IMPACTO DA SOBRECAÇA EM POPULAÇÕES DE MAMÍFEROS E SUAS INTERAÇÕES ECOLÓGICAS NAS FLORESTAS NEOTROPICAIS

Abstract

OVERHUNTING IMPACTS IN MAMMALS POPULATIONS AND ECOLOGICAL INTERACTIONS IN THE TROPICAL FORESTS. Overhunting has been regarded as a major threat to neotropical large vertebrate populations. An analysis of the literature on hunting in the Neotropical Region showed that, besides local extinctions, high hunting pressure also results in breaking apart ecological interactions which warrant the maintenance of the biological diversity. By its turn, this has negative effects on seed dispersal, recruitment and diversity of arboreal species. However, due to factors such as time lags in ecosystem responses, density compensation, differences in community composition, among others, ecosystem responses to defaunation are variable. Large tracts of undisturbed forests still allow sustainable harvest of large sized and especially of medium sized mammals; fragmented forests harbour species-poor communities and low density populations. Overhunting usually empoverishes the same set of mammalian genera, generating a defaunation pattern which may lead to nested communities, where nestedness is produced by differential vulnerability to hunting pressure.

Keywords: Hunting; nested communities; mammals; neotropical region; overexploitation.