Reptiles of an Urban Atlantic Rainforest Fragment in the State of Pernambuco, Northeastern Brazil

Herpetology Notes, volume 9: 175-183 (2016) (published online on 01 September 2016) Reptiles of an urban Atlantic Rainforest fragment in the state of Pernambuco, northeastern Brazil Camila Nascimento de Oliveira¹,*, Sérgio Luiz da Silva Muniz² and Geraldo Jorge Barbosa de Moura² Abstract. Knowledge of species in strategic regions, even if only fragmentary, is an excellent way for making inferences regarding the local biodiversity, which is paramount for conservation strategies for any biological group. The objectives of the present study were to record the reptiles composing the fauna of the forest fragment studied and their habitat and microhabitat occupation. The inventory was carried out in the Tejipió forest, state of Pernambuco, northeastern Brazil, from October 2011 to April 2012. Sampling was performed by means of active searching, pitfall trapping, accidental sightings and local collectors. A total of 24 reptile species in 15 different families were reported (one tortoise, eleven lizards, three amphisbaenians, eight snakes and one crocodile). The habitat and microhabitat with greatest occurrence of species were the edge of the forest and soil with vegetation, respectively. Keywords: Squamata, Inventory, Species richness, Microhabitat, Tejipió forest. Introduction temporal distribution of species (Bernardo et al., 2012), among other matters. Inventories are the basis for biological characterization The Atlantic Rainforest is of worldwide importance of a given area. They provide biogeographical data for biological diversity and, because of the high levels and quantitative information of species, and enable of forest degradation and species endemism, this is a evaluation of the quality of forest fragments. Moreover, priority area for conservation (Myers et al., 2000; inventories may present complementary information on Conservation International, 2013). This status has been species, which in combination, aid in monitoring and given because of its constant losses and fragmentation evaluating their conservation status (Sousa et al., 2012; of habitats (Fahrig, 2003; Rocha et al., 2007; Martensen França et al., 2012). Inventories published regarding et al., 2008; Ribeiro et al., 2009), among other causes. Atlantic Rainforest reptiles of Brazil have supplied These actions alter the composition of biological groups, information such as on expansion of the distribution potentially causing species extinction (Tabarelli et al., of species (Santana et al., 2008), endemism situation 1999; Brooks et al., 2002; Fahrig, 2003) and decreased (Condez et al., 2009; Sousa et al., 2012) and spatial- genetic diversity of populations (Dixo et al., 2009). According to Gomides (2010), forest fragments created through human action become “islands” of biodiversity and act as alternatives for ensuring the survival of 1 Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Programa de Pós- species. Thus, the Atlantic Rainforest is particularly graduação em Biologia Animal (PPGBA), Av. Prof. Moraes important because of the occurrence of endemic species Rego, 1235, Cidade Universitária, CEP: 50670-901, Recife, of reptiles (Marques and Sazima, 2004), which occupy Pernambuco, PE, Brazil. a wide range of habitats and microhabitats (Sales et 2 Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, Laboratório de al., 2009). Knowledge of how species use or share Estudos Herpetológicos e Paleoherpetológicos, Rua Dom microhabitat is important for understanding how the Manoel de Medeiros, s/n, Dois Irmãos, CEP: 52171-900, Recife, Pernambuco, PE, Brazil. community is structured and how species respond * Corresponding author e-mail: to changes in the environment (Santana et al., 2008; [email protected] Bertoluci et al., 2009). 176 Camila Nascimento de Oliveira et al. Materials and Methods Study site Reptile survey took place in an Atlantic Rainforest fragment of 172 ha (Tejipió forest) (08°05’45.59” S, 34°57’04.91” W) (Figure 1), located at Km 73 of the BR-101 Sul Highway, in the district of Tejipió, municipality of Recife, state of Pernambuco. This area has the phytophysiognomy of a rainforest (Veloso et al., 1991), with a mean minimum temperature of 21.8°C and mean maximum temperature of 29.1°C and mean annual rainfall of 2,458 mm (World Weather Information Service, 2013). The site is located within the Tejipió river hydrographic basin (Araújo and Pires, 1998). According to Feitosa (2004), this fragment presents low heterogeneity of arboreal inventory, because the vegetation has been observed to be going through secondary succession stages, with regeneration processes that began approximately 46 years ago. The study site contains a lentic water body (i.e. a lake) in the forested area and, on the edges of the forest, there are local