NEOTROPICAL ALIEN MAMMALS: a dataset of occurrence and abundance of alien mammals in the Neotropics

CLARISSA ALVES DA ROSA; BRUNO R. RIBEIRO; VANESA BEJARANO; FERNANDO HENRIQUE PUERTAS; MARTIN ALBARRACIN, VALERIA LETICIA; MAURO GALETTI; MILTON CEZAR RIBEIRO

ECOLOGY

ECOLOGICAL SOC AMER

Año: 2020

0012-9658

Biological invasion is one of the main threats to native biodiversity. For a species to become invasive it must be introduced (either voluntarily or involuntarily) into a non-native habitat. Mammals were the first species to be introduced worldwide for game, meat and labor, and the number of species introduced in the Neotropics remains unknown. In our dataset, we included mammal species that (1) transposed the geographical barrier and (2) were voluntary or involuntary introduced; these are the first two stages of biological invasion. Geographic cover of our work spans over 26 countries and Caribbean islands. It ranges from north Neotropics, in Mexico and its frontier regions (southern Florida and coastal-central Florida in southeast USA) to South, in Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, and Uruguay. Our dataset is composed by 73,738 historical and current records of alien mammal species, most of them represented by qualitative information (96%), related to 77 species belonging to eight orders and 26 families. Some species (e.g., Callithrix sp., Myocastor coypus, Nasua nasua) considered as alien in particular areas were considered in the Neotropics. Artiodactyla holds 63% of all records available in the NEOTROPICAL ALIEN MAMMALS data paper, mainly due to the higher number of records of Bos sp. (n = 37,782) and Sus scrofa (n = 6,730), the first and third species with more records, respectively. Canis familiaris is the second species with more records (n = 10,084) and 17 species (e.g. Syncerus caffer, Cervus timorensis, Cervus unicolor, Canis latrans) have only one record. Primates are the biggest order in terms of species number (n = 20 species), which is associated to uncertainties regarding taxonomic identification of the genera Callithrix, which includes the species C. aurita, C. flaviceps, C. geoffroyi, C. jacchus, C. kuhlii, C. penicillata, and hybrids species. Our main objective with NEOTROPICAL ALIEN MAMMALS is to make available occurrence and abundance data to enable more research on ecology and conservation, particularly if we integrate the NEOTROPICAL ALIEN MAMMALS with other datasets of Neotropical Series which will become available soon (i.e., Neotropical Carnivores and Neotropical Hunters and Dogs). We hope studies on biodiversity conservation, trophic cascades, hunting pressure, habitat loss and fragmentation effects, species and ecosystem management, species invasion success or failure, and climate change effects will be now facilitated with NEOTROPICAL ALIEN MAMMALS.