Author: Paul Efren Santos Andrade
Date: 2026-02-23

# Exploring Mammal Diversity in Peru with perumammals

#### Paul Efren Santos Andrade

#### 2026-02-23

## Introduction

Peru is widely recognized as one of the world’s megadiverse countries, ranking second in the Neotropics and the Americas for mammalian diversity, with 573 species across 13 orders (Pacheco et al., 2021). The `perumammals` package provides direct access to this updated taxonomic dataset, enabling researchers, students, and conservation practitioners to explore, validate, and analyze mammals occurring in Peru.

### Dataset Background

The updated mammalian checklist by Pacheco et al. (2021) compiles:

- 573 species, 223 genera, 51 families, 13 orders
- 87 endemic species (15.2% of total)
- Presence across 9 ecoregions, from coastal deserts to Amazonian rainforests
- Continuous updates reflecting recent systematic revisions

The package adopts this taxonomic framework and includes tools for validating species names and handling synonyms or misspelled entries via fuzzy matching.

## Loading the Dataset

    data("peru_mammals")

    glimpse(peru_mammals)
    #> Rows: 573
    #> Columns: 12
    #> $ pm_id                <chr> "M0542_EUB", "M0543_BAL", "M0544_BAL", "M0545_BAL…
    #> $ order                <chr> "Artiodactyla", "Artiodactyla", "Artiodactyla", "…
    #> $ family               <chr> "Balaenidae", "Balaenopteridae", "Balaenopteridae…
    #> $ genus                <chr> "Eubalaena", "Balaenoptera", "Balaenoptera", "Bal…
    #> $ species              <chr> "australis", "bonaerensis", "borealis", "edeni", …
    #> $ scientific_name      <chr> "Eubalaena australis", "Balaenoptera bonaerensis"…
    #> $ scientific_name_full <chr> "Eubalaena australis (Desmoulins, 1822)", "Balaen…
    #> $ author               <chr> "(Desmoulins, 1822)", "Burmeister, 1867", "Lesson…
    #> $ common_name          <chr> "Ballena franca del sur", "Ballena minke austral"…
    #> $ endemic              <lgl> FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, …
    #> $ ecoregions           <chr> "OCE", "OCE", "OCE", "OCE", "OCE", "OCE", "OCE", …
    #> $ reference            <chr> "Reyes 2009", "Reyes 2009", "Jefferson et al. 199…

## Taxonomic Diversity

### Orders and Species Richness

    order_summary <- pm_list_orders() |>
      dplyr::arrange(dplyr::desc(n_species)) |>
      dplyr::mutate(percentage = round(n_species / sum(n_species) * 100, 1))

    order_summary
    #> # A tibble: 13 × 6
    #>    order            n_families n_genera n_species n_endemic percentage
    #>    <chr>                 <int>    <int>     <int>     <int>      <dbl>
    #>  1 Rodentia                 11       67       194        56       33.9
    #>  2 Chiroptera                8       64       189         9       33
    #>  3 Didelphimorphia           1       15        47        10        8.2
    #>  4 Artiodactyla             10       31        46         0        8
    #>  5 Primates                  3       12        42         9        7.3
    #>  6 Carnivora                 7       20        33         0        5.8
    #>  7 Pilosa                    4        5         7         0        1.2
    #>  8 Cingulata                 2        3         5         1        0.9
    #>  9 Eulipotyphla              1        1         3         2        0.5
    #> 10 Lagomorpha                1        1         2         0        0.3
    #> 11 Paucituberculata          1        2         2         0        0.3
    #> 12 Perissodactyla            1        1         2         0        0.3
    #> 13 Sirenia                   1        1         1         0        0.2

    ggplot(order_summary,
           aes(x = reorder(order, n_species),
               y = n_species)) +
      geom_col(fill = "steelblue") +
      geom_text(aes(label = n_species),
                hjust = -0.2, size = 3) +
      coord_flip() +
      labs(
        title = "Mammalian Diversity in Peru by Order",
        subtitle = "Based on Pacheco et al. (2021)",
        x = "Order",
        y = "Number of Species"
      ) +
      theme_minimal()

Rodentia (194 species) and Chiroptera (189 species) together account for nearly 67% of Peru’s mammalian diversity.

