The occurrence of the mouse opossum Marmosops ocellatus - UFSM

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The occurrence of the mouse opossum Marmosops ocellatus
(Marsupialia, Didelphidae) in western Brazil
By N.C. Cáceres, Vanda L. Ferreira and Ana P. Carmignotto
Department of Biology, Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul, Aquidauana, Brazil
Receipt of Ms. 25.4.2005
Acceptance of Ms. 6.4.2006
Key words: Marmosops ocellatus, Brazil, distribution limit
The aim of this report is to furnish a new
record on the south-eastern distributional
limits of a small marsupial, Marmosops
ocellatus (formerly M. dorothea), in midwestern
Brazil and update its geographic
distribution in this country. The new locality
where the species was registered is the
Urucum mountains, in the vicinity of the
Santa Cruz hill (coordinates:
19112 0 S,57134 0 W), Corumba´ municipality,
Mato Grosso do Sul state (MS), centralwestern
Brazil (Fig. 1). Urucum is covered
mainly by semideciduous forests (IBGE 1992;
Pott et al. 2000), and is near the Paraguay
River, at its right margin. The species was
trapped in pitfalls (108 l) at three different
mountainous altitudes (200, 500 and 800 m),
during monthly surveys during 2001 and
2002 (July–June). During these surveys, 15
individuals of M. ocellatus were trapped in
the study site, one at 200 m, seven at
500 m and seven at 800 m. Seven individuals
were males and eight were females. Their
body mass averaged 38.3 g for adult males
(range: 31.0–51.0; N=4) and 26.2 g for adult
females (range: 23.0–30.0; N=5), revealing
an apparent sexual dimorphism. The specimens
were deposited in the Museu de
Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo
(MZUSP 32877) and in the Mammal Collection
of the Federal University of Santa Maria
ARTICLE IN PRESS
(UFSM 268, 293, and 294) as voucher
specimens.
Marmosops ocellatus is a didelphid species
occurring in central and north-eastern Bolivia,
from the base of the Andes to the dry
forests of the Brazilian frontier. It appears to
favour dense vines as habitats (Anderson
1997; Emmons 1997; Eisenberg and Redford
1999; Voss et al. 2004). Since the species is
restricted to woodlands, the Urucum Mountains
at western Brazil fulfil the habitat
requirements of the species, the region being
covered by dry, seasonal forests (point 1, Fig.
1). Connection of this newly surveyed population
with other populations in Bolivia is
probable, but as yet there is no data for this
supposition. An evidence, however, is the
concomitant report of M. ocellatus (cited as
M. dorothea) in a region about 140 km
northward in Brazil, also in the municipality
of Corumba´, in the Amolar mountain complex
(Rossi et al. 2003). In this locality, the
species was trapped in semideciduous forests
with savannah-like vegetation in the proximities
(Carmignotto 2004), similarities to the
Urucum mountain foothills.
Distributional data of small mammals for
eastern Bolivia (Anderson 1997; Voss et al.
2004) and mid-western Brazil (Musser et al.
1998; Eisenberg and Redford 1999; Carmignotto
2004) are sparse and rare. They
1616-5047/$ - see front matter r 2006 Deutsche Gesellschaft für Säugetierkunde. Published by Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.mambio.2006.04.009 Mamm. biol. 72 (2007) 1 45–48

