Density and habitat use at different spatial scales of a guanaco population (Lama guanicoe) in the Monte desert of Argentina
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Pablo Acebes
Abstract
The first density estimates of a peripheral guanaco population and its habitat use at different spatial scales are presented for a protected area of Monte desert, Argentina. Transects were surveyed in the wet and dry seasons of 2005. All guanaco herds observed during systematic surveys using roads and tracks were GPS located and their habitat use was identified. Herd size differed significantly between the dry and wet seasons. Population densities differed between wet (0.10–0.12 individuals/km2) and dry seasons (0.60–0.75 individuals/km2). The population estimates ranged from 75 individuals (dry season) to 388 individuals (wet season). Guanacos showed differential habitat use, the first determinant being abiotic factors, such as topography, soil characteristics or microclimate conditions, animals being detected in rougher rocky substrata in the dry season and in open flat terrain in the wet season, followed by a mesoscale selection defined by plant communities. At the latter scale, guanaco preferentially used mixed creosote bushland and saltbush more intensively during the wet season, and open scrub and columnar-cactus slopes in the dry season. The estimated population of this protected area was small but its population density was within the range of other populations and was relatively high for this dry and unproductive area.
©2010 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin New York
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Articles in the same Issue
- Letter to the Editor
- Observation of Sumatran striped rabbit (Nesolagus netscheri) in the wild
- Review Article
- Mammals of the Macaronesian islands (the Azores, Madeira, the Canary and Cape Verde islands): redefinition of the ecological equilibrium
- Original Studies
- Habitat use and spatial organisation of relocated black rhinos in Namibia
- Home ranges, movements and activity of the short-tailed mongoose (Herpestes brachyurus) on Peninsular Malaysia
- Preliminary account of cetacean diversity and humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) group characteristics around the Union of the Comoros (Mozambique Channel)
- Density and habitat use at different spatial scales of a guanaco population (Lama guanicoe) in the Monte desert of Argentina
- The fruit bats (Chiroptera: Pteropodidae) of the Lesio-Louna Reserve, Bateke Plateau, Republic of Congo
- Diet of the otter Lutra lutra in an almost pristine Portuguese river: seasonality and analysis of fish prey through scale and vertebrae keys and length relationships
- Short Notes
- Use of photographic capture-recapture sampling to estimate density of Striped Hyena (Hyaena hyaena): implications for conservation
- Late summer–early winter reproduction in common genets, Genetta genetta
- First record of Ardops nichollsi from Antigua, Lesser Antilles
- A contribution from Barn Owl pellets analysis to known micromammalian distributions in Buenos Aires province, Argentina
- Extralimital presence of small mammals in north-eastern Algerian Sahara
- The first fossil record of Lophiomys in Egypt
- Book reviews
- Book reviews
