Country-based patterns of total species richness, endemicity, and threatened species richness in African rodents and insectivores

Abstract

Country-based patterns of total species richness, endemicity, and threatened species richness in African rodents and insectivores are studied in this paper. We found several patterns which were similar between insectivores and rodents. Indeed, in both groups we observed: (i) a significantly uneven distribution of species richness across countries and geographic regions with highest species richness peaks being in Middle Africa and lowest peaks in Northern Africa, (ii) species richness increasing with rainfall but being independent on a country's surface area, (iii) in each country, the insectivore total species richness and endemic species richness increases were positively correlated with rodent total species richness and endemic species richness increases. However, number of endemics peaked in South Africa and D.R. Congo in both groups, but also in Tanzania for Insectivores and in Ethiopia for rodents. In addition, the highest numbers of threatened species occurred in D.R. Congo, Rwanda and Uganda for rodents and in South Africa, Tanzania and Cameroon for insectivores. The conservation implications of these results were discussed

Spatial Turnover and Knowledge Gaps for African Chelonians Mirror those of African Small Mammals: Conservation Implications

“…We explored whether the number of gap species per country was dependent on country area (in km 2 ) by Pearson's correlation coefficient, and the association of gap species with particular habitat types by observed-versus-expected χ 2 test. Comparisons between carapace length (mm) of 'gap species' and 'nongap' species were performed using a Mann-Whitney U-test.…”

“…Effective conservation actions for threatened species are mostly assured by country-level governmental organizations [1][2]; locally-based and non-governmental agencies are much less relevant for political decisions, but often provide background expertise for decision-making [3]. Thus, it is important to have detailed accounts of species occurrences by country, as these data are basic for many conservation actions at multiple levels [3].…”

Known from a handful of specimens: analyzing the worldwide patterns of occurrence and conservation of rodents and shrews recorded only from the type locality

“…They inhabit almost every habitat and terrestrial and freshwater niche available, including flying species (Churchfield 1990;Hafner et al 1998;Nowak 1999), and also play a key role in natural ecosystems (Golley et al 1975;Carpaneto et al 2011). Traditionally, conservation research and applications have been focused on large mammals (Amori & Gippoliti 2000;Amori et al 2011aAmori et al , 2011b, despite the fact that many small mammal species are known from a handful of specimens. Some have been suspected to be extinct, with novel specimens not having been found for several decades (e.g., the Togo Mouse Leimacomys buettneri, see Schlitter 1989;Wilson & Reeder 2005), although some have been recently rediscovered (e.g., Řeháková et al 2015).…”

Indigenous Knowledge and Bioindicators of Toxicity of Non-Timber Forest Products in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

“…In the DRC, the biodiversity of rainforests offers a variety of species (Mukinzi et al, 2005;Amori et al, 2011) with high similarity, to the extent that even the well trained persons can easily misidentify inedible non-timber forest products. Although biodiversity is spread countrywide, this study targeted bioindicators of toxicity from three western provinces named Bandundu, Bas-Congo, and Equateur.…”