CARACTERÍSTICAS DETERMINANTES DO RISCO DE EXTINÇÃO GLOBAL DE MAMÍFEROS

Abstract

CHARACTERISTICS DETERMINANTS OF GLOBAL EXTINCTION RISK OF MAMMALS. About one-quarter of all mammals are in danger of extinction and is essential to the Conservation Biology identifying the factors that predict extinction risk. Some studies have made considerable efforts to recognize the relevant characteristics associated to vulnerability of extinction. In order to investigate if there is a consensus about what characteristics were more related to the extinction risk of mammals, we reviewed all the literature that found attributes of species correlated with vulnerability degree. Our results show that species of mammals tend to have a higher risk of extinction if they occupy small geographical range, have large body size and exhibit low reproductive rate, however they may differ according to the taxon and region studied. For example, carnivores shown to be greatly affected by low fecundity, while the same is not observed for primates. Furthermore, larger species are at higher risk only in tropical regions. The interaction between biological traits and anthropogenic threats increase understanding of the processes determining extinction risk.

Keywords: Conservation; endangered species; fecundity; body size; geographical range.