Data from: The role of life history traits in mammalian invasion success

Why some organisms become invasive when introduced into novel regions
while others fail to even establish is a fundamental question in ecology.
Barriers to success are expected to filter species at each stage along the
invasion pathway. No study to date, however, has investigated how species
traits associate with success from introduction to spread at a large
spatial scale in any group. Using the largest data set of mammalian
introductions at the global scale and recently developed phylogenetic
comparative methods, we show that human-mediated introductions
considerably bias which species have the opportunity to become invasive,
as highly productive mammals with longer reproductive lifespans are far
more likely to be introduced. Subsequently, greater reproductive output
and higher introduction effort are associated with success at both the
establishment and spread stages. High productivity thus supports
population growth and invasion success, with barriers at each invasion
stage filtering species with progressively greater fecundity.