Resumo

VARGAS-CONTRERAS, Jorge A.  e  HERNANDEZ-HUERTA, Arturo. Distribución altitudinal de la mastofauna en la Reserva de la Biosfera "El Cielo", Tamaulipas, México. Acta Zool. Mex [online]. 2001, n.82, pp.83-109. ISSN 2448-8445.

The Biosphere Reserve "El Cielo" is one of the most important areas in Tamaulipas, Mexico, holding a rich biodiversity. This reserve embraces tropical semideciduous forest, cloud forest, pine-oak forest and dry scrub, which possess a unique fauna. Here, we determined which mammals were associated to each vegetation type. We observed five distributional patterns for mammals along an elevational gradient: four species with a wide distribution, seven species with a medium distribution, 31 species with a reduced distribution, 12 species with leap frog distribution, and 42 species with a specific distribution. Furthermore, tropical semideciduous forest have more species (19) with specific distribution that cloud forest (10), dry scrub (9), and pine-oak forest (4). Simpson's index was used to measure species similarity among habitats. A high percentage of shared species was found between tropical deciduous forest and cloud forest (72.54%), in comparison with other habitats; whose values varied between 28.57 and 58.33%. Meanwhile, pine-oak forest and dry scrub shared few species with other habitats and their values of similarity are between 28.57 and 58.33%. Thus, the Biosphere Reserve "El Cielo" mammals' are clustered in three groups: tropical semideciduous forest-cloud forest, pine-oak forest, and dry scrub mammals.

Palavras-chave : Altitudinal gradient; Biosphere Reserve "El Cielo"; Tamaulipas; distribution patterns; mammals; Mexico; faunistic similarity.