368 JOURNAL OF MAMMALOGY
Journal of Mammalogy, 85(2):368369, 2004
Ceballos, G., and J. A. Simonetti (eds.). 2002. DIVERSIDAD
Y CONSERVACION DE LOS MAMIFEROS NEOTROPICALES. Comision
Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad,
Mexico, D. F., Mexico. 582 pp. ISBN 970-9000-18-7, price
(paper), $15.00.
The Neotropics comprise a large and highly diverse region,
extending from tropical Mexico south to Tierra del Fuego. The
biota of the region is among the most diverse on the planet.
One-quarter of the worlds mammalian fauna belongs to the
neotropical region, including 12 orders and over 1,100 species,
with new taxa being described annually (Patterson 2000). Our
knowledge of the mammalian species of this region, however,
is limited in comparison with our knowledge of the mammalian
species of other regions.
The goal of this book is to provide a single, comprehensive
overview of the current status of diversity and conservation of
mammals in countries included in the neotropical region; its
goal is achieved. The book is written in Spanish, with English
abstracts at the end of each chapter. Although the editors do not
specify the target audience, I presume that the book is intended
for a very broad audience, from nonprofessionals with an
interest in mammalian ecology and conservation to profes-
sionals working on research and conservation of biodiversity.
The style of the book is simple, descriptive, and easy to read.
Each chapter addresses the diversity and conservation of
mammals of 15 countries in Central and South America,
including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa
Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Guyana, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay,
Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Because of the format of the
book, readers can selectively read any chapter(s) without the
need to read previous chapters or the entire book. Also, because
each chapter covers the subject for a single country, there is
minimal overlap in the content of the chapters.
Each chapter has 4 major sections: State of Knowledge of
Mammals, Species Diversity, Distribution and Zoogeog- 1935; Mones 2001; Mones and Philippi 1992; Ximenez et al.
raphy, and Conservation. The State of Knowledge 1972) and their conservation (e.g., Gudynas 1994; Vaz Ferreira
section provides a description of the history of mammal studies
in the country. In this section, the author or authors recognize
the pioneers in mammal research in the country. I think readers
will appreciate and enjoy this section in most chapters. Two
exceptions are the chapter on Uruguay, which does not include
this section, and the chapter on Venezuela, in which the section
is disappointingly brief, does not mention any early pioneers in
the study of mammals in Venezuela, and provides only recent
references (see below).
The section on species diversity outlines the taxonomic
makeup of the mammalian fauna. Most chapters address
endemism in this section, and most include an analysis of the
distribution of species body mass or body length, and an
analysis of species richness by trophic categories. The latter
analyses appear to have been suggested by the editors, although
the purpose of these analyses is not provided in their
introductory chapter. These analyses would have made more
Vol. 85, No.
sense if the book had a concluding chapter, in which the editors
could have provided a synthesis of this information across
countries. In most chapters, the distribution of species body
mass is depicted inappropriately in bar charts instead of
histograms, and the logarithmic scale in the x-axis is misused.
The sections on distribution and zoogeography focus on the
associations of species with biomes or geographic regions
identified for the country. The chapters for Argentina, Brazil,
and Bolivia include analyses of similarity of species compo-
sition among biomes or geographic regions.
The section on conservation describes the conservation
status of mammals in the country. Some chapters include a
list of the mammal species at risk or endangered in the coun-
try (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Guyana, Panama,
Uruguay, and Venezuela), whereas others include a brief de-
scription of the conservation status of each mammal species at
risk or endangered in the country (Bolivia, Costa Rica, Cuba,
and Mexico); some chapters include both (Ecuador, Paraguay,
and Peru). This section also includes a general description of
past and present threats to the mammal fauna. Some chapters
include in this section a description of the national system of
protected areas and discuss its effectiveness in mammal
conservation. These sections end with a discussion of a general
strategy for mammal conservation.
This book is almost free of grammatical errors. The use of
statistics in some chapters is inappropriate, and the reporting of
statistical results is at times incomplete. Two chapters
(Uruguay and Venezuela) are poorly developed and fail
to reach the caliber of the other chapters in the book. Both
chapters also were weakly documented, with only 14 and 26
bibliographic references, repsectively; the mean number of bib-
liographic references in other chapters is 94. Of the 14 biblio-
graphic references in the chapter on Uruguay, only 1 specifically
concerns Uruguayan mammals; the other 13 are general refer-
ences on neotropical mammals. The authors evidently ignored
several publications on mammals of Uruguay (e.g., Devincenzi
1970), as well as the history and the pioneers of mammal
research in the country (e.g., F. de Azara, D. A. Larranaga, E. F.
Acosta y Lara, R. Vaz Ferreira, A. Ximenez, A. Mones, A.
Langguth, R. Praderi, and J. C. Gonzalez). The limitations in
these 2 chapters likely reflected the fact that the authors either
did not have experience on mammal research in those countries
or did not consult exhaustively the available literature. As noted
above, the book lacks a concluding chapter, which could
have synthesized information presented throughout the book,
emphasized similarities and dissimilarities in research and
conservation issues facing neotropical mammals, and provided
recommendations addressing research and conservation of
neotropical mammals.
In spite of the limitations noted above, I strongly recom-
mend this book to anybody interested in research and conserva-
tion of mammals of the Neotropics. The country-based
approach of the book is different from that of previous books
April 2004 BOOK REVIEWS
on neotropical mammals, and the book contains valuable
information presented by many highly qualified mammalogists
working in these countries. Thus, the book is a very welcome
addition to the relatively scarce literature on mammals of
the neotropical region.ROMEO M. SPINOLA, 1200 Happy
Hollow Rd., Apt. 604, West Lafayette, IN 47906, USA (e-mail:
mspinola10@yahoo.com).
LITERATURE CITED
DEVINCENZI, G. J. 1935. Mamferos del Uruguay. Anales del Museo de
Historia Natural de Montevideo (Segunda Serie) 4:196.
GUDYNAS, E. 1994. Nuestra verdadera riqueza: una nueva vision de la
conservacion de las areas naturales del Uruguay. Centro de
Investigacion y Promocion Franciscano y Ecologico (CIPFE) &
369
Multiversidad Franciscana de America Latina (MFAL), Monte-
video, Uruguay.
MONES, A. 2001. La mastozoologa en el Uruguay: pasado y presente.
Comunicaciones Zoologicas del Museo de Historia Natural de
Montevideo, Volumen 13, Numero 197.
MONES, A., AND M. E. PHILIPPI. 1992. Bibliografa mastozoologogica
anotada del Uruguay. Anales del Museo de Historia Natural de
Montevideo (Segunda Serie), Volumen 8, Numero 3.
PATTERSON, B. D. 2000. Patterns and trends in the discovery of new
Neotropical mammals. Diversity and Distributions 6:145151.
VAZ FERREIRA, R. 1970. Fauna: conservacion y recursos. Nuestra
Tierra No. 45. Editorial Nuestra Tierra, Montevideo, Uruguay.
XIMENEZ, A., A. LANGGUTH, AND R. PRADERI. 1972. Lista sistematica
de los mamferos del Uruguay. Anales del Museo Nacional de
Historia Natural de Montevideo (Segunda Serie), Volumen 7,
Numero 5.