## Endemic Species

    pm_list_endemic(include_rate = TRUE)
    #> # A tibble: 14 × 7
    #>    order        n_families n_genera n_endemic n_species endemic_rate endemic_pct
    #>    <chr>             <int>    <int>     <int>     <int>        <dbl>       <dbl>
    #>  1 Rodentia             11       67        56       194       0.289         28.9
    #>  2 Chiroptera            8       64         9       189       0.0476         4.8
    #>  3 Didelphimor…          1       15        10        47       0.213         21.3
    #>  4 Artiodactyla         10       31         0        46       0              0
    #>  5 Primates              3       12         9        42       0.214         21.4
    #>  6 Carnivora             7       20         0        33       0              0
    #>  7 Pilosa                4        5         0         7       0              0
    #>  8 Cingulata             2        3         1         5       0.2           20
    #>  9 Eulipotyphla          1        1         2         3       0.667         66.7
    #> 10 Lagomorpha            1        1         0         2       0              0
    #> 11 Paucituberc…          1        2         0         2       0              0
    #> 12 Perissodact…          1        1         0         2       0              0
    #> 13 Sirenia               1        1         0         1       0              0
    #> 14 Total                16       43        87       573       0.152         15.2

Rodentia contains the largest number of endemic species (56), representing 64.4% of all mammalian endemics in Peru.

## Geographic Distribution

### Ecoregional Diversity

    # Obtener datos de ecoregiones
    ecoregion_diversity <- pm_list_ecoregions(include_endemic = TRUE)
    #> ── Peruvian Mammal Ecoregions (Brack-Egg, 1986) ────────────────────────────────
    #> ℹ Number of ecoregions: 10
    #> ℹ Total mammal species in Peru: 573
    #>
    #> Ecoregions by species richness:
    #>
    #> SB - Selva Baja: 320 species (55.8%), 18 endemic (5.6%)
    #> YUN - Yungas: 256 species (44.7%), 48 endemic (18.8%)
    #> SP - Sabana de Palmera: 83 species (14.5%), 0 endemic (0%)
    #> BSE - Bosque Seco Ecuatorial: 81 species (14.1%), 4 endemic (4.9%)
    #> VOC - Vertiente Occidental: 72 species (12.6%), 15 endemic (20.8%)
    #> PUN - Puna: 71 species (12.4%), 14 endemic (19.7%)
    #> BPP - Bosque Pluvial del Pacífico: 69 species (12%), 0 endemic (0%)
    #> COS - Costa: 66 species (11.5%), 16 endemic (24.2%)
    #> OCE - Oceánica: 30 species (5.2%), 0 endemic (0%)
    #> PAR - Páramo: 26 species (4.5%), 4 endemic (15.4%)
    #>
    #> Use pm_by_ecoregion() to filter species by ecoregion
    #> ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

    # Preparar datos para el gráfico tipo waffle
    waffle_data <- ecoregion_diversity |>
      select(ecoregion_label, pct_endemic) |>
      mutate(
        total_pct = paste0(round(pct_endemic, 1), "% endemic"),
        ecoregion_full = paste0(ecoregion_label, "\n", total_pct)
      ) |>
      rowwise() |>
      mutate(
        grid_data = list(
          expand.grid(x = 1:10, y = 1:10) |>
            mutate(
              id = row_number(),
              type = ifelse(id <= round(pct_endemic), "Endemic", "Common")
            )
        )
      ) |>
      unnest(grid_data)

    # Crear el gráfico
    ggplot(waffle_data, aes(x = x, y = y, fill = type)) +
      geom_tile(color = "white", linewidth = 0.4) +
      facet_wrap(~ecoregion_full, ncol = 2) +
      scale_fill_manual(
        name = NULL,
        values = c("Common" = "#CBD5E1", "Endemic" = "#E07A5F"),
        labels = c("Common species", "Endemic species")
      ) +
      coord_equal() +
      labs(
        title = "Mammal Endemism by Ecoregion in Peru",
        subtitle = "Each square represents 1% of species. The percentage indicates the proportion of endemic species"
      ) +
      theme_void() +
      theme(
        plot.title = element_text(
          face = "bold",
          size = 16,
          hjust = 0.5,
          margin = margin(b = 5)
        ),
        plot.subtitle = element_text(
          hjust = 0.5,
          size = 10,
          color = "gray30",
          margin = margin(b = 20)
        ),
        legend.position = "bottom",
        legend.text = element_text(size = 10),
        legend.key.size = unit(0.7, "cm"),
        legend.margin = margin(t = 15),
        strip.text = element_text(
          size = 9,
          face = "bold",
          lineheight = 1.1,
          margin = margin(t = 5, b = 5)  # Aumentar márgenes
        ),
        strip.clip = "off",  # Permitir que el texto se extienda fuera del panel
        plot.background = element_rect(fill = "white", color = NA),
        panel.spacing.x = unit(2, "lines"),  # Aumentar espacio horizontal
        panel.spacing.y = unit(2.5, "lines"),  # Aumentar espacio vertical
        plot.margin = margin(15, 15, 15, 15)
      )

The Selva Baja contains the highest species richness, while the Yungas harbor the greatest number of endemic mammals.

