IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Figueiro, H.V. | |
| C¢digo de barra de DNA de mam¡feros netoropicais, e sua aplica‡Æo em estudos ecol¢gicos de carn¡voros | |
| 2010 Full Book | |
Since 2003 the use of a standardized molecular marker for species identification has emerged as a practical solution for a great variety of biodiversity surveys and other applications. In the literature the list of examples of hidden diversity uncovered through this technique increases continuously. The present study proposes the use of a molecular approach for species identification of dietary contents of four species of Neotropical wild cats (_Leopardus tigrinus_, _L. geoffroyi_, _L. wiedii_ and _Puma yagouaroundi_), and includes a more detailed comparison of the food habits of _L. tigrinus_ and _L. geoffroyi_. We were able to identify 59% of our samples at species level, and to classify the unidentified ones into well-supported clusters, which revealed the likely diversity of species sampled in the area, even without proper taxonomic identification. The identified taxa were _Cavia magna, Mus musculus, Sooretamys angouya, Oligoryhomys nigripes, Rattus rattus, Oxymycterus quaestor, Oyxmyxterus_ sp._, Akodon paranaensis_ and _Akodon azarae_. Five other clusters were identified which did not match any of the reference species in our database. These groups likely correspond to species-level taxa that are either undescribed or not known to occur in the sampled region. This result highlights the potential for application of this technique to the dietary content of predators to inventory the diversity of their prey, including the possibility of discovering currently unknown taxa. The comparative ecological analysis of _L. geoffroyi_ and _L. tigrinus_ showed a strong pattern of dietary specialization for both species and a weak niche overlap between them. Considering that the detailed identification of prey items from these species has been historically difficult on the basis of traditional methods, the results obtained here illustrate the usefulness of this approach to perform a more in-depth comparison of the diet of these felids, making it possible to gain a better understanding of their ecological interface in areas of sympatry in southern Brazil. |
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