The need for long-term biodiversity monitoring using standardized protocols
led to the creation of the Tropical Ecology, Assessment and Monitoring
(TEAM) initiative. At some 50 field stations in tropical forests around the world,
TEAM will monitor various taxa such as ants, birds, butterflies, medium and large
terrestrial mammals, primates, litter fall, and trees, as well as landscape change in
nine tropical biodiversity hotspots and three tropical wilderness areas. The TEAM
terrestrial mammal program calls for using a grid of camera phototraps to monitor
long-term trends in densities and occupancy rates of species that can or cannot be
uniquely identified, respectively. We describe the TEAM camera phototrapping
program and provide results for the first TEAM site–Caxiuana˜ National Forest in
northern Brazil. An intensive one year camera trapping effort was carried out to
determine which months were most suitable for long-term monitoring. Fifteen
species of medium and large terrestrial mammals and two large birds were recorded,
including three xenarthrans, five carnivores, one perissodactyle, three artiodactyles,
two rodents, and one marsupial. The medium and large terrestrial mammal diversity
was well represented during two consecutive wet and dry months, respectively. We
also recorded activity patterns for all species photographed by our camera traps
more than 10 times.
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