Species richness, rarity and endemicity of European mammals:: a biogeographical approach

This paper investigates the distribution of species richness, rarity and endemicity of European land mammals (bats and introduced species excluded). The highest level of species richness was in Central Europe, while Southern areas had the highest rarity and endemicity scores. The distribution of richness was affected by the location of sampling points in islands and peninsulas. After excluding these sampling points, richness continued to decrease Westward suggesting the existence of a large-scale peninsular effect on mammal distribution. These patterns of continental distribution of richness, rarity and endemicity could be the result of the distribution of refuge areas in the southern Mediterranean peninsulas, and the Pleistocene advances and retreats of mammals throughout the Western Palearctic. Thus, European mammal distribution can be interpreted on the basis of two different patterns of abundance distribution in which Palearctic species reduce their abundance from central-Europe outwards, while endemic, rare species show a similar depletion in the North. It should be useful to evaluate the role of the different regions in Europe in conserving the demographic interactions between central and peripheral populations of mammal species. Given the restricted distribution and potential small size of population, these endemic species are most likely to be susceptible to anthropogenic environmental degradation.