In theory, human activities in these buffer zones should be subjected to specific norms and restrictions, which would minimize the negative impacts of these activities. Mirroring the scheme of the Biosphere Reserves from UNESCO, the Brazilian environmental legislation stipulates that protected areas must be surrounded by buffer zones. Understanding how the species reacts to these alterations allows us to determine its degree of ecological flexibility, which in turn, helps in planning the best conservation strategies. Outside the protected areas, the maned wolf faces a myriad of impacts and hazards, including habitat transformation, agriculture expansion, city sprawl, and road proximity, among many others. The overwhelming majority of the species' habitat therefore lies in private areas with no formal or legal protection. It is important, however, to evaluate how the species is enduring outside nature reserves, because only 2.2% of the Brazilian Cerrado, the typical habitat of the species, has been set aside as protected areas. Although there are a relatively large number of ecological studies on the species, most of these have been carried out inside protected areas. In Brazil, which contains the largest part of its geographic range, the species is considered “Vulnerable” mainly due to habitat destruction and related disturbances. The maned wolf Chrysocyon brachyurus (Illiger 1815), the largest canid in South America is listed globally as “Near threatened”. They also suggest that the maned wolf is an ecologically flexible species that might be prone to hunt, and perhaps even survive, in disturbed areas outside protected areas. These results, together with recent findings from other sources, highlight the importance of buffer zones. Overall diet diversity was, however, lower than has been found elsewhere, probably reflecting the poorer resource base of the study area. The diet was composed mostly of small mammals (9 species, 16.2 % of items and 92.6% of scats) and the plant Solanum lycocarpum (12.2% of items and 89.5% of scats), similar to what has been found in less disturbed areas. Fecal samples (n= 95) collected between 20 revealed that the maned wolf frequently used both natural and disturbed fields. The main disturbances are mining activities, unregulated ecotourism and road proximity. The study site is in the buffer zone (< 10 km) of two protected areas, where anthropogenic (urban areas and roads) and disturbed areas (burned fields) total a third of the study landscape. Here we investigated the trophic ecology of a maned wolf population inhabiting a 1610 ha section of the Calçada Ridge, an unprotected area located in the metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte, capital of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Since only about 2 % of the Brazilian Cerrado, the maned wolf's main habitat, has been set aside as parks and reserves, determining what is happening with the species in private and disturbed areas is important for an accurate assessment of its vulnerability to extinction. The maned wolf has been studied in nature reserves, but few researches have been carried out outside protected areas.
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