Regional dataset including species occurences and survey characteristics

While mammals are facing tremendous threats and environmental challenges
across central Africa, we still lack a thorough understanding of how
mammal assemblages are distributed across the region, though this
knowledge is essential for planning coordinated conservation strategies
and assessing where conservation gaps might persist. To fill this critical
knowledge gap, we gathered species lists from wildlife and
bushmeat-related surveys focusing on medium-sized to large mammals. The
combined dataset includes 6,840 species occurrences across central Africa
for 31 species of carnivores (out of 35 species in the study area
according to Wilson & Mittermeier, 2009), 64 species of primates
(out of 73 according to Mittermeier et al., 2013) and 49 species of
artiodactyls (out of 57 according to Wilson & Mittermeier, 2011).
We also compiled the characteristics and metadata of each survey,
including the survey method, year and effort.