Bats of a varzea forest in the estuary of the Amazon River, state of Amapa, Northern Brazil

The varzea forests of the estuary of the Amazon River cover 25,000 km(2) within the states of Para and Amapa. The mammals of those forests, especially bats, are still poorly known. Hence, the present study aimed at inventorying the bat species from three localities of a varzea forest in the estuary of the Amazon River. Between November and December 2013, we selected 18 sampling sites in the mouths of three tributaries of the Amazon River: the rivers Ajuruxi, Maraca, and Mazagao. We set up ten mist nets (12 x 3 m) along a 150-m linear transect in each sampling site, in a total sampling effort of 38,888 m(2).h. We captured 403 individual bats of 40 species and five families. We recorded the families: Phyllostomidae (n = 31 species), Emballonuridae (n = 6 species), Moormopidae (n = 1 species), Vespertilionidae (n = 1 species), and Thyropteridae (n = 1 species). Carollia perspicillata, Artibeus planirostris, and Carollia brevicauda comprised 45% of the records. We also made the first record of Glyphonycteris daviesi for Amapa state, and captured rare species, such as Dicludurus albus and Macrophyllum macrophylum. Our results show that the varzea forest of the estuary of the Amazon River harbors high bat diversity, and, hence, conservation policies should be considered for the region. Those policies should encourage the responsible management of acaipalm (Euterpe oleracea) and timber. They should also fight illegal timber exploitation that threatens the fauna and flora of those biodiverse forests.