Later this year the Zoological Museum-University of Copenhagen with the collaboration of the Museo Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro and INPA in Manaus will perform a full scale mammal diversity survey in the Xixuaú-Xiparina. The overall objectives of the project are to carry out a full-scale mammal diversity survey in the Xixuaú Nature Reserve and develop the technical capacity of Associação Amazônia, to effectively monitor the biodiversity of the area. The project will begin in November 2000 and is expected to be terminated by the end of 2001.
Methods used will include TrailMaster camera traps, small mammal trapping (box traps, snap traps, pitfall traps), diurnal census, nocturnal spotlight census, identification of tracks and skulls, and interviews with locals. Information on habitat use as well as seasonal variation in abundance and distribution of various species in the reserve will be gathered.
Local reserve staff will participate in the field work and be trained in various basic wildlife survey and monitoring techniques. Training will include species identification skills, using field guides to mammals and birds provided by the project. An introductory course will be held at the Reserve headquarters.
The post-field assessment will include data analysis, report writing, publication of results in acknowledged journals, and preparation of a field key to the identification of the mammals of the region, in Portuguese, as well as a manual with recommendations for future surveys that could be carried out by Associação Amazônia itself to monitor the wildlife of the Nature Reserve [32].
A botanical survey is in preparation by the University of Perugia (Italy).
A study of the giant otter and the study of the possibility of using the giant otter as a biodiversity indicator is in preparation by the University of Roma (Italy) [33].
Associates of Nordisk Herpetologisk Forening and Exotiske Insekter will inventory certain forms of invertebrates, amphibians, and reptiles., employing methods of capture which do not harm the animals and , after registration, releasing them in the locations where they were captured .
All these studies and surveys will be done in close collaboration with the University of Amazonas, the University of Roraima , INPA and EMBRAPA and other Brazilians scientific institutions.