The exotic mammals of Argentina

Abstract

Exotic mammals in South America represent about 20% of world mammal introductions. The aim of our paper is to provide a global assessment of the exotic mammals of Argentina, their pathways, impacts, and a synthesis of their attributes as potential invasive species. We reviewed and compiled data from a diversity of sources and databases on alien mammals occurring in feral state exclusively. We recorded 18 species of exotic mammals for Argentina. The majority of introductions occurred between the 18th and 19th centuries and their ports of entry were located in temperate ecosystems, between 34°and 55°S L. Most of their entry pathways were associated with human activities (e.g. sport hunting, food and fur industry). The exotic mammals occupy ecoregions similar to their original distributions, but most of them have experienced a range expansion to novel habitats. The fauna of exotic mammals of Argentina represents a good opportunity to understand the dynamics of the invasion process as they represent a diversity of ecological groups and environmental contexts.

Mammalia, Lagomorpha, Leporidae, Lepus europaeus, Pallas, 1778: distribution extension, first confirmed record for Paraguay

“…Novillo and Ojeda, 2008 suggest that L. europaeus is found along the entire border of Paraguay and Argentina.…”

“…Although several authors describe distributions and trends for Lepus in the Southern Cone of South America (see Pine et al, 1979;Dietrich, 1984;Johnson et al, 1990;Jaksic, 1998;Jaksic et al, 2002;Novillo and Ojeda, 2008) actual locality records are not particularly abundant. Most mention L. europaeus as a food item in carnivore diet studies (Jaksic et al1983;Branch et al 1996;Pia et al 2003;Diuk-Waser and Cassini 1998;Zapata et al 1998;Rau and Jiménez 2002;Donadio et al 2004;García and Kittlein 2004;and Zapata et al 2005), avian scavenger diet studies , in occasional records from faunal surveys (Aguilar et al, 2007;Cossio 2004;Dotta and Verdade 2007;and Aguiar et al 2007) and/or in describing the ecology of Lepus itself (Auricchio et al 1999;Campos et al 2001;Cossíos, 2004;and Kufner et al 2008).…”

OVARIECTOMY IN A COMMON HIPPOPOTAMUS (HIPPOPOTAMUS AMPHIBIUS)

“…Ratas y ratones: Mus musculus Linnaeus, 1758; Rattus rattus (Linnaeus, 1758) y Rattus norvegicus (Berkenhout, 1769) Estas especies fueron transportadas accidentalmente por humanos en barcos que arribaron desde Europa entre 1600 y 1800, y han expandido sus rangos de distribución en conjunto con los asentamientos humanos (NOVILLO & OJEDA, 2008), debido principalmente a la disponibilidad de alimento y refugio que les proporciona su cercanía a los humanos, hasta alcanzar en la actualidad una distribución cosmopolita (LIZARRALDE & ESCOBAR, 2005). Rattus rattus y M. musculus se encuentran entre las 100 especies exóticas invasoras más dañinas del mundo (LOWE et al, 2004) y equivocadamente han sido denominados como ratones silvestres en algunos trabajos colombianos (LEON et al, 2007).…”

“…En Colombia suelen encontrarse poblaciones cimarronas en la región andina, pero desafortunadamente no contamos con un ejemplar testigo de dichas poblaciones para mostrar la posible amenaza que esta especie puede representar al encontrarse silvestre, como ha acontecido en otros países de Suramérica. En Argentina, Bolivia, Chile y Perú presenta poblaciones cimarronas que se han convertido en invasoras y plagas (GARCÍA et al, 2001;MATTEWS, 2005;NOVILLO & OJEDA, 2008;PACHECO et al, 2009), además en Chile especies de plantas introducidas en islas que carecen de los medios biológicos para su dispersión, encuentran en el conejo un mecanismo eficiente para dicho proceso, ya que este dispersa sus semillas a través de las heces, dificultando su manejo (FERNÁNDEZ & SÁIZ, 2007). El conejo es un dispersor no especializado y es por este tipo de atributos que se reconoce como una especie con una gran plasticidad ecológica para expandir su rango de distribución y ocupar nuevos hábitats rápidamente (MATTEWS, 2005).…”

Introducing “Alien Floras and Faunas”, a new series in Biological Invasions

“…Papers published in Biological Invasions in the last decade that would have qualified for inclusion in the series span a wide range of taxonomic groups and geographic areas for which complete inventories of alien species were compiled (e.g., Novillo and Ojeda 2008;Borroto-Páez 2009;Galil 2009;Arianoutsou et al 2010;Kull et al 2012;Khuroo et al 2012). We believe that the newly introduced Alien Floras and Faunas series, starting in this issue with an inaugural paper by Inderjit et al (2017), based on thoroughly revisited information on the alien flora of India, will stimulate rapid closing of many existing gaps in our knowledge of regional alien species richness.…”