This rodent is present in varzea and igapo forests. It has also been collected in gardens and secondary and primary forest (P. Costa pers. comm.). Most of the localities where it has been reported to occur are along margins of rivers, though this may be an artifact of collection methods.

Red List Category

Red List Criteria

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It is expected to be abundant (J. Patton pers. comm.).

Stable

The eastern Pará is currently under threat from deforestation and mining for iron and aluminium; other areas are experiencing expansion of soybean agriculture; the Cuiaba-Santarem highway also passes through part of the range. Its range is contracting from the south and south-east (A. Percequillo pers. comm.).

Extrapolating deforestation rates (from Asner et al. 2005) for Pará and the northern 58% of the Mato Grosso (which roughly matches the distribution map for P. goeldii) for a three year period to ten years, the percent of habitat loss to the species’ is approximately 14%. However, Ewers et al. (2008) show that Amazonian deforestation rates vary greatly over time and a three year period would likely be too short on which to base a ten year projection, but even with a more grim average yearly loss the species is unlikely to lose 20% of its habitat in a ten year period. In any case, even 14% is an extraordinary rate of habitat loss over such a large area, but it should be noted that habitat loss is unlikely to translate directly to population decline in this species because it is probably able to tolerate some degree of habitat disturbance. Also, these projections do not consider deforestation for the unmapped range in Colombia, which is likely to be occurring a lower rate.

This species is found in Xingu indigenous area and Cristalino State Ecological Reserve. Studies would be useful to determine whether the retraction of the range will adversely affect the species (J. Patton pers. comm.).