One year of camera trapping in Maracaibo Lake Basin

What is it about?

We use camera traps to observe animal activity at day and night during a whole year at Burro Negro Protection Zone (Spanish acronym ZPBN). We compared this record of more than 560 animal photographs with other sources like museum records and literature to provide a list of the mammal species. There are at least 40 species of mammals but camera traps only captured half of them, and only four were photographed all year around. Some of the species that were not recorded might be locally extinct or extirpated due to over-hunting or changes in habitat. Most species were observed in the rainy season.

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Why is it important?

Maracaibo lake basin is a region of great biogeographic importance but has been poorly studied. We provide novel observations on behaviour (night-active vs. day-active species) and seasonality (frequency of records, reproduction and presence of offspring) of several species in this region, that can be compared to other regions in South America.