TY - JOUR

T1 - Home range and habitat use by the pacas (Cuniculus paca) in a montane tropical forest in Bolivia

AU - Benavides Frias, Camila

AU - Arce, Alejandro

AU - Pacheco, Luis F.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2017 Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazonia. All rights reserved.

PY - 2017/7/1

Y1 - 2017/7/1

N2 - We studied the home range and habitat use of paca (Cuniculus paca) in a rural agricultural community in the Alto Beni region, in La Paz department, Bolivia, where game meat is the main source of protein for a large portion of local inhabitants. We captured and radio collared five individual paca (4 females and 1 male), which were followed for six months in 2012 to estimate home range of the individuals and assess their habitat use and selection. The total mean home range (95% Minimum Convex Polygon) was 2.26 ha (SD = 0.80), and ranged from 1.5 to 2.96 ha. The mean female home range (2.04 ha) was smaller than the male´s (2.95 ha). Pacas used two (crops and fallows) of the three available habitats (secondary forest patches), and appeared to positively select crops over the other two. The importance of crops may be linked to the type of agriculture conducted in the area (i.e. mainly cacao in agroforestry systems), which may offer more food and shelter for pacas. Given that, the importance of habitats may change seasonally; this topic should be examined in future studies. Our results suggest that agroforestry systems may be important for the species since they offer a variety of food resources throughout the year.

AB - We studied the home range and habitat use of paca (Cuniculus paca) in a rural agricultural community in the Alto Beni region, in La Paz department, Bolivia, where game meat is the main source of protein for a large portion of local inhabitants. We captured and radio collared five individual paca (4 females and 1 male), which were followed for six months in 2012 to estimate home range of the individuals and assess their habitat use and selection. The total mean home range (95% Minimum Convex Polygon) was 2.26 ha (SD = 0.80), and ranged from 1.5 to 2.96 ha. The mean female home range (2.04 ha) was smaller than the male´s (2.95 ha). Pacas used two (crops and fallows) of the three available habitats (secondary forest patches), and appeared to positively select crops over the other two. The importance of crops may be linked to the type of agriculture conducted in the area (i.e. mainly cacao in agroforestry systems), which may offer more food and shelter for pacas. Given that, the importance of habitats may change seasonally; this topic should be examined in future studies. Our results suggest that agroforestry systems may be important for the species since they offer a variety of food resources throughout the year.

KW - Ecosystems Research

KW - space use

KW - radio telementry

KW - Alto Beni

KW - cacao

KW - agroforestry

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85027016271&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/93ecdbe8-0b89-3690-a988-465dd3b5b5ce/

U2 - 10.1590/1809-4392201603163

DO - 10.1590/1809-4392201603163

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 47

SP - 227

EP - 236

JO - Acta Amazonica

JF - Acta Amazonica

SN - 0044-5967

IS - 3

ER -