Mammalian carnivores are considered a key group in maintaining ecological health and can indicate potential ecological integrity in landscapes where they occur. Carnivores also hold high conservation value and their habitat requirements can guide management and conservation plans. The order Carnivora has 84 species from 8 families in the Neotropical region: Canidae; Felidae; Mephitidae; Mustelidae; Otariidae; Phocidae; Procyonidae; and Ursidae. Herein, we include published and unpublished data on native terrestrial Neotropical carnivores (Canidae; Felidae; Mephitidae; Mustelidae; Procyonidae; and Ursidae). NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES is a publicly available data set that includes 99,605 data entries from 35,511 unique georeferenced coordinates. Detection/non‐detection and quantitative data were obtained from 1818 to 2018 by researchers, governmental agencies, non‐governmental organizations, and private consultants. Data were collected using several methods including camera trapping, museum collections, roadkill, line transect, and opportunistic records. Literature (peer‐reviewed and grey literature) from Portuguese, Spanish and English were incorporated in this compilation. Most of the data set consists of detection data entries (n = 79,343; 79.7%) but also includes non‐detection data (n = 20,262; 20.3%). Of those, 43.3% also include count data (n = 43,151). The information available in NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES will contribute to macroecological, ecological, and conservation questions in multiple spatio‐temporal perspectives. As carnivores play key roles in trophic interactions, a better understanding of their distribution and habitat requirements are essential to establish conservation management plans and safeguard the future ecological health of Neotropical ecosystems. Our data paper, combined with other large‐scale data sets, has great potential to clarify species distribution and related ecological processes within the Neotropics. There are no copyright restrictions and no restriction for using data from this data paper, as long as the data paper is cited as the source of the information used. We also request that users inform us of how they intend to use the data.

Riparian environments are characterized by a gradient of environmental factors perpendicular to the watercourse, as the habitat changes from terrestrial to aquatic. These areas are highly diverse in comparison with adjacent ecosystems specially in arid and semi-arid regions, a pattern that may not be as marked in other climates where humidity and nutrient gradients are not so abrupt. We aimed to evaluate the diversity of small mammals in riparian and non-riparian environments in an area of Atlantic Forest, as well as the association between habitat structure and small mammal assemblages. A survey was conducted between October, 2018, and August, 2019 by sampling 17 plots, eight in riparian areas, and nine in non-riparian areas. No differences were found in composition and abundance of small mammals between riparian and non-riparian environments, because habitat structure did not differ between these environments. However, small mammal assemblages were structured by habitat characteristics such as understory obstruction, fallen trunks and altitude. Water deficits are not marked throughout the year in the study area, therefore there is no such distinction between riparian and non-riparian environments. The most important habitat characteristics for the small mammals were those that represent shelter and resources sources.

The establishment of protected areas is central for biodiversity conservation, but it may cause conflicts between the environmental agencies and the local citizens. In this study we aimed to survey the medium and large sized mammals in an Atlantic Forest protected area located in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We also aimed to understand how the local citizens felt about the establishment of the Paraíso Unit. Between June and December 2015, we used 1,754 camera-days to record the mammals of Três Picos State Park-Paraíso Unit. To assess the citizens' felling about the Paraíso Unit, we conducted 22 interviews. We recorded 10 species, belonging to seven orders, classified into four dietary guilds. Among recorded species, four species are considered vulnerable in the state of Rio de Janeiro: Puma concolor, Leopardus pardalis, Pecari tajacu, and Cuniculus paca. A part of the citizens claimed losses in their activities. The main complaints were about the lack of dialogue with the park administration, the restricted access to waterfalls and trails inside the park and downturn in local commerce. According to the interviewed residents, the poaching pressure was greater on C. paca, Dasypus novemcinctus, and Dasyprocta leporina. To minimize the conflicts Paraíso Unit must improve the protected area governance, implementing its management plan in a participatory, inclusive and equity way.