Assessing Conservation Priorities in Megadiverse Mexico: Mammalian Diversity, Endemicity, and Endangerment

The identification of areas of high priority for conservation is becoming a major endeavor fot conservation biologists. Regions of high species richness and high concentrations of endemic and endangered species have been considered a priority for conservation. In this paper we use information about the species richness, composition, and distribution of mammals from Mexico for selecting prioritu areas for conservation. All species of terrestrial mammals were characterized by geographic range size, body mass, and conservation status, and their distribution were overlaid on a 2 x 2 grid to detect areas of high concetrations of species richness, endemicity, and endangered species. We focused our analyses at both species and biogeographic levels. At the species level we examined differences among endangered, endemic, and non-endemic species in ecological characteristics correlated with vulnerability to extinction. There were significant differences between endangered and non-endangered species, and between endemic and non-endemic mammals in body size and geographic range size. At the biogeographic level simple correlation analyses were carried out to determine the relation between latitude, total species richness, number of endemic species, and number of endangered species. We found a very low correspondece among areas of high diversity, high endemicity, or high number of endangered species. The distribution of many species with restricted geographic range, including endemic and non-endemic species, did not coincide with areas of high species richness, endemicity, or endangerment. We suggest a conservation strategy that gives priority areas of high concentration of endangered species and of non-endangered species with restricted distribution. Among endangered species a higher priority should be given to endemic taxa vs non-endemic species, and to restricted species over widespread taxa in these tow groups