Eects of hunting in habitat fragments of the Atlantic forests, Brazil Laury Cullen Jr. a , Richard E. Bodmer b, *, Claudio Valladares PaÂdua a,c a Instituto de Pesquisas Ecolo Âgicas (IPE), Parque Estadual do Morro do Diabo, CP 91, Teodoro Sampaio, SP Brazil b Programs in Tropical Conservation, Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation and the Center for Latin American Studies, University of Florida, 319 Grinter Hall, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA c Depto de Engenharia Florestal, Universidade de BrasõÂlia, BrasõÂlia, DF 70919-070, Brazil Received 1 June 1999; received in revised form 21 December 1999; accepted 11 January 2000 Abstract This study evaluates the impact of hunting on mammalian and avian species in Atlantic forest fragments of the Mata de Planalto in the State of SaÄo Paulo, Brazil. Colonists who farm on the edge of fragments also hunt for subsistence within fragments. Hunters commonly take the two peccary species, tapir, brocket deer, armadillos and agoutis. Primates are rarely hunted in this region. Eects of hunting on species were measured by changes in relative abundance of species between four sites with similar sizes (approximately 2000 ha each), but dierent hunting pressures (two slightly hunted and two heavily hunted). In addition, one large protected area (35 000 ha) was also censused. Species abundances were measured during 18 months along 2287 km of line transects. Abundances of tapirs, brocket deer, white-lipped peccaries, armadillos and coatis decreased between slightly hunted and heavily hunted sites. Abundances of collared peccaries, agoutis, primates and guans did not show any trends with hunting pressure. Extir- pations of tapirs and white-lipped peccaries at heavily hunted sites suggest that in forest remnants encroached by people, hunting exacerbates eects of fragmentation, such as genetics and demographics, and is probably the most important factor in emptying these forests of large species over the short-term. # 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction A combination of biological and anthropogenic pro- cesses cause declines of species richness and abundances in tropical forest fragments. Biological processes cause extirpation of small populations through loss of genetic variation, demographic instabilities, and eects of local catastrophes (Saunders et al., 1991; Murcia, 1995). The most important anthropogenic activities are deforesta- tion and hunting. Deforestation causes fragments and hunting impacts species populations and their like- lihood of extirpation (Bodmer et al., 1997). Most studies on the impacts of hunting in the Neo- tropics have been done in areas of continuous forest, mainly in Amazonia. In these areas colonists have caused declines of species abundances (Emmons, 1984; Bodmer et al., 1988; Glanz, 1991). Many animals, particularly primates, tapirs, and cracids decline when hunted by colonists, even in areas with little habitat disturbance (Freese et al,. 1982; Johns, 1986; Dobson and Ortiz, 1988; Peres, 1996; Bodmer et al., 1997; Alvard et al., 1997). Robinson (1996) and Turner and Corlett (1996) emphasize that species inhabiting fragmented areas are more vulnerable to hunting than species living in areas of continuous forest cover. Forest patches tend to have small isolated populations that lack continuous immi- gration from surrounding areas. Also, animals in patches are more accessible to hunters than in continuous forests (Glanz, 1991; Robinson, 1996; Turner and Corlett, 1996). This paper evaluates the impact of hunting in Atlantic forest fragments of the Mata de Planalto in SaÄo Paulo state, Brazil. Atlantic forests have been fragmented and reduced to about 7% of their original size. Yet, these forests have one of the greatest levels of biological diversity with nearly 7% of the world's species, many of which are endemic (Fonseca, 1985). The Atlantic forests are subdivided into two major regions, the tropical evergreen mesophytic broadleaf forests along the east- ern slopes and coastline, and the semideciduous meso- phytic broadleaf forests along the western range and into the Mata de Planalto region in the interior of SaÄo Paulo state. 0006-3207/00/$ - see front matter # 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S0006-3207(00)00011-2 Biological Conservation 95 (2000) 49±56 www.elsevier.com/locate/biocon * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: bodmer@tcd.u¯.edu (R.E. Bodmer), lcullen@- stetnet.com.br (L. Cullen).