Conhecimento popular dos moradores do município de São João do Piauí acerca do papel ecológico das serpentes no bioma caatinga

Abstract

The caatinga is considered one of the richest biomes in biodiversity, despite being little known by researchers, with 116 recorded species of reptiles, including 52 species of snakes. Thus, this study aimed to analyze the level of knowledge of the inhabitants of São João do Piauí about snakes, as well as their ecological importance for the caatinga biome. Thus, a public opinion questionnaire was prepared using the Google forms platform with questions aimed at investigating the knowledge of the inhabitants of São João do Piauí about concepts related to the subject, as well as the ecological role of snakes, geographical distribution, and endemic species. In addition, the understanding of the basic characteristics for differentiating between poisonous and venomous snakes was also probed, and disseminated through social networks due to the Covid19 pandemic. It was observed that most of the population cannot identify a venomous animal or differentiate a venomous animal from a venomous one, and most of them do not know the term endemism, besides the confusion between the terms snake and serpent being frequent in the population. Thus, we hope that this work will help demystify that all snakes are dangerous among the population of sanjoanense, demonstrating their importance in the biological balance for ecosystems.