From April 2001 to November 2003, direct (sightings) and indirect (feces, tracks, prey carcass/scent) evidence of bush dog (Speothos venaticus) presence were recorded in a private reserve in the Pantanal, Mato Grosso State, Brazil. Most observations were recorded either through direct sightings or tracks (36.67% each; total sample size=30). Although bush dogs are difficult to see, they seem to be frequent in the area, contradicting the reports in the available literature. Assuming a home-range size of 150 km2 for a group of six bush dogs, we estimated that the northern and eastern regions of the Reserve contain 5.74 groups of bush dogs, each group with an average of 2.75 individuals (SD±1.07, variation 1-5 individuals, n=24). The distribution of records did not vary between the different habitats of the studied area (G=0.093, p=0.954), suggesting that bush dogs do not select preferential habitats in the Pantanal. The principal food item was Dasypus novemcinctus (94.1%; total sample size=17), indicating that nine-banded armadillos are the principal prey of bush dogs in the Pantanal. There were no records of fruit items in the collected feces, suggesting that bush dogs are hypercarnivorous or exclusively carnivorous.

© 2009 by Walter de Gruyter 2009.