Caracterización de la comunidad de mamíferos de un área remota del sur de Chile mediante el uso combinado de metodologías

Abstract

The presence and distribution of mammals in remote areas are currently poorly known, although these areas are usually rich in biodiversity. The main objective of this study was to characterize the terrestrial mammal community within the reserve of Huinay, southern Chile, using three methodologies: i) questionnaires to residents and visitors to the area (n=42); ii) transects of mammals’ presence (scats, tracks, etc; the total length of transects was 80 km); iii) camera-trapping (18 camera-traps were set with a total sampling effort of 590 trap-days). A total of 13 species of mammals were identified, and only three of them (pudu, Pudu puda, kodkod, Leopardus guigna and lesser grison, Galictis cuja) were recorded with all the methods employed. Our results suggest that different methodologies can complement each other for surveying species presence and distribution in remote areas.