Camila Cassano

• PhD
• Professor at State University of Santa Cruz

Camera traps became the main observational method of a myriad of species over large areas. Data sets from camera traps can be used to describe the patterns and monitor the occupancy, abundance, and richness of wildlife, essential information for conservation in times of rapid climate and land‐cover changes. Habitat loss and poaching are responsible...

Understanding the effects of habitat loss on communities is essential for biodiversity conservation and maintenance of ecosystem services. Considering that bats are efficient consumers of arthropods, including insects of economic interest, knowledge on how local and landscape factors influence bat assemblages may provide the basis for enhancement o...

Food habits are traces of a species’ natural history that help us to understand how the organisms interact with the environment. Hylaeamys seuanezi is a forest-specialist rodent also recorded in diverse shaded cocoa agroforestry systems. Here we describe and classify its diet, comparing the results acquired from stomach and fecal contents, collecte...

The idea of separation between person and nature, accentuated by current production and consumption models, has generated unthinkable impacts, causing an unprecedented loss and degradation of the global environment. Occupying 13% of the Brazilian territory, the Atlantic Forest is the second-largest tropical rainforest on the American continent; how...

Changes in ambient temperature and solar radiation may affect sloths' metabolic rate and body temperature, with consequent changes in activities, postures and microhabitat selection. Although the separate effect of temperature and solar radiation on sloth's behaviour have been previously studied, the combined effect of these climatic factors on beh...

Individual diet specialization is commonly found in generalist species but has been little studied in folivore mammals. Empirical evidence shows that the diversity of food resources in the habitat affects the degree of this specialization, by influencing among-individual diet variation (diet similarity) and individual niche breadth (diet diversity)...

Domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) can be considered an invasive species as they have been introduced by humans in different parts of the world and represent a risk to wildlife conservation. Large extensions of agroforestry systems, where cocoa is grown under the shade of native trees, contribute to wildlife conservation in southern Bahia, Braz...

Aspects of the feeding ecology of the threatened maned sloth (Bradypus torquatus Illiger, 1811) are poorly understood. Here, we evaluate the diet composition and the influence of leaf chemical compounds on the consumption of plant species by 10 radio‐tracked individuals in southern Bahia and construct a list of plants consumed by the species based...

Small mammals interfere in plant dynamics through seed and seedling predation, and seed dispersion. In anthropogenic systems, some species provide ecosystem services while others are considered pests. Small mammals inhabit cacao agroforestry and may damage cacao fruits. However, knowledge on the harmful species and annual yield loss are scarce. We...

Atlantic Forest (AF) is amongst the most threatened forests in the world. To decide where conservation efforts should be focused to preserve species, assessment of ecological and biogeographic processes nowadays are crucial. Patterns of the distribution of organisms can provide an important source of information underlying the biogeographical histo...

The number of Brazilian municipalities and states engaging in payment for environmental services (PES) has been increasing over the last few years. Through a documentary and scientific research, we sought to understand the evolution of almost 20 years of Brazilian experiences in hydrological PES. The research was based on an inventory of the initia...

The Brazilian Atlantic Forest of Southern Bahia is a megadiverse region given its remarkable number of species and endemism. Despite being a priority region for biodiversity conservation, the role of protected and unprotected forest remnants for long-term species conservation is unknown. Here, we unveil the main patterns of occurrence and distribut...

O número de programas de Pagamento por Serviços Ambientais (PSA) voltados aos serviços hídricos tem aumentado substancialmente, inclusive no Brasil. Embora o PSA tenha o potencial de incrementar o fornecimento de recursos e serviços ambientais, os ganhos reais dependem do design dos esquemas e, no Brasil, há uma diversidade de possibilidades metodo...

Tropical forests have been intensively degraded and deforested for different anthropogenic uses, mostly associated to agricultural expansion due to increasing human demands. Therefore, an emerging number of studies has advocated on the benefits of land-sharing strategies such as agroforestry systems which conciliate biodiversity conservation with p...

Preliminary behavioral data from monitoring of a population of Bradypus torquatus, maned sloth, in the North portion of its distribution. Here we provide activity pattern and budget for this population.

The future of tropical forest biodiversity will largely depend on human-modified landscapes. We investigated how medium- to large-bodied mammals respond to factors at local (habitat type), intermediate (land use heterogeneity, forest cover and human population density) and large spatial scales (overall forest cover) in agroforestry landscapes. We s...

Biological invasion is one of the main threats to native biodiversity. For a species to become invasive, it must be voluntarily or involuntarily introduced by humans into a nonnative habitat. Mammals were among first taxa to be introduced worldwide for game, meat, and labor, yet the number of species introduced in the Neotropics remains unknown. In...

The future of tropical forest biodiversity will largely depend on human-modified landscapes. We investigated how medium-to large-bodied mammals respond to factors at local (habitat type), intermediate (land use heterogeneity, forest cover and human population density) and large spatial scales (overall forest cover) in agroforestry landscapes. We su...

