Conhecimento ecológico local e biologia reprodutiva do Lagarto-de-folhiço Coleodactylus natalensis Freire, 1999, em área protegida da Mata Atlântica: subsídios à conservação desta espécie ameaçada

Abstract

The difficulty of including the local community in conservation strategies is widely discussed, but it is even more worrying when it comes to species of small body size and cryptic coloration. In this context, taking into account that the leaf lizard is an officially threatened species, endemic to fragments of the Potiguar Atlantic Forest, cryptic and with small body size, to use it as a model to understand what people's knowledge of small body sized species, can provide globally relevant data that support ethnoconservation strategies. In this scenario, this study aimed to analyze the local ecological knowledge (LEK) of the employees of an urban park in the city of Natal/RN on the reptile fauna, especially on the lizard Coleodactylus natalensis, a flagship species of this protected and threatened area of extinction, as well as investigating the reproductive cycle of this species, in favor of its conservation and associated biodiversity. Data on LEK were collected through semi-structured questionnaires applied to 39 park employees, on conservation, herpetofauna, and ecology of the leaf lizard. The employees demonstrated more specific knowledge about the local flora than about the fauna, and they recognize the importance of the park for the conservation of the species. Employees with longer working time in the park have higher LEK on the cryptic and endangered species, C. natalensis; this data is of great relevance, as it is not the pattern observed in other LEK studies. The threats to which urban parks are subjected were also highlighted, including the differences between these and rural parks. The collections of reproductive data of C. natalensis were carried out during monthly excursions, from January to December 2021, totaling 12 months of sampling, and in all months the eggs were monitored 15 days apart. The results demonstrate that continuous reproduction occurs in C. natalensis, with a fixed litter of one egg. The set of data obtained constitutes an important and valuable subsidy for the monitoring and conservation of the threatened species, as well as for the management of this Conservation Unit, in addition to corroborating the relevance of the LEK for the conservation of threatened species from the perspective of ethnoconservation.