RANKING URBAN AVIFAUNAS (AVES) BY NUMBER OF LOCALITIES PER SPECIES IN SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL Edwin O. Willis ABSTRACT A new method of zoogeographical analysis is proposed, ranking each species by total number of locality records (L) statewide or in other large regions. The simple analysis avoids the usual practice of giving the same value (n = 1) to a common sparrow and rare eagle. Areas with few low-L species and many high-L ones, as avifaunas of urban parks of São Paulo State, Brazil, are less important in conservation than áreas outside cities. KEYWORDS. Aves, conservation ranking, São Paulo, urban áreas, zoogeography. INTRODUCTION As city and suburban áreas increase horizontally and vertically (tunnels, skyscrapers), parks and even trees tend to disappear. The small and modified green áreas that remain are rarely what ecologists were proposing when they suggested "Several Small" instead of "Single Large" refuges ("SLOSS"), or modified this idea (Mccullough, 1996; Hanski & Gilpin, 1997) to suggest possible "metapopulation" movements of fauna or flora among scattered small refuges. Nonbiologists can be optimistic even if refuges are vanishingly small, suggesting that birds and other organisms can "survive" amid scattered bits of Vegetation. In Brazil, a major television Channel filmed vagrant birds lost in São Paulo City and claimed repeatedly that "as aves estão voltando para as cidades" (birds are returning to the cities). No studies were made, however. Some studies in temperate zones have claimed that fair numbers of invertebrates, plants and birds survive in gardens (Owen, 1991; Miotk, 1996). These two authors report 48-49 species of birds, but do not analyze conservation status of the species. Presence of House Sparrows Passe r domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) would scarcely justify maintenance 1 . Departamento de Zoologia. Universidade Estadual Paulista, Cx. Postal 1 99; CEP 1 3506-900 Rio Claro, SP, Brazil Iheringia, Sér. Zool., Porto Alegre, (88): 139-146, 31 de maio de 2000
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