20. MAMMALS IN THE PANTANAL 563 Mammals in the Pantanal wetland, Brazil WALFRIDO M. TOMAS 1* , NILTON C. CÁCERES 2 , ALESSANDRO P. NUNES 3 , ERICH FISCHER 3 , GUILHERME MOURÃO 1 , AND ZILCA CAMPOS 1 1 Embrapa Pantanal, Laboratório de Vida Selvagem, Rua 21 de Setembro 1880, CEP 79320-900 Corumbá, MS, Brazil 2 Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Departamento de Biologia, CCNE, faixa de Camobi Km 9, CEP 97110-910 Santa Maria, RS, Brazil 3 Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul, Departamento de Biologia, CEP 79070-900, Campo Grande, MS, Brazil * Corresponding author: tomasw@cpap.embrapa.br Abstract The Pantanal is a known hotspot of mammal diversity in South America. Many publica- tions on mammals of the Pantanal wetland in South America, however, are reviews of former published materials. In some cases location errors and out of date taxonomic iden- tifications have been perpetuated. The first detailed field studies on mammal ecology in the Pantanal were conducted by George Schaller in his project about the jaguar in the 1970s. Since then, increasing numbers of people have been working with mammal ecology and biology in this region and several papers were published. Up to date, 236 mammal species have been recorded in the Upper Paraguay River basin in Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay (68 medium to large sized mammals, 75 small mammals, and 90 bats). In the Pantanal, 152 species have been recorded (45 medium to large sized mammals, 34 small mammals, and 73 bats in 104 genera, 30 families and 9 orders). There are no endemic mammals in the Pantanal, and species distributions comply with those of the adjacent biomes. At least five exotic species exist in the Pantanal or its surroundings: the feral pig Sus scrofa; the European hare Lepus europaeus; the rodent Rattus rattus; the primate Callithrix jacchus, and feral water buffaloes Bubalus bubalis. Beside its rich mammal diversity, the Pantanal is famous for the abundance of wildlife populations. However, population abundance estimates have been surveyed for only few mammal species. Among these mammals are the marsh deer, the pampas deer, the ocelot and the capybaras. About 12% of the mammal species within the Pantanal are considered as globally endangered and 8% at national level in Brazil. The total protected area in the Pantanal covers about 5% of the floodplain. Up to date the Pantanal is one of the few places in the world where the effects of poaching and habitat destruction did not significantly alter the abundance of mammal species. Keeping this status is a chal- 20 Junk, W.J., Da Silva, C.J., Nunes da Cunha, C., Wantzen, K.M. (Eds) 2010 The Pantanal: Ecology, biodiversity and sustainable management of a large neotropical seasonal wetland, pp. 563-595. © Pensoft Publishers, Sofia–Moscow