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Atlas of Mammals in Italy
The first Atlas of Italian Mammals, edited by the Italian Teriological Association (ATIt) has been published. The atlas is a collective project, with contributions by 115 authors including our colleague Giovanni Amori
The project was launched in 2019, with the publication of the Italian Mammals checklist, which provided the taxonomic context for the atlas.
The work covers 140 species of mammals present with stable populations in the Italian territory or seas. For each species, a bilingual (Italian and English) fact sheet was prepared describing its global and national distribution, taxonomy, ecology, conservation status in Italy, reference legislation, and IUCN categories at global and national levels.
The heart of the atlas, however, is the species distribution maps, which summarize, according to a European standard, all available occurrence data in 10×10-km grid cells. The maps were made using more than one million point reports, verified and validated as of 2021 by the authors. The 520-page volume is enhanced by more than 300 images of the mammals taken by more than 130 photographers.
The Atlas provides an up-to-date and valuable overview of the state of knowledge about mammals in Italy, particularly with respect to their distribution. Like most atlases, the distributional data are not derived from systematic censuses of all species over the entire national territory, but are based on the totality of available data. Therefore, any distributional gaps related to certain species do not necessarily correspond to their absence, but rather highlight the need to deepen their knowledge status. Finally, it is important to note that fauna distribution is a dynamic phenomenon, influenced by the ability of animals to move in response to environmental and biological factors. With this in mind, the atlas constitutes a constantly evolving “snapshot” that needs periodic updates from a solid knowledge base.
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- Written by: Tony Mitchell-Jones
Atlas - publication update. May/June 2025
Our atlas is now with our publisher (Taylor & Francis/CRC Press). It has received an initial check for completeness and has now moved into the production process, where it will be designed, proof-read and typeset. Once the MS has been handed to Production and assigned a production editor, we should receive a timetable of when we can expect page proofs for authors to check. We will e-mail all contributors with these details once we have them. We expect this process to take several months, so publication will be in the autumn.
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- Written by: Tony Mitchell-Jones
EMMA2 update - June 2024
Data
We now have final datasets from every country in our atlas area. These have all been added to our database, where we now have 142,965 records of 245 species. Draft maps have been prepared for checking and we are now working with our national coordinators and species account authors to review the maps and make corrections. However, we do not expect the maps to change significantly. Some exceptions to this might be the distribution of some cryptic species, where we will try to prepare maps using the most recent information available. The most widely distributed species in Europe is the Red fox Vulpes vulpes, which has been recorded from almost every atlas cell. This is closely followed by the Roe deer Capreolus capreolus, Badger Meles meles, Otter Lutra lutra and Red squirrel Sciurus vulgaris. The species with the most limited occurrence are the Egyptian fruit bat Rousettus aegyptiacus and Tristram’s jird Meriones tristrami, which each occur in only one cell.
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- Written by: Tony Mitchell-Jones
EMF statement on the Russo-Ukrainian war
Ukraine was invaded by Russian military forces in February 2022. In response, the European Mammal Foundation issued a statement unequivocally condemning Russian aggression and offering sympathy and support to Ukraine. We also suspended cooperation with our Russian colleagues and, later in 2022, extended our project for one year.
The purpose of the suspension, rather than immediate expulsion, was to allow us some time to see if the situation improved or whether some way of continuing scientific cooperation in time of war could be found. Sadly, this destructive and unnecessary war continues unabated and, despite the best efforts of the EMF, over a considerable period, to find an acceptable way forward, scientific cooperation between Russia and Ukraine in such circumstances has proved impossible. We can understand that. With great regret, therefore, the EMF, in consultation with the atlas Steering Group, has decided to abandon our original scientific objective of mapping mammal distributions across the whole of geographic Europe and will now exclude the Russian part of that area from our project.
Having excluded Russia, EMMA2 will now map the whole of the EMMA1 area plus Moldova, Belarus and Ukraine. This will allow us to extend the area mapped eastwards by about 1000km, so covering a good proportion of Europe. An atlas with a coherent border that runs down the eastern borders of Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Belarus and Ukraine will still be a valuable contribution to the study and conservation of mammals.
European Mammal Foundation,
March 2023
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- Written by: EMF
Citizen Science in Ireland
There is growing interest across Europe in developing the involvement of volunteers to collect biological observations. A common part of this development is the setting up of a data portal, where observers can submit their biological records for verification and adding to a national database. A portal has been developed in Ireland by the National Biodiversity Data Centre and this video give an introduction to the system.
