Scores of scientists combine to log animals in shrinking South American forest

05 FEBRUARY 2018
Scores of scientists combine to log animals in shrinking South American forest
An enormous collaborative database may help conservation efforts. Jessie Moyses reports.



A woolly spider monkey (Brachyteles hypoxanthus), a species found only in the Atlantic Forest.
PETER SCHOEN/GETTY IMAGES


A new comprehensive survey of the mammals of South America’s second-largest rainforest will aid efforts to preserve the many threatened species that live there.

The enormous dataset published in the journal Ecology describes the physical form and life history of 39,850 animals from 279 species found in the Atlantic Forest, which stretches across 1.3 million square kilometres of Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. It represents the most detailed examination yet of the animals of this region.

While land clearing over the past 500 years has diminished the Atlantic Forest to just 8-to–12% of its former size, the area still boasts rich biodiversity. Remaining pockets of habitat support 60% of Brazil’s threatened animal species, including jaguars, woolly spider-monkeys, lowland tapirs and giant anteaters.

“Most ecologists know a lot about the Amazon Forest but virtually nothing from the Atlantic Forest,” says Fernando Gonçalves of São Paulo State University in Brazil, who led the study.

More:
https://cosmosmagazine.com/biology/scores-of-scientists-combine-to-log-animals-in-shrinking-south-american-forest

Science:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/122855705