MAMÍFEROS URBANOS COLOMBIANOS: UNA REVISIÓN DE LO QUE SABEMOS Y LO QUE NOS FALTA

Abstract

Urban ecosystems are amongst the fastest growing environments on the planet due to the increase in human population. Hence, it is necessary to obtain information about biodiversity in such environments for their management and conservation. I reviewed the publications about Colombian urban mammals and analyzed four aspects: 1) the relationship between the number of publications and the year, 2) the contribution of publications from natural regions and departments, 3) the relationship between the number of publications and the human population per department, and 4) the contribution of publications about different subjects and mammal orders in different natural regions. The number of publications about urban mammals has increased exponentially with time, but the number of publications is not uniformly distributed among natural regions or departments. There was a positive relationship between the human population size per department and the number of publications. Nevertheless, in some departments, there was a higher than expected number of publications, whereas in others it was below the expectations. There is limited information about the ecological responses of mammals to urbanization, their possibility to transfer diseases, the species composition in most urban areas, and the effect of urbanizations on mammal diversity. I suggest that places such as university campuses and low-cost behavioral indicators based on activity or foraging should be used for experiments to develop strategies to allow the coexistence between humans and wild mammals in and around the cities.