Anthropogenic Food Availability Influence on the Natural Behavior of Nasua nasua (Linnaeus, 1766) in the Serra dos Órgãos National Park, Teresópolis, Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

The sustainability of tourism activity in protected areas (PAs) depends on management that seeks a positive balance between negative impacts and the protection of biodiversity. The approach of visitors to wild animals and food supply is one of the potential impacts of public visitation in APs to be monitored and minimized. In this context, the objective of this study was to quantify the relative frequency at which coatis (Nasua nasua) access dumps in the Serra dos Órgãos National Park and to test the efficiency of two lock models to prevent these accesses. To describe the behavior of the coatis, 358 hours of observation were carried out in 2013 and 2017/2018, using the “sampling of all occurrences” method. To test the efficiency of the locks, three baited dumps were monitored by camera trap, in filming mode, one with an “iguaçu” model lock, another with a “tijuca” model and a control without a lock. The most frequent behaviors were natural foraging (31%), displacement (14%), vocalization (10%) and eating garbage (10%), suggesting that coatis maintain their natural behavior, using foods of anthropic origin complementarily. Both locks were efficient, but there was a greater insistence of coatis in the “iguaçu” bins, possibly due to the attractiveness of the odor as a consequence of the imperfect seal. In a scenario of increasing visitation, it is recommended to install the “tijuca” lock in the park’s bins, and signs advising visitors not to feed and keep a safe distance from coatis.Thus, it is hoped to avoid accidents and weaken the opportunistic habit of coatis, reducing the interference of human presence in their behavior.