ATLANTIC MAMMALS: a data set of assemblages of medium‐ and large‐sized mammals of the Atlantic Forest of South America

Abstract

Biodiversity inventories contain important information about species richness, community structure, and composition, and are the first step in developing any conservation and mitigation strategies. The Atlantic Forest of South America is home to around 334 species of small-, medium-, and large-sized mammals, and is currently restricted to less than 12% of its original cover. Here, we present the ATLANTIC MAMMALS, an open data set on information on medium-and large-sized mammal assemblages in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina. A total of 129 studies were compiled, including published and in press peer-reviewed papers, book chapters, theses and unpublished data. We mapped 244 assemblages, eight orders, 63 genera, and 94 species (24 of which are classified as threatened by the IUCN Red List) distributed in 128 protected and 116 unprotected areas. Species richness of the mammalian assemblages varied from 1 to 39 species (mean 15). The most recorded species in the entire biome was Dasypus novemcinctus, followed by Cerdocyon thous and Procyon cancrivorous. These data can be useful in support of macroecological studies and conservation planning strategies. Please cite this data paper when the data are used in publications. We also request that researchers and teachers inform us of how they are using the data.

Assessing the potential of environmental DNA metabarcoding for monitoring Neotropical mammals: a case study in the Amazon and Atlantic Forest, Brazil

“…However, this was not the case for the Atlantic Forest. This biome hosts more than 300 mammalian species (and more than 50% of medium and large species are considered at least Vulnerable; Souza et al 2019). Therefore, for eDNA monitoring to be implemented in this biome, there is a clear need to generate reference DNA barcodes of a large proportion of the mammalian species present.…”

Assessing the potential of environmental DNA metabarcoding for monitoring Neotropical mammals: a case study in the Amazon and Atlantic Forest, Brazil

“…However, this was not the case for the Atlantic Forest. This biome hosts more than 300 mammalian species (more than 50% of medium/large species considered at least Vulnerable; Souza et al 2019). Therefore, for eDNA monitoring to be implemented in this biome, there is a clear need to generate reference DNA barcodes of a large proportion of the mammalian communities present.…”

Prey choice of the common vampire bat on introduced species in an Atlantic forest land-bridge island

“…The current native mammal fauna on the Anchieta Island was quite impoverished due to its isolated location, as well as past human impact (Bovendorp and Galetti, 2007, Souza et al , 2019, Supporting information S1). There are no previous studies about the occurrence and/or diet of common vampire bats on the island in the beginning of the last century (Garbino et al , 2016, Muylaert et al , 2017).…”