Place de Proechimys cuvieri (Rodentia, Echimyidae) dans les peuplements micromammaliens terrestres de la forêt guyanaise

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Abstract
The study of rodents in 2 regions of French Guyana and in 2 kinds of forests permitted quantification of some important differences in the faunistic composition between a recently deforested zone and the neighboring primary forest; thus, rodents, which represent 84.3% of the micromammals in the primary forest, form only 48.3% of the community in the young forest. No differences were found in the proportion of rodents in various types of old forest. An attempt was made to specify some points of the biology of small terrestrial rodents, particularly Proechimys cuvieri which is the most abundant species. The demography of this species looks like large rodents; the mortality of adults is low, the longevity high. The reproduction of this species probably occurs all year with a maximum of births at the beginning of the rainy season. Density and biomass of all species are low in French Guyana. The same thing was found in all other studies of tropical forests.