Mammal Diversity and Conservation in the Selva Lacandona, Chiapas, Mexico

Abstract

The Selva Lacandona region of Chiapas, Mexico, has high biodiversity, represents the last large portion of tropical rainforest in México, and faces imminent destruction. Through fieldwork and literature searches I found a total of 112 mammal species (including 17 Middle‐American endemics) on the Lacandona’s 331,200 ha Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve. This inventory plus those from eight additional Neotropical localities show local mammal species richness in the Neotropics to be in the range of 70–116 species. Richness is primarily correlated with the amount of annual rainfall, but within rainforest areas species richness is probably not correlated with rainfall, latitude, altitude, or area size. Rather, above a certain limit of rainfall and below a critical level of latitude and altitude, mammal species richness seem to reach an asymptotic maximum. Areas covered with tropical rainforest and with a well‐known, relatively intact fauna have about 112–116 mammal species. In the Montes Azules Reserve most mammals (57%) are bats. The most heavily occupied feeding guilds are frugivores/herbivores and insectivores/omnivores. Large species and carnivores appear most vulnerable to local extinction. Montes Azules (and thus the Selva Lacandona) is especially noteworthy because (1) it contains a greater proportion of species facing conservation problems than expected from a random draw of Mexican mammals; (2) it is probably the most diverse ecosystem in Mexico; (3) many species sustain their only Mexican populations in this area; and (4) it is the largest remnant of tropical rainforest in Mexico and is part of the largest expanse of that vegetation type in Central America.

Association between Small Rodents and Forest Patch and Landscape Structure in the Fragmented Lacandona Rainforest, Mexico

“…This paper shows that, as expected, the abundance of rodents was very low in all sites, probably because the region has not experienced a significant defaunation process [14,41], and hence, predators are preventing the increase of rodent abundances [42][43]. Yet the abundance of rodents was strongly associated with forest patch and landscape attributes, with most models explaining ≥50% of total deviance.…”

“…This rainforest is one of the biologically richest Mexican ecosystems, with 25% of Mexican terrestrial mammal species [41]. The region has suffered severe land-use changes during recent decades, but only one study in the region has evaluated the response of small mammals to these changes [26].…”

A new species of small-eared shrew (Mammalia, Eulipotyphla,Cryptotis) from the Lacandona rain forest, Mexico

“…Among the small mammal community are Ototylomys phyllotis, Heteromys desmarestianus, Oryzomys rostratus, Marmosa mexicana, Nyctomys sumichrasti, and Sigmodon hispidus. To our knowledge, no other shrews have been reported from the Lacandona rain forest, although Medellín (1994) predicted the presence of a species of the C. parvus or C. nigrescens species groups. The Lacandona rain forest is one of the last areas where relatively undisturbed tropical vegetation is found in southern Mexico (Delgadillo and Cárdenas 2002), and it supports viable populations of such endangered mammals as Panthera onca and Tapirus bairdii.…”

Experimental defaunation of terrestrial mammalian herbivores alters tropical rainforest understorey diversity

“…MABR covers 331 200 ha of tropical rainforest and harbours 112 mammalian species including the entire guild of understorey herbivores and granivores [31][32][33][34] (electronic supplementary material, figure S1). …”