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Terrestrial Mammals of Mozambique: Current Knowledge and Future Challenges for Conservation

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Terrestrial Mammals of Mozambique: Current Knowledge and Future Challenges for Conservation UNIVERSIDADE DE LISBOA UNIVERSIDADE DE AVEIRO FACULDADE DE CIENCIASˆ DEPARTAMENTO DE BIOLOGIA Terrestrial mammals of Mozambique: current knowledge and future challenges for conservation ”Documento Definitivo” Doutoramento em Biologia e Ecologia das Alterac¸oes˜ Globais Especialidade em Biologia e Ecologia Tropical Isabel Maria Queiros´ das Neves Tese orientada por: Doutora Cristiane Bastos-Silveira Professora Doutora Maria da Luz Mathias Documento especialmente elaborado para a obtenc¸ao˜ do grau de doutor 2020 UNIVERSIDADE DE LISBOA UNIVERSIDADE DE AVEIRO FACULDADE DE CIENCIASˆ DEPARTAMENTO DE BIOLOGIA Terrestrial mammals of Mozambique: current knowledge and future challenges for conservation Doutoramento em Biologia e Ecologia das Alterac¸oes˜ Globais Especialidade em Biologia e Ecologia Tropical Isabel Maria Queiros´ das Neves Tese orientada por: Doutora Cristiane Bastos-Silveira Professora Doutora Maria da Luz Mathias Juri:´ Presidente: • Doutora Solveig´ Thorsteinsdottir,´ Professora Associada com Agregac¸ao˜ e Presidente do Departamento de Biologia Animal, da Faculdade de Cienciasˆ da Universidade de Lisboa Vogais: • Doutor Lu´ıs Antonio´ da Silva Borda de Agua,´ Investigador Auxiliar do CIBIO - Centro de Investigac¸ao˜ em Biodiversidade e Recursos Geneticos´ da Universidade do Porto • Doutor Amadeu Mortagua´ Velho da Maia Soares, Professor Catedratico´ do Departamento de Biologia da Universidade de Aveiro • Doutor Antonio´ Paulo Pereira de Mira, Professor Auxiliar com Agregac¸ao˜ do MED - Instituto Mediterraneoˆ para a Agricultura, Ambiente e Desenvolvimento da Universidade de Evora´ • Doutor Rui Paulo Nobrega´ Figueira, Investigador Auxiliar Convidado do Instituto Superior de Agronomia da Universidade de Lisboa • Doutora Maria da Luz Costa Pereira Mathias, Professora Catedratica´ da Faculdade de Cienciasˆ da Universidade de Lisboa (Orientadora) • Doutor Lu´ıs Miguel do Carmo Rosalino, Professor Auxiliar Convidado da Faculdade de Cienciasˆ da Universidade de Lisboa; Documento especialmente elaborado para a obtenc¸ao˜ do grau de doutor Este projeto foi financiado pela Fundac¸ao˜ para a Cienciaˆ e a Tecnologia (FCT) - SFRH/BD/51412/2011 2020 This study was funded by Fundac¸ao˜ para a Cienciaˆ e a Tecnologia (FCT) through a PhD grant – SFRH/BD/51412/2011 – attributed to Isabel Maria Queiros´ das Neves. Oh, as belas terras do meu africo´ pa´ıs e os belos animais astutos ageis´ e fortes dos matos do meu pa´ıs e os belos rios e os belos lagos e os belos peixes e as belas aves dos ceus´ do meu pa´ıs e todos os nomes que eu amo belos na l´ıngua ronga macua, sua´ıli, changana, x´ıtsua e bitonga dos negros de Camunguine, Zavala, Meponda, Chissibuca Zongoene, Ribau´ e` e Mossuril. — Quissimajulo! Quissimajulo! Gritam as bocas autenticasˆ no hausto da terra Jose´ Craveirinha, ”Hino a` minha terra”, 1974 Acknowledgments While revisiting this PhD journey, I realized that many people left an impression on me and in the study now presented. Firstly, I would like to thank the natural history museums and other collection holders that provided the data of GBIF portal or other and, also, the ones that replied attentively and generously when contacted directly by me. Next, special acknowledgements go to my supervisors. To Prof. Maria da Luz Mathias, at Faculty of Sciences, thank you for accepting to be part of this journey, your insight and continuous support were crucial to unravel this thesis. To Cristiane Bastos-Silveira, at the Natural History Museum of Lisbon, thank you for all the hours spent discussing and brainstorming, and for the (sometimes-difficult-to-ear) advice to listen to my ”research- instincts” and make this thesis my own. At the Faculty of Sciences in Lisbon, even though in the last years I have not been so present, I always remember the support and encouragement from all the colleagues from Prof. Maria da Luz’s lab. Particularly, to Ana Cerveira, Sofia Gabriel, Rita Monarca and Joaquim Tapisso for listening, sharing ideas, and giving me the strength to keep going. Also, thank you, Joaquim and Ana, for ”sponsoring” my attendance to the mammalogy congress in Sweden, offering me a place to sleep. Ana, thank you for revising my English. At Lisbon’s natural history museum, I would like to thank my colleagues, who became friends. With whom I share the appreciation for natural history collections and fervidly believe in a better institutional strategy for the development of an appropriate long-term infrastructure. Among them, a special acknowledgement to Leonor Brites (the boss), Leonor Venceslau and Diogo Parrinha, we were a great team. To Mariana and Lu´ıs Cer´ıaco, whose work inspired me and kept me