Andean non-volant small mammals: a dataset of community assemblages of non-volant small mammals from the high Andes

Information from diversity inventories is used to study patterns of biodiversity and species distribution; likewise, it may be useful to identify priority areas for conservation, and to guide future sampling efforts. In this context, we compiled information on non-volant small mammal communities from the high Andes (> 2,000 m.). Here we present an open resource data set containing information diversity (species composition, number of individuals captured ), inventory design (type of traps, sampling efforts), and environment (habitat) for both unpublished and published information. This study covers 630 mammalian communities, geographically distributed throughout the Andes in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile. We compiled a total of 26,412 individual records belonging to 240 species; the order with greatest number of records was Rodentia (n=25,319, 96.06%), followed by Didelphimorphia (n=373, 1.42%), Eulipotyphla (n=358, 1.36%) and Paucituberculata, (n=...