Agroforestry systems play fundamental roles for wildlife conservation, but are prone to disturbances from management practices aiming at increasing local productivity. This work investigates the small mammal assemblages present in cacao agroforests, which differ in shade tree density. We tested the prediction that higher tree density increases shad...

Is it possible to reconcile production with biodiversity conservation? The south of Bahia, where cocoa is planted under the shade of native forest - called cabrucas - is helping us to answer this question. Get to know a little about this region and our research in this video, and fall in love with the landscape, culture and science that we are unve...

Fruit removal is a key component of the seed dispersal process with direct consequences for plant recruitment. Anthropogenic disturbances might affect removal rates by changing frugivore diversity and their behavior. Here, we investigated the effects of local forest structure and landscape context on fruit removal of two common pioneer species of M...

Experimental exclosure of birds and bats constitutes a powerful tool to study the impacts of wildlife on pests and crop yields in agricultural systems. Though widely utilized, exclosure experiments are not standardized across studies. Indeed, key differences surrounding the design, materials, and protocols for implementing field-based exclosure exp...

Primates play an important role in ecosystem functioning and offer critical insights into human evolution, biology, behavior, and emerging infectious diseases. There are 26 primate species in the Atlantic Forests of South America, 19 of them endemic. We compiled a dataset of 5,472 georeferenced locations of 26 native and 1 introduced primate specie...

Dogs (Canis familiaris) are among the most abundant and widely distributed carnivores worldwide, and their presence can have negative impacts on native fauna. This study investigated the invasion of cacao agroforests by free-ranging dogs in Brazil. By monitoring the behavior of dogs using direct observations, we assessed whether direct (chasing and...

Com apenas 12 % de cobertura florestal original, a Mata Atlântica é um dos biomas com maior biodiversidade do mundo, mesmo que muito fragmentada devido ao desmatamento para estabelecimento de cidades, pastagens e plantios diversos (monoculturas, silviculturas e agroflorestas). No entanto, nosso conhecimento ainda é limitado no entendimento de como...

Primates play an important role in ecosystem functioning and offer critical insights into human evolution, biology, behavior, and emerging infectious diseases. There are 26 primate species in the Atlantic Forests of South America, 19 of them endemic. We compiled a dataset of 5,472 georeferenced locations of 26 native and 1 introduced primate specie...

• Less than a quarter of Earth's terrestrial ecosystems remain intact. Protected areas (PAs) are far exceeded in area by natural habitats that have been transformed for agriculture, and PAs are too small to safeguard viable wildlife populations. It is therefore imperative to understand the use of agricultural matrix habitats by native wildlife. • I...

From 2006 through 2014, we conducted seroepidemiological surveys on non-human primates and sloths to investigate the possible circulation of arboviruses in Bahia Atlantic Forest, Brazil. We collected a total of 196 samples from 103 Leontopithecus chrysomelas, 7 Sapajus xanthosternos, 22 Bradypus torquatus and 7 Bradypus variegatus. Serum samples we...

Dogs are considered an invasive species, whose presence in natural habitats adversely affects wildlife. We investigate the effects of household and road proximity, and of dog population size in the surroundings on the invasion of cacao agroforest by dogs, and evaluate if dogs raised in the vicinity are more likely to invade agroforests than dogs of...

Our understanding of mammal ecology has always been hindered by the difficulties of observing species in closed tropical forests. Camera trapping has become a major advance for monitoring terrestrial mammals in biodiversity rich ecosystems. Here we compiled one of the largest datasets of inventories of terrestrial mammal communities for the Neotrop...

Listas de espécies ameaçadas identificam taxa com real ou potencial risco de extinção em uma escala regional e global, embasando a tomada de decisões e a formulação de políticas públicas. A construção da primeira lista estadual de espécies ameaçadas de extinção na Bahia teve início em 2013. Este artigo descreve a avaliação do status de conservação...

Bradypus torquatus is a rare and endemic sloth species from the Atlantic Forest, Brazil. Due to a lack of medical information including hematologic reference parameters for the species, hematologic baseline values were determined using samples from 14 clinically healthy B. torquatus, under captive (n = 7) and free-living (n = 7) conditions in Bahia...

The PREDICTS project—Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems (www.predicts.org.uk)—has collated from published studies a large, reasonably representative database of comparable samples of biodiversity from multiple sites that differ in the nature or intensity of human impacts relating to land use. We have used t...

Figure S1: Database schema. Diversity data in yellow, GIS data in green and Catalogue of Life data in blue. The diversity tables datasource, study, site, measuredtaxon and diversitymeasurement follow the structure described in ‘Methods’ in the main text and in Hudson et al. (2014): a datasource is associated with one or more study records, each of...

The PREDICTS project—Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems (www.predicts.org.uk)—has collated from published studies a large, reasonably representative database of comparable samples of biodiversity from multiple sites that differ in the nature or intensity of human impacts relating to land use. We have used t...

