Flexible habitat use and range extension by the striped hog-nosed skunk ( Conepatus semistriatus ) in Brazil
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Flexible habitat use and range extension by the striped hog‑nosed skunk (Conepatus semistriatus) in Brazil Marcelo Magioli1,2 · Elaine Rios3 · Alvaro García‑Olaechea3 · Lilian Bonjorne1,4 · Vinicius Alberici5 · Maíra Benchimol3 · Eliana Cazetta3 · Ronaldo Gonçalves Morato1 Received: 27 December 2019 / Accepted: 10 July 2020 © Deutsche Gesellschaft für Säugetierkunde 2020
Abstract We present evidence of plasticity in habitat use and range extension of the striped hog-nosed skunk (Conepatus semistriatus) in Brazil. We first compiled literature records of C. semistriatus across its known distribution (N = 390), added new records from primary data (N = 10), and compared the main landscape composition (forest, savannah, grassland, agriculture) among these occurrence sites (N = 400). We unveil that landscape composition among occurrence sites varied widely within and among biomes in Brazil (Caatinga, Cerrado and Atlantic Forest), indicating C. semistriatus presence from dense forested habitats to grasslands and anthropogenic areas (especially agricultural landscapes). Almost 30% of the occurrence records of C. semistriatus are outside of the species known distribution, including records in ecotones between Cerrado-Amazonia biomes, extending its occurrence area in 449,118 km2. We conclude that habitat modification is a driver for the occurrence of C. semistriatus in dense forested habitats, facilitating its distribution expansion to previously unexpected areas. Keywords Distribution · Landscape composition · Human-modified landscapes · Forest · Agriculture · Mephitidae Several aspects of the ecology and biogeography of the hognosed skunks Conepatus (Gray, 1837) in South America are poorly known, and the taxonomic status is not a consensus (Schiaffini et al. 2013). In this region, three species of the Conepatus genus are recognized—C. chinga (Molina, 1782), C. humboltdii Gray, 1837 and C. semistriatus (Boddaert 1785)—two of them occurring in Brazil: C. chinga, in the Handling editor: Adriano Martinoli. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s42991-020-00056-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
south portion of the country, and C. semistriatus, distributed from São Paulo to Maranhão states. Particularly for C. semistriatus, several aspects of its ecology, genetics and distribution still require more studies. Recently, Feijó and Langguth (2013) suggested C. amazonicus (Lichtenstein, 1838) as the correct nomenclature for this species in Brazil, but it has not been accepted by any official list yet (e.g., Brazilian red list, IUCN). Therefore, we maintained C. semistriatus as the valid name for the striped hog-nosed skunk in our study. C. semistriatus is a carnivore of the Mephitidae family that is considered an opportunist predator (Emmons and Feer 1997), feeding mainly on arthropods and other
* Marcelo Magioli [email protected] 1
Centro Nacional de Pesquisa e Conservação de Mamíferos Carnívo
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