Search

Although Nasua nasua is broadly distributed geographically and relatively common, it is still little studied. This paper reports observations of coatis in an Atlantic Forest area, the Parque Estadual Carlos Botelho (PECB) in São Paulo State, Brazil. The social structure of coatis at PECB seems to be the same related in the literature. The mating season appears to be August-September and the pups are born in October-November. Coatis are mainly arboreal at the PECB, contrasting with habits reported in the data from other areas. This preference for the arboreal stratum no doubt is related to their foraging in epiphytic bromeliads, which occurred in 90.6% of the instances in which they were observed feeding. Bromeliads are a rich food source much more common in the Atlantic Forest than in other areas where coatis have been observed. This result suggests that this species is able to adjust its foraging and strata preferences to different environments without changing its basic social structure.

Copyright of Brazilian Journal of Biology is the property of Instituto Internacional de Ecologia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Parque Estadual do Prosa (PEP), in Campo Grande, MS, is an urban fragment of savanna (cerrado) and tall savanna woodland (cerradão), with an area of 1,335 km², where the population density of brown-nosed coatis is 33.71 individuals/km². Our results suggest that seasonality at the PEP causes changes in the availability of resources for coatis, altering their home range areas, their dispersion patterns and their daily behaviour. And our observations regarding male-band associations, agonistic interactions between bands and their daily behaviour emphasize the plasticity of coati social structure, and its potential for future comparative studies.

Although Nasua nasua is broadly distributed geographically and relatively common, it is still little studied. This paper reports observations of coatis in an Atlantic Forest area, the Parque Estadual Carlos Botelho (PECB) in São Paulo State, Brazil. The social structure of coatis at PECB seems to be the same related in the literature. The mating season appears to be August-September and the pups are born in October-November. Coatis are mainly arboreal at the PECB, contrasting with habits reported in the data from other areas. This preference for the arboreal stratum no doubt is related to their foraging in epiphytic bromeliads, which occurred in 90.6% of the instances in which they were observed feeding. Bromeliads are a rich food source much more common in the Atlantic Forest than in other areas where coatis have been observed. This result suggests that this species is able to adjust its foraging and strata preferences to different environments without changing its basic social structure.