on track, and thank you for the reviews. To Alexandra Cartax- ana, for her friendship and encouragement, and for keeping me pragmatic. To Alexandra Marc¸al, needless to say, I am incredibly grateful for your input. Your insights contributed to making this thesis much more cogent and articulate than would have been otherwise. To Yulliet, for making me feel that what we are doing is important and, also, for making v lunch much more flavorful. To Pedro Andrade and Ana Campos, for making our world (the museum) beautiful and for the good vibes. To my parents, which were my greatest supporters in this great endeavour, without them, this project would not be possible. Thank you for being the best grandparents as well. To my family of friends, particularly to To Ze,´ Marta, Portugal, Kilo, and Vera, which always make sure we are just fine. To my kids, Tito and Cid, the two other chapters of this thesis, which made me a more resilient and pragmatic person. The last but not the least, to Pedro, your words of wisdom were indispensable to get this far. Now, let’s make nature our home. Abstract Nations must know on what and where to conserve, as required by Convention on Biological Di- versity. Only by knowing where we should trust our knowledge of species occurrence, we will be able to make accurate decisions and efficiently allocate the limited resources for improving quality and coverage of species occurrence and distribution and safeguarding biodiversity. Existing knowledge about the biodiversity of Mozambique is scarce across most taxonomic groups. Long periods of armed conflict seriously affected wildlife and scientific research, con- tributing to this lack of knowledge. This doctoral thesis aimed to compile and map current knowledge about the occurrence of terrestrial mammal fauna in Mozambique, to discuss the challenges for biodiversity conservation in the country. To meet these objectives, an inven- tory on terrestrial mammal presence was compiling integrating primary species-occurrence data from 1) the GBIF portal; 2) natural history collections; 3) recent survey reports, and 4) scientific literature. The first part of this thesis focuses on the update of the list of terrestrial mammal species reported for the country. The second part investigates the data bias and gaps in knowledge regarding the distribution of terrestrial mammals in Mozambique, providing priority areas for future surveys. The third part offers a first assessment on the effectiveness of Mozambique’s conservation areas to protect the lesser-known taxa given global change and further suggests pri- ority areas for conservation. As a final contribution of this research, we discuss the contribution of different data sources to the inventory and the importance of digitization and mobilization of biodiversity data in poorly studied countries. Overall, the study developed in this thesis is an important starting point and a valuable resource for understanding the occurrence and distribution of terrestrial mammals in Mozam- vii bique, contributing with a dataset now acessible for researchers and decision-makers. Keywords Africa; Mammalia; Knowledge gap; Digitisation; Natural history collections; Primary species- occurrence data; Data quality; Conservation areas viii Resumo A Convenc¸ao˜ para a Diversidade Biologica´ requer que os pa´ıses signatarios´ reconhec¸am quais os componentes da biodiversidade que sao˜ importantes para a conservac¸ao˜ e uso sustentavel´ das especies´ nos seus territorios.´ A tomada de decisoes˜ adequadas para protec¸ao˜ da biodiversidade, em particular na alocac¸ao˜ eficiente dos recursos dispon´ıveis, muitas vezes limitados, implica a mobilizac¸ao˜ de informac¸ao˜ sobre a ocorrenciaˆ das especies´ e a sua distribuic¸ao.˜ A falta de con- hecimento sobre os diferentes componentes da diversidade de especies´ num determinado local representa, portanto, uma barreira para a avaliac¸ao˜ do estado de conservac¸ao˜ e determinac¸ao˜ de prioridades para a conservac¸ao˜ e gestao˜ ambientais. A n´ıvel global, a conservac¸ao˜ da biodiversidade depende, em grande parte, de uma gestao˜ correta e planeada nas regioes˜ do mundo com maior riqueza de especies´ uma vez que sao˜ as que mais contribuem para alcanc¸ar esse objetivo geral. Geralmente, estas regioes˜ sao˜ tambem´ as que temˆ menos documentac¸ao˜ relativa a` sua biodiversidade. Este e´ o caso da Republica´ de Moc¸ambique, um pa´ıs localizado na costa este de Africa,´ com grande diversidade de ecossis- temas e habitats que se traduz numa alta riqueza de especies´ de animais e plantas. O conheci- mento existente e dispon´ıvel sobre a biodiversidade deste pa´ıs e´ referido como insuficiente para a maioria dos grupos taxonomicos.´ Esta tese de doutoramento teve como objetivos a compilac¸ao˜ e o mapeamento do conhec- imento atual sobre a ocorrenciaˆ da fauna de mam´ıferos terrestres em Moc¸ambique, com o fim de contribuir
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