Conservation status of Melanomys zunigae (Sanborn 1949) and small mammals in the Lomas of Lima

Authors

  • José Luis Mena Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, Av. La Molina s/n, Lima, Perú. Apartado Postal 11-0205, Lince, Lima 14, Perú.
  • Martha Williams Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, Av. La Molina s/n, Lima, Perú
  • Carla Gazzolo Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, Av. La Molina s/n, Lima, Perú
  • Francesca Montero Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, Av. La Molina s/n, Lima, Perú

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15381/rpb.v14i2.1734

Keywords:

Melanomys zunigae, Small mammals, Lomas, conservation status, Lima, Peru

Abstract

The coastline and the western slopes of the Andes are main sites of Peruvian endemic mammals. Along the central coast occurs the only endemic rat from Lima, Zuniga’s dark rice rat, Melanomys zunigae (Sanborn, 1949). It was collected by Enrique Zuñiga in 1942 at Lomas de Atocongo and Cerro San Jerónimo. Since then, sporadic searches have been conducted, not necessarily targeted at finding it, but without records. Our study was aimed at finding evidence of its presence in the Loma formations around the city of Lima. Our methods were non-exhaustive trappings and the collection of burrowing owl (Athene cunicularia) pellets. Unfortunately no evidence of the presence of M. zunigae was found. However, we found evidence that the impact of Lima´s urban sprawl would be affecting small mammal assemblages at the Lomas. Several factors could have determined M. zunigae´s disappearance: habitat destruction, exotic species invasions and Lomas isolation.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Downloads

Published

12/31/2007

Issue

Vol. 14 No. 2 (2007)

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2007 José Luis Mena, Martha Williams, Carla Gazzolo, Francesca Montero

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

AUTHORS RETAIN THEIR RIGHTS:

a. Authors retain their trade mark rights and patent, and also on any process or procedure described in the article.

b. Authors retain their right to share, copy, distribute, perform and publicly communicate their article (eg, to place their article in an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in the Revista Peruana de Biologia.

c. Authors retain theirs right to make a subsequent publication of their work, to use the article or any part thereof (eg a compilation of his papers, lecture notes, thesis, or a book), always indicating its initial publication in the Revista Peruana de Biologia (the originator of the work, journal, volume, number and date).

How to Cite

Mena, José Luis, Martha Williams, Carla Gazzolo, and Francesca Montero. 2007. “Conservation Status of Melanomys Zunigae (Sanborn 1949) and Small Mammals in the Lomas of Lima”. Revista Peruana De Biología 14 (2): 201-7. https://doi.org/10.15381/rpb.v14i2.1734.