Introduction
Because of their position at the top of the food chain, mammalian predators play an essential role in maintaining healthy ecosystems. By selectively removing the most abundant prey and culling weak or diseased individuals, carnivores prevent population explosions of herbivores and the associated environmental damage and spread of disease.
Twenty-six carnivore species in four families are known from Brazil. They include:
Predators hold a primal fascination for people, and this has not been lost on the advertising agencies which use them as symbols of power and beauty. This exposure has done little, however, to improve their deteriorating conservation status. Most Brazilian feline species are currently threatened with extinction.
In Brazil and around the world, carnivores face a battery of threats, ranging from trophy hunting to pest-elimination campaigns, from the fur trade to the live trade. The most pressing threat to their existence, however, is the ongoing fragmentation and destruction of their natural habitats.