DAMA: the global Distribution of Alien Mammals database

Abstract

We developed the DAMA (Distribution of Alien MAmmals) database, a comprehensive source reporting the global distribution of the 230 species of mammals that have established, self-sustaining and free-ranging populations outside their native range due to direct or indirect human action. Every alien range is accompanied by information on its invasion stage, pathway, method of introduction and date of introduction. We collected information from 827 different sources (scientific literature, books, risk assessments, reports, online biodiversity databases and websites), and used it to draw alien range maps for these species following the IUCN mapping framework. DAMA comprises 2726 range polygons, covering 199 Countries, 2190 level 1 administrative areas and 11 zoogeographic realms for the period 21500 BC-AD 2017. The most Accepted ArticleThis article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved represented orders among introduced mammal species are Rodentia (n=58, 25.22%), Cetartiodactyla (n=49 species, 21.30%), Carnivora (n=30 species, 13.04%), Diprotodontia (n=28, 12.17%) and Primates (n=26, 11.30%). Mammal species have been frequently introduced for hunting (n=100), pet trade (n=57), conservation (n=51) and fauna improvement (n=42). The majority of range polygons are placed on islands (n=2196, 80.56%), encompass populations that have moved beyond establishment and into the invasion stage (n=1655, 60.71%), and originated from 1500 AD to the present (n=1496, 54.88%). Despite inheriting literature biases towards more studied regions (e.g., developedCountries), DAMA is the most up-to-date picture of alien mammal global distribution and can be used to investigate their invasion ecology across different biogeographical regions. There are no copyright or proprietary restrictions; IUCN range maps were modified into a derivative work according to the IUCN's terms of service.

Introduction, spread, and impacts of invasive alien mammal species in Europe

“…For each species, we conducted a separate search with a combination of the scientific name and its synonyms, common name(s), and the relevant keywords, linked by the Boolean operators AND/OR. The list of countries encompassing the alien range, to be used as species‐specific keywords, was obtained from the global Distribution of Alien Mammals database (DAMA; Biancolini et al 2021 ). Keywords were identified a priori based on the known alien distribution of each species, European Regulation, invasion history, characteristics linked to invasiveness, and impacts caused (Appendix S1 ).…”

“…not established) or with an unknown status are indicated as ‘casual presences’. Alien geographic ranges for the study species were obtained from DAMA (Biancolini et al 2021 ), as well as from the list of all established mammals in Europe, regardless of their inclusion in the Union List, to get a more comprehensive picture of alien mammals’ status in Europe. Native zoogeographic realms (Holt et al 2013 ) for the study species and all established mammals in Europe were obtained based on species’ native ranges (IUCN 2020).…”

“…Each species was assigned to one or more pathway(s) of introduction following Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) categorisation (CBD 2014 , Biancolini et al 2021 ). First records of the species were mainly obtained from version 2 (last updated in March 2021) of the Alien Species First Records Database (Seebens et al 2017 ).…”

“…Of the 66 species currently included on the Union List, 11 (~17%) are mammals, highlighting the perceived impact of this taxon across Europe. Indeed, mammals represent 60% of the worst invasive terrestrial vertebrates in Europe (DAISIE 2009 , Polaina et al 2020 ) and, overall, more than 50 species of alien mammals are currently established in this continent (Biancolini et al 2021 ). Alarmingly, due to climate change, suitable climatic space is projected to increase for most invasive mammals in Europe (Polaina et al 2020 ).…”

Expert range maps of global mammal distributions harmonised to three taxonomic authorities

“…The maps provided here only address native ranges and thus do not inform about the sometimes substantial and ongoing alien range expansions ( Capinha et al, 2015 ; Seebens et al, 2017 ). Work is underway to include alien distribution data on Map of Life, incorporating information from the Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species database (GRIIS; Pagad et al, 2018 ) and the global Distribution of Alien Mammals database (DAMA; Biancolini et al, 2021 ). While a different data type, this will enable timelier accounting for ongoing range dynamics.…”