The PREDICTS project—Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems (www.predicts.org.uk)—has collated from published studies a large, reasonably representative database of comparable samples of biodiversity from multiple sites that differ in the nature or intensity of human impacts relating to land use. We have used t...

In southern Bahia, Brazil, rapid deforestation of the Atlantic Forest threatens a variety of endemic wildlife, including the Endangered golden-headed lion tamarin (GHLT; Leontopithecus chrysomelas) and the Near Threatened Wied’s black-tufted-ear marmoset (Wied’s marmoset; Callithrix kuhlii). Identifying high quality areas in the landscape is critic...

Habitat loss is one of the primary drivers of change in forest biodiversity and ecosystem function worldwide. The synergetic effects of habitat loss and fragmentation might lead to profound impacts on forest structure and composition, conducting forest fragments towards early successional stages (retrogressive succession). In this study, we tested...

Three-toed sloths (Bradypus) are heterothermic, and ambient temperature may have a direct effect on their activity levels. Our goal was to describe the time budget, pattern and rhythm of activity of the maned sloth, Bradypus torquatus (Xenarthra: Bradypodidae), and to evaluate the effect of ambient temperature on its activity. We hypothesized that...

While many studies have measured the carbon (C) stocks of traditional agroforests at the plot level, their contribution to overall landscape C storage has rarely been quantified. Here we demonstrate the significant contribution that traditional agroforests with shaded tree crops can make to landscape C storage, and thus climate change mitigation, f...

Although the value of agroforests for biodiversity conservation has been frequently highlighted, little is known about the susceptibility of this production system to biological invasions. Drawing on a camera-trap dataset obtained in 39 sites in an agroforestry mosaic in southern Bahia, Brazil, we investigated whether the conversion of native fores...

Appendix S1. List of publications obtained from the Web of Knowledge in 2012.

Appendix S2. Model codes used to calculate species occupancy at the landscapes with 10, 30, 50 and 90 forest cover, while accounting for changes in detectability due to sampling effort and patch size.

In recent years, there has been a fast development of models that adjust for imperfect detection. These models have revolutionized the analysis of field data, and their use has repeatedly demonstrated the importance of sampling design and data quality. There are, however, several practical limitations associated with the use of detectability models...

Polyspecific associations are commonly observed in social animals, including primates, and have been interpreted as adaptations either to improve access to resources or to provide protection against predators. Mixed-species associations between Wied's marmosets (Callithrix kuhlii) and golden-headed lion tamarins (Leontopithecus chrysomelas) have be...

The forest-like characteristics of agroforestry systems create a unique opportunity to combine agricultural production with biodiversity conservation in human-modified tropical landscapes. The cacao-growing region in southern Bahia, Brazil, encompasses Atlantic forest remnants and large extensions of agroforests, locally known as cabrucas, and harb...

A recent debate has contrasted two conservation strategies in agricultural landscapes; either “land sparing” farm development combining intensive production practices with forest set-asides, or “wildlife-friendly” farming with greater on-farm habitat value but lower yields. We argue that in established mosaic landscapes including old cacao producti...

Sloths are arboreal mammals strictly dependent upon forested habitats. The southern part of the state of Bahia in northeastern Brazil harbors important forest remnants and the highest genetic diversity known for the maned sloth (Bradypus torquatus), an endangered species endemic to the Atlantic forest. Large extents of cacao agroforests (cabrucas)...

Maned sloths (Bradypus torquatus) are arboreal mammals of the family Bradypodidae. They can be only found in the Atlantic coast forest of Brazil and its most genetically diverse populations occur in forests of southern Bahia. The observation of these animals in the wild is very difficult as they spend most of their lifetime hidden in the dense fore...

Cacao agriculture landscape in southeastern Bahia: challenges and opportunities for animal diversity conservation in the xxith century. Cacao farming has evolved as an agricultural activity of great economic impact in southeastern Bahia. Its effective contribution to the conservation of the biodiversity of the Atlantic Forest is related to the stru...

Information on mating season is of paramount importance for our understanding of reproductive behavior, yet little is currently known about the breeding season of Xenarhtra as a whole and sloths in particular. A pair of maned sloths was observed copulating in September 2005 in the Atlantic Forest region of south-eastern Brazil. Our studies on matin...

In southern Bahia, Brazil, large land areas are used for the production of cocoa (Theobroma cacao), which is predominantly grown under the shade of native trees in an agroforestry system locally known as cabruca. As a dominant forest-like landscape element of the cocoa region, the cabrucas play an important role in the conservation of the region’s...

Water mite (Krendowskia sp.) predation on zooplanktonic species from Lake Monte Alegre (São Paulo State, Brazil) was tested in laboratory experiments. One cladoceran, Daphnia gessneri, two copepods, Tropocyclops prasinus and Thermocyclops decipiens, and Chaoborus larvae III and IV were supplied as prey to adult mites. The cladoceran Ceriodaphnia co...