RESEARCH PAPER
Density and survivorship of the South American coati (Nasua nasua) in urban areas in Central–Western Brazil
 
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1
UFMS, Universidade Federal do Mato Grosso do Sul, Departamento de Ecologia
 
2
UCDB, Universidade Católica Dom Bosco, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Ambientais e Sustentabilidade Agropecuária
 
3
UFMS, Universidade Federal do Mato Grosso do Sul, Programa de Pós-graduação em Recursos Naturais
 
 
Online publication date: 2021-04-11
 
 
Publication date: 2021-04-11
 
 
Corresponding author
Wanessa Teixeira Gomes Barreto   

Universidade Federal do Mato Grosso do Sul, Departamento de Ecologia, Cidade universitária, Campo Grande, MS, Brazil
 
 
Hystrix It. J. Mamm. 2021;32(1):82-88
 
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ABSTRACT
Biodiversity is constantly threatened by urbanization. However, species with greater behavioral plasticity can establish themselves in urbanized landscapes and, in some cases, can reach high densities, which can result in human-wildlife conflict. Therefore, a study on the population parameters of wildlife in an urban environment can provide important information to support the management of these populations. We estimated the population parameters of South American coatis (Nasua nasua) using capture–mark–recapture models. We used Huggins robust models to estimate detectability using sex, weight, and time as covariates and used the best-fitting model to estimate the apparent survival of coatis in an urban landscape. The abundance was obtained as a derivative parameter. The density was obtained based on abundance estimates. Total annual apparent survival was low in both study sites, and almost double in the Brazilian Air Force Private Area (AFPA) compared to the Parque Estadual do Prosa (PEP). The population size was estimated at 41 individuals in the AFPA group and 30 individuals in the PEP group. The density in AFPA was 19.5 individuals/km2, and was 11.2 individuals/km2 in PEP. Our estimates were the lowest when compared to those reported for urban areas in the existing literature. Our results suggest that the low apparent survival is compensated by dietary supplementation and low susceptibility to predation, which maintains a stable population density over time.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable considerations to improve the original version of this manuscript.
FUNDING
We thank the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior -- Brasil (CAPES) for financing this study in part (Finance Code 001).
eISSN:1825-5272
ISSN:0394-1914
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