communities and a military construction area, with another smaller lake nearby. Data collection Sampling was performed between the months of October 2011 and April 2012 using pitfall traps with drift fences (Campbell and Christman, 1982; Cechin and Martins, 2000), time-constrained active searching (manual capture and visual identification) (Campbell and Christman, 1982), accidental sightings and local collectors. The traps were installed at six sampling stations. Figure 1. Map showing the location of the study site (Tejipió Each station had four buckets (two with 22 L capacity forest), together with the military area. The yellow dots show and one with 60 L capacity, intercalated), which were the location of the pitfall traps. arranged linearly and connected by 10 m of plastic drift fences. Active searches were carried out for four hours per day at different points of the study site, with diurnal and nocturnal searches. The sampling effort totalized 16.128 hours of trapping and 112 man-hours of active However, some fragments of this biome still need searching. to be characterized regarding the composition and The specimens caught were identified and environmental occupation of reptile species. Thus, the released (collecting permit 31795-1 – ICMBio) and present study aim to record the composition and spatial any individuals found dead were deposited in the specificity (habitat and microhabitat) of reptile species Herpetology Collection of the Federal Rural University that occur in a fragment of Atlantic Rainforest in the of Pernambuco (CHP-UFRPE; Appendix 1). state of Pernambuco. Data analysis The constancy of occurrence index (C) was used to indicate the frequency of occurrence of species, as Reptiles of an urban Atlantic Rainforest fragment in the state of Pernambuco, Brazil 177 proposed by Dajoz (2005). According to these results, and Kentropyx calcarata were sampled exclusively by the species were considered to be constant (species that pitfall traps. Three individuals were visually identified occurred in more than 50% of the samples), accessory at family level (Mabuyidae) and were found on the edge (species that occurred in 25% to 50% of the samples) or of the forest, in soil with no vegetation. Outside of the accidental (species that occurred in fewer than 25% of sampling period, another three species were captured, the samples). Eunectes murinus, Norops ortonii and Pseudoboa nigra: To evaluate the sampling effect, a rarefaction curve was these were identified by means of photographs and from constructed. Species richness was calculated through the specimens handed in. The Pseudoboa nigra were the richness estimators Ace, Chao 1, Jackknife 1 and deposited in the Herpetology Collection of the Federal Bootstrap, using 500 random additions of the samples. University of Pernambuco (CHUFPE, Appendix 1). Graphs based on the estimators were also created in The lizard Cercosaura ocellata was also identified, thus order to compare the observed richness. All the analyses demonstrating that its distribution (with coordinates) were carried out using the EstimateS® software, version has expanded to the state of Pernambuco (Oliveira and 8.2.0 (Colwell, 2009). Moura, 2013). To determine the microhabitats, only the reports Results and Discussion from the manual captures, chance encounters, visual identification and data from local collectors were A total of 24 reptile species belonging to 21 genera considered. The habitat with the greatest number of that were distributed among 15 families were species was the edge of the forest (10 spp.), followed by recorded: Teiidae (3 spp.), Phyllodactylidae (2 spp.), the open area, forested area and constructed area, all with Dactyloidae (1 sp.), Iguanidae (1 sp.), Tropiduridae (1 the same number of species (9 spp.). The microhabitat sp.), Gekkonidae (1 sp.), Gymnophthalmidae (1 sp.), of soil with vegetation showed the greatest richness of Sphaerodactylidae (1 sp.), Amphisbaenidae (3 spp.), species (10 spp.), followed by paved ground (9 spp.), Boidae (1 sp.), Colubridae (2 spp.), Dipsadidae (3 spp.), soil with no vegetation (7 spp.) and dry leaf cover (5 Elapidae (2 spp.), Chelidae (1 sp.) and Alligatoridae (1 spp.) (Table 1). sp.) (Table 1) (Figure 2). Some species shared the same habitats, such as the open Families with greatest richness were Dipsadidae, area, constructed area and edge of the forest (Tropidurus Amphisbaenidae and Teiidae, all with three species hispidus, Amphibaena alba and Boa constrictor). On each. In turn, the families that presented greatest the other hand, the open area and the edge of the forest dominance of individuals, i.e. specimen abundance, had six species in common (Iguana iguana, Ameiva were Tropiduridae (29 specimens) and Gekkonidae (21 ameiva, Salvator merianae, Tropidurus hispidus,

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