ATLANTIC‐CAMTRAPS: a dataset of medium and large terrestrial mammal communities in the Atlantic Forest of South America

Our understanding of mammalecology has always been hindered by the difficulties of observing species in closed tropical forests. Camera trappinghas become a major advance for monitoring terrestrial mammalsin biodiversity rich ecosystems. Here we compiled one of the largest datasets of inventories of terrestrial mammalcommunities for the Neotropical region based on camera trappingstudies. The dataset comprises 170 surveys of medium to large terrestrial mammalsusing camera trapsconducted in 144 areas by 74 studies, covering six vegetation types of tropical and subtropical Atlantic Forest of South America (Brazil and Argentina), and present data on species composition and richness. The complete dataset comprises 53,438 independent records of 83 species of mammals, includes 10 species of marsupials, 15 rodents, 20 carnivores, 8 ungulatesand 6 armadillos. Species richness averaged 13 species (± 6.07 SD) per site. Only six species occurred in more than 50% of the sites: the domestic dog Canis familiaris, crab-eating fox Cerdocyon thous, tayra Eira barbara, south American coati Nasua nasua, crab-eating raccoon Procyon cancrivorusand the nine-banded armadillo Dasypus novemcinctus. The information contained in this dataset can be used to understand macroecologicalpatterns of biodiversity, community, and population structure, but also to evaluate the ecological consequences of fragmentation, defaunation, and trophic interactions. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.