有的动物区系，而是邻近大西洋森林的动物区系子集。因此，针对海滨沙原生境的保护政策，不仅需要聚焦该生境自身的保护行动，还需涵盖邻近的大西洋森林残余斑块，以保障两类生境间的连通性。