MAMMALS IN PORTUGAL: A data set of terrestrial, volant, and marine mammal occurrences in Portugal

Mammals are threatened worldwide, with ca. 26% of all species being included in the IUCN threatened categories. This overall pattern is primarily associated to habitat loss or degradation, and human persecution for terrestrial mammals, and pollution, open net fishing, climate change and prey depletion for marine mammals. Mammals play a key role in maintaining ecosystems functionality and resilience, and therefore information on their distribution is crucial to delineate and support conservation actions. MAMMALS IN PORTUGAL is a publicly available data set compiling unpublished geo-referenced occurrence records of 92 terrestrial, volant, and marine mammals in mainland Portugal and archipelagos of Azores and Madeira that includes 107,852 data entries between 1873 and 2021 (72% of the data occurring in 2000 and 2021). The methods used to collect the data were: live observations/captures (42%), sign surveys (38%), camera trapping (16%), bioacoustics surveys (4%) and radio-tracking and inquiries that represent less than 1% of the records. The data set includes 13 types of records: 1) burrows | soil mounds | tunnel, 2) capture, 3) colony, 4) dead animal | hair | skulls | jaws, 5) genetic confirmation, 6) inquiries, 7) observation of live animal, 8), observation in shelters, 9) photo trapping | video, 10), predators diet | pellets | pine cones/nuts, 11) scat | track | ditch, 12) telemetry and 13) vocalization | echolocation. The spatial uncertainty of most records ranges between 0 and 100 m (76%). Rodentia (n = 34,754) has the highest number of records followed by Chiroptera (n = 18,858), Carnivora (n = 18,594), Lagomorpha (n = 17,679), Cetartiodactyla (n = 11,568) and Eulipotyphla (n = 6400). The data set includes records of species classified by the IUCN as threatened (e.g., Oryctolagus cuniculus (n = 12,407), Monachus monachus (n = 1512), and Lynx pardinus (n = 197)]. We believe that this data set may stimulate the publication of other European countries data sets which would certainly contribute to ecology and conservation-related research, and therefore assisting on the development of more accurate and tailored conservation management strategies for each species. There are no copyright restrictions; please cite this data paper when the data are used in publications.

Using a blind test to assess the discriminant power of morphological traits to distinguish between similar shrew species

The Canary Islands are home to a large variety of endemic fauna. The Canary shrew (Crocidura canariensis) has a distribution restricted to Fuerteventura, Lanzarote and the islets of Lobos and Montaña Clara. One of the main threats to the insular fauna is the arrival of exotic species. The greater white-toothed shrew (Crocidura russula) is an easily transportable animal and a potential competitor for C. canariensis. Therefore, C. russula should be taken into account in the management protocols for invasive species. One of the most easily applicable techniques for detecting shrews is the analysis of pellets. This study aims to assess which morphological characters are diagnostic and easy to use when identifying both species of shrews. For this purpose, a blind specific assignment has been made using seven previously described characters and another three added in the present study. The results show that the observer’s experience did not improve the correct identification rate and that only three of the evaluated characters have a high discriminant capacity. Finally, it was found that the combined use of the maximum number of characters and the identification by two independent observers reduces the probability of making a mistake in the determination to minimum values.