46 N.C. Cáceres et al.
14 ο
17 ο
20 ο
23 ο
show vast empty regions without surveys,
particularly for Marmosops species. Emmons
(1997) suggested that western Brazil is the
eastern limit of M. ocellatus distribution, but
apparently without a collection base in the
country. Such absence of collection for this
region was confirmed by Eisenberg and
Redford (1999) and Voss et al. (2004) in
their recent revisions. Voss et al. (2004)
indicated the Noel Kempff National Park in
north-eastern Bolivia as the closest locality to
the Brazilian border with known records of
M. ocellatus. The first known record of
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67 ο 64 ο 61 ο 58 ο 55 ο
67 ο
64 ο
61 ο
Fig. 1. Distribution of the slender mouse opossum, Marmosops ocellatus, in Bolivia and in western Brazil.
Continuous lines indicate rivers and stippled lines indicate limits of countries. Seasonal forests are indicated by
light shading, and the Pantanal by dark shading. Numbers indicate new (1, 2, 3) and previous (following Voss et
al. 2004) records for M. ocellatus. Brazil, Mato Grosso do Sul state, Corumbá: 1 – Urucum, Santa Cruz mountain; 2
– Amolar, Acurizal farm; 3 – Amolar, Penha farm. Bolivia, Santa Cruz state: 4 – 6 km by road west Ascención; 5 –
Aserradero Potons; 6 – Ayacucho; 7 – Buenavista (Type locality); 8 – 4.5 km north and 1.5 km east Cerro Amboró;
9 – El Refugio; 10 – 3.5 km west Estación El Pailón; 11 – Hacienda El Pelicano; 12 – 7 km east and 3 km north
Ingeniero Mora; 13 – Lago Caimán; 14 – 2 km south-west Las Cruces; 15 – Mangabalito; 16 – 3 km south-east
Montero; 17 – Palmar; 18 – San Miguel Rincón; 19 – 10 km north San Ramón; 20 – 15 km south Santa Cruz; 21 –
27 km south-east Santa Cruz; 22 – Santa Rosita; 23 – Tita.
58 ο
55 ο
14 ο
17 ο
20 ο
23 ο
Marmosops ocellatus in Brazil is that of Rossi
et al. (2003) in the Amolar mountains.
Today, there are still large areas in the region
between the base of the Andes and western
Brazil where little is known about small
mammal distribution. Considering the three
registers in Brazil (points 1, 2 and 3, Fig. 1),
this report extends the range of M. ocellatus
to 220 and 500 km east- and southward
regarding the two closest previously known
records in Bolivia. Its southern-most locality
previously known was in south-eastern Bolivia
(Santa Cruz, Tita locality) at 18125 0 S and

62110 0 W. Therefore, this report extends the
distributional area 90 km southward from the
previous south-most limit. The eastern-most
locality (Santa Cruz, Aserradero Potons,
17105 0 S and 59134 0 W) is extended to about
215 km eastward from the previous limit
(Anderson 1997; Voss et al. 2004) (Fig. 1).
This report also furnishes the extreme oriental
distributional limits of M. ocellatus
since the Urucum and Amolar mountains are
bordered by the Paraguay river in the east,
serving most probably as a geographic
barrier for this species. Hence, the same
geographic attributes that define the southeastern
range limits of M. ocellatus are
thought to influence the murid rodent Oryzomys
nitidus distributional limits in western
Brazil (see Musser et al. 1998), with both
species occupying more forested biomes.
Moreover, a vast flood plain, the Pantanal,
is located east of the Paraguay river, which is
thought to be an inhospitable, more open
biome (Ab’Sa´ber 1988) toM. ocellatus based
on its habitat characteristics (Emmons 1997).
All surveys and revisions for the Pantanal
contain no records of any Marmosops species
(Vieira 1955; Alho et al. 1987; Fonseca et al.
1996; Rodrigues et al. 2002; Carmignotto
2004), possibly due to the stronger forest
requirements of the species, which could be
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to UFMS, UEMS, CNPq/
MCT, PROBIO/MMA and FUNDECT-MS
government in Brazil for support for this
study. Thanks also to MCR-Rio Tinto for
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Authors’ addresses:
Nilton C. Ca´ceres, Department of Biology, Cx.P.
5044, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Santa
Maria, RS, 97.110-970, Brazil Vanda L. Ferreira,
Laboratory of Zoology, Universidade Federal do
Mato Grosso do Sul, Cx.P. 252, Corumba´, MS,
79301-970, Brazil Ana Paula Carmignotto, Mastozoologia,
Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de Sa˜o
Paulo, Av. Nazare´, 481, Ipiranga, Sa˜o Paulo, SP,
04263-000, Brazil
(e-mail: nc_caceres@hotmail.com)