## Name Validation and Fuzzy Matching

    species_list <- c(
      "Tremarctos ornatos",
      "Leopardus pardalis",
      "Odocoileus virginanus",
      "Lagothrix flavicauda",
      "Alouatta seniculus",
      "Puma concolor"
    )

    validated <- validate_peru_mammals(
      species_list,
      quiet = TRUE
    )

    validated %>%
      select(Orig.Name, Matched.Name, Match.Level, valid_rank)
    #>               Orig.Name         Matched.Name            Match.Level valid_rank
    #> 1    Tremarctos ornatos   Tremarctos ornatus             Exact rank       TRUE
    #> 2    Leopardus pardalis   Leopardus pardalis             Exact rank       TRUE
    #> 3 Odocoileus virginanus           Odocoileus Matched at higher rank      FALSE
    #> 4  Lagothrix flavicauda Lagothrix flavicauda             Exact rank       TRUE
    #> 5    Alouatta seniculus   Alouatta seniculus             Exact rank       TRUE
    #> 6         Puma concolor        Puma concolor             Exact rank       TRUE

The fuzzy matching tool corrects common misspellings and returns standardized scientific names while preserving the original input.

## Practical Applications

### Conservation Assessment

    endemic_primates <- peru_mammals %>%
      filter(order == "Primates", endemic == TRUE) %>%
      select(genus, species, common_name)

    endemic_primates
    #> # A tibble: 9 × 3
    #>   genus      species       common_name
    #>   <chr>      <chr>         <chr>
    #> 1 Lagothrix  flavicauda    Mono choro de cola amarilla
    #> 2 Aotus      miconax       Mono nocturno peruano, mono nocturno andino
    #> 3 Saguinus   illigeri      Pichico pardo de Illiger
    #> 4 Saguinus   leucogenys    Pichico andino
    #> 5 Saguinus   nigrifrons    Pichico de frente negra
    #> 6 Callicebus oenanthe      Tocón del río Mayo
    #> 7 Callicebus urubambensis  Tocón del Urubamba
    #> 8 Pithecia   aequatorialis Huapo ecuatorial
    #> 9 Pithecia   isabela       Huapo de Isabel

### Research Data Cleaning

    field_data <- data.frame(
      site = rep(c("Site_A", "Site_B", "Site_C"), each = 3),
      species = c(
        "Tremarctos ornatos", "Mazama rufina", "Odocoileus virginianus",
        "Leopardus pardalis", "Puma concolor", "Leopardus jacobita",
        "Lagothrix flavicauda", "Ateles belzebuth", "Alouatta seniculus"
      ),
      count = c(2, 1, 3, 1, 2, 1, 5, 3, 2)
    )

    cleaned_data <- field_data %>%
      left_join(
        validate_peru_mammals(field_data$species),
        by = c("species" = "Orig.Name")
      ) %>%
      select(site, original = species, validated = Matched.Name, count, Match.Level)

    cleaned_data
    #>     site               original            validated count
    #> 1 Site_A     Tremarctos ornatos   Tremarctos ornatus     2
    #> 2 Site_A          Mazama rufina        Mazama rufina     1
    #> 3 Site_A Odocoileus virginianus           Odocoileus     3
    #> 4 Site_B     Leopardus pardalis   Leopardus pardalis     1
    #> 5 Site_B          Puma concolor        Puma concolor     2
    #> 6 Site_B     Leopardus jacobita   Leopardus jacobita     1
    #> 7 Site_C   Lagothrix flavicauda Lagothrix flavicauda     5
    #> 8 Site_C       Ateles belzebuth     Ateles belzebuth     3
    #> 9 Site_C     Alouatta seniculus   Alouatta seniculus     2
    #>              Match.Level
    #> 1             Exact rank
    #> 2             Exact rank
    #> 3 Matched at higher rank
    #> 4             Exact rank
    #> 5             Exact rank
    #> 6             Exact rank
    #> 7             Exact rank
    #> 8             Exact rank
    #> 9             Exact rank