Data - Scavenging in two mountain ecosystems: distinctive contribution of ants in grassland and non-ant invertebrates in forest

Data set and analyse used in the manuscript title "Scavenging in two mountain ecosystems: distinctive contribution of ants in grassland and non-ant invertebrates in forest". In this study we quantify the relative contribution of ants, non-ant invertebrates and vertebrates in scavenging nitrogen-rich (insect carcasses) and carbon-rich (seeds) baits in two contrasting mountainous habitats in Brazil (grasslands and forests). Testing the folowing predictions (1) baits are more likely to be removed from the forest floor than grassland due to higher plant biomass in forest than in savannas (Miranda et al. 2014), which could indicate a higher animal biomass in the forest. However, (2) ants would have higher relative importance in scavenging in open habitats (grasslands) than in closed (forests) because in open habitats, ants have higher activity (Bucy and Breed 2006), richness (Castro et al. 2020), and there are more dominant species (Andersen 2019). (3) The role of ants in scavenging is not compensated for by other taxa when ants are absent. Finally, (4) the removal rates of animal-based baits on the ground are higher than seed baits in both environments, since animal resources are more limiting than plant resource in most habitats (Kaspari and Yanoviak 2001, Bar-On et al. 2018).