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- Written by: Tony Mitchell-Jones
Alpine shrew (Sorex alpinus) is still living in the Pyrenees
This is an interesting and very important story. Until now the occurrence in the Pyrenees of the Alpine Shrew (Sorex alpinus) has been documented only by a few, rather old data (1878-1930) from the Spanish side of the mountains (three specimens). Since then it has been considered extinct (missing). However, this year (2021) I was lucky enough to find the pdf.file of a book about mammals of the NP Ordesa y Monte Perdido (Ferrer E.W., 2019: Mamíferos del Parque Nacional de Ordesa y Monte Perdido - Ediciones Prames S.L., Zaragoza, 267pp.) and, to my surprise, I saw on pages 58 and 244 photos of the Alpine Shrew, presented as an unknown species; this individual was caught in autumn 2012.
Being sufficiently familiar with this shrew species in the Czech Republic I can, without doubt, state that it is the Alpine Shrew. The external features are quite typical – uniform grey-black colouration, overlong tail, very small eyes, light "meat"-coloured feet, the shape of the head and rostrum etc. Also, other experts on this species agree with this view, e.g. R. Kraft (München) and V. Vohralík (Prague). Therefore, it is my belief that the recent occurrence of the Alpine Shrew in the Pyrenees can be proven. Based on this finding, the occurrence of its relict population(s) in the Pyrenees deserves more attention.
Miloš Andĕra, Czech Republic (EMMA 2 national coordinator)
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- Written by: Tony Mitchell-Jones
Voles and lemmings (Arvicolinae) of the Palearctic region
Voles and lemmings (Arvicolinae) of the Palearctic region.
Boris Kryštufek & Georgy Shenbrot
Voles and lemmings are the most numerous group of Palaearctic rodents by species, so they are often the subject of basic and applied research. Combining the advances of genomics with traditional taxonomy, the present work is an authoritative and up-to-date guide to the taxonomy of an animal group of interest to epidemiologists, biostratigraphers, zooarchaeologists, evolutionary biologists, population ecologists, biosystematists, conservation biologists, museum curators, and researchers in various other biological fields. . The text is accompanied by 331 illustrations and more than a thousand references. Morphological features and detailed distribution maps are given for each of the 128 species. The book will provide the user with an in-depth and critical interpretation of the relationships between species of voles and lemmings. It will make it easier to understand the taxonomic changes that are still common in this group of rodents.
The book is published as a pdf, which can be freely downloaded here.
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- Written by: Tony Mitchell-Jones
Atlas of Czech Insectivores
Atlas of distribution of insectivores of the Czech Republic. Miloš Anděra, Vladimír Hanzal, Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic (NCA), Prague, 2022, 124 pp.
This latest version of the atlas of distribution of insectivores living in the Czech Republic follows up the previous stages of mapping of this mammal group. The large dataset covers the period 1753–2021 and is based on several main sources (results of field efforts, extensive bibliography of different sources, museum collections etc.); almost 24,000 records limited by the end of the year 2021 were used. The assessment of the data set is based on the standard grid mapping (squares 12 km × 11.2 km in size). In the overview of particular species, 3 types of maps are used: 1) summary grid map, 2) point map of localities and 3) chronological map. The text of the atlas for the particular species consists of several sections: the vernacular and scientific names of the species (including synonyms), information about its legal protection and conservation at the national and international level, general distribution and occurrence in the Czech Republic, mapping statistics, hypsometry, habitat preferences and level of threat. In some cases, notes on taxonomy or nomenclature of the species are added. A number of photos of species and their habitats are also attached. An extensive list of references is provided at the end of the atlas. Up to now, the occurrence of 10 species from three families – shrews (7 species), moles (1 species) and hedgehogs (2 species) – has been confirmed in the Czech Republic. The text is bilingual with more comprehensive English summaries.
The atlas can be ordered directly from the publisher – The Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic (NCA), email address:
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- Written by: Tony Mitchell-Jones
Atlas of the Mammals of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
The new Atlas of the Mammals of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has been published. Covering both terrestrial and marine mammals, the atlas draws on more than 1.8 million observations from a variety of sources. For terrestrial species, the atlas uses the Ordnance Survey National Grid (Great Britain and Ireland) at a resolution of 10km. For marine species, a wider area is covered, with the resolution depending on data availability.
The atlas can be ordered directly from the publisher:
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- Written by: Tony Mitchell-Jones
Per Ole Syvertsen
We are saddened to report the untimely death of our coordinator for Norway, Per Ole Syvertsen, at the age of 62. Per Ole will be known to all who attended the Eurobats Advisory Committee meetings and he was also present at the EMMA meeting in Prague, 2018.
Per Ole was the curator of the natural history department of the Helgeland Museum and was based in Mo i Rana.
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- Written by: Tony Mitchell-Jones