New porcupine species discovered in Brazil

Fox News Latino, 04/11/2013

A new species of porcupine was recently discovered in the jungles of Brazil – but it’s already being considered an endangered animal.

Known by the locals as “coandu-mirim,” the rodent was given the scientific name “Coendou speratus.”

Antonio Rossano Mendes Pontes said his team found the rodent, which is covered in dark brown spines with reddish tips, in a small and isolated patch of forest in the northeastern state of Pernambuco in the Northeastern Atlantic Forest, one of the world’s most threatened habitats. With just 2 percent of the region’s original forest habitat still standing, the newly discovered porcupine must already be considered endangered, Pontes said.

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Jaguars among species ‘virtually extinct’ in Brazil’s Atlantic forest

Johnathan Watts – Guardian, 8/14/2012

Jaguars, tapirs, giant anteaters and spider monkeys have become “virtually extinct” in Brazil‘s Atlantic forest, while other species are being lost faster than previously believed due to the fragmentation and emptying of the once dense canopy by farmers and hunters, according to research published on Tuesday.

The authors of the study say their findings have global implications for conservation because they confirm the quantity of forest cover is an unreliable indicator of biodiversity – more important is the quality of the forest and the measures taken to protect the fauna within it.

The two-year research project, which was led by the University of East Anglia, looked for signs of 18 mammal species in 196 fragmented areas of forest. They found little more than a fifth of the 3,528 possible mammal populations. White-lipped peccaries, a native pig species, were completely wiped out. Many others were on the brink of disappearing.

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Brazil’s Coastal Rainforest Suffers Widespread Species Extinction

Rosanne Skirble – Voice of America, 8/14/2012

The Atlantic forest in Brazil, once a part of the great Amazon basin on the South American continent, is suffering from widespread species loss according to a new study.

Ecologist Carlos Peres with England’s University of East Anglia and then University of Cambridge graduate student Gustavo Canale traveled through the region between 2003 and 2005.  They documented 200 of the largest and least disturbed old-growth forest fragments in the vast region of the Atlantic forest.

On average, they found only four of the 18 mammal species they were looking for. Canale, now working in Brazil at the State University of Mato Grosso, says he and Peres drew largely on information from wildlife surveys, camera traps, and interviews with local people.

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