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Mammals of Italy: an annotated checklist
 
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1
Envix Lab., Dept, Biosciences and Territory, Università degli Studi del Molise, Pesche, Italy
 
2
Museo Storia Naturale e Orto Botanico, Università della Calabria, Rende, Italy
 
3
Wildlife Research Unit, Dipartimento di Agraria, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Portici, Italy
 
4
FIZV, Via Marco Aurelio 2, Roma, Italy
 
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Dept. Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Turin, Italy
 
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Dir. Environment and Natural Systems, Lazio Regional Government, Rome, Italy
 
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Dept. Biology and Biotechnologies “Charles Darwin”, Sapienza Università degli Studi di Roma, Roma, Italy
 
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Research Institute on Terrestrial Ecosystems, National Research Council, Via Salaria km 29.300, Monterotondo, Italy
 
9
Via Arno 38, Rome, Italy
 
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Dept. Comparative Biomedicine and Food Science, University of Padova, Legnago, Italy
 
11
Water Research Institute, National Research Council, Verbania Pallanza, Italy
 
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Museo Friulano di Storia Naturale, Udine, Italy
 
13
Dept. Biology, University of Naples Federico II, Napoli, Italy
 
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Dip. Scienze della Vita, Università degli Studi di Siena, Siena, Italy
 
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Museo Civico di Storia Naturale, Morbegno, Italy
 
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Museum of Natural History of Milan, Milano, Italy
 
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Dept STEBICEF -Section Animal Biology, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy
 
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Dept. Veterinary Medicine, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy
 
 
Online publication date: 2019-11-26
 
 
Publication date: 2019-11-26
 
 
Corresponding author
Anna Loy   

Envix Lab., Dept, Biosciences and Territory, Università degli Studi del Molise, Pesche, Italy
 
 
Hystrix It. J. Mamm. 2019;30(2):87-106
 
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ABSTRACT
Checklists represent a basic tool for conservation and management of regional faunas. However, our knowledge on species composition in a territory changes over time due to species movements across borders, extinctions, introductions, as well as to new taxonomic evidence. We aimed to provide the most updated data on native and non-native species of mammals occurring, or that used to occur until recently, on the Italian political territory and seas. The checklist only includes species whose taxonomic status was explicitly agreed in the most recent peer-reviewed literature and based on the most updated taxonomic approaches. For each species, we provided the following information: scientific and common name, global and Italian range, relevant information for management and conservation (e.g. whether it is endemic, allochthonous, or listed in international regulations and red list assessments), as well as remarks on taxonomy and distribution. This new check list of Italian mammal fauna includes nine marine and 114 terrestrial species, belonging to seven orders (Erinaceomorpha, Soricomorpha, Chiroptera, Carnivora, Cetartiodactyla, Rodentia, Lagomorpha), and 28 families. Vespertilionidae represents the richest family (n=27 species), followed by Cricetidae (n=12) and Soricidae (n=11). The list includes 15-16 allocthonous species. Considering the relative small size of the country, Italy is confirmed as a hotspot of mammal diversity in Europe, hosting the highest species richness in relation to the total area.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors are grateful to the two anonymous reviewers for their extensive and detailed comments that greatly improved the clarity and readability of this article. They also like to thank the Museo Civico di Zoologia (Rome, Italy) for hosting the meeting on May 5th, 2017 that set the basis for this essay.
eISSN:1825-5272
ISSN:0394-1914
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