Mammalian carnivores are considered a key group in maintaining ecological health and can indicate potential ecological integrity in landscapes where they occur. Carnivores also hold high conservation value and their habitat requirements can guide management and conservation plans. The order Carnivora has 84 species from 8 families in the Neotropical region: Canidae; Felidae; Mephitidae; Mustelidae; Otariidae; Phocidae; Procyonidae; and Ursidae. Herein, we include published and unpublished data on native terrestrial Neotropical carnivores (Canidae; Felidae; Mephitidae; Mustelidae; Procyonidae; and Ursidae). NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES is a publicly available data set that includes 99,605 data entries from 35,511 unique georeferenced coordinates. Detection/non‐detection and quantitative data were obtained from 1818 to 2018 by researchers, governmental agencies, non‐governmental organizations, and private consultants. Data were collected using several methods including camera trapping, museum collections, roadkill, line transect, and opportunistic records. Literature (peer‐reviewed and grey literature) from Portuguese, Spanish and English were incorporated in this compilation. Most of the data set consists of detection data entries (n = 79,343; 79.7%) but also includes non‐detection data (n = 20,262; 20.3%). Of those, 43.3% also include count data (n = 43,151). The information available in NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES will contribute to macroecological, ecological, and conservation questions in multiple spatio‐temporal perspectives. As carnivores play key roles in trophic interactions, a better understanding of their distribution and habitat requirements are essential to establish conservation management plans and safeguard the future ecological health of Neotropical ecosystems. Our data paper, combined with other large‐scale data sets, has great potential to clarify species distribution and related ecological processes within the Neotropics. There are no copyright restrictions and no restriction for using data from this data paper, as long as the data paper is cited as the source of the information used. We also request that users inform us of how they intend to use the data.

This paper focuses on a rare case of natural disappearance of feral pigs (Sus scrofa) in an extensive area without using traditional methods of eradication programs. The study was conducted both in the Private Reserve of Natural Heritage (PRNH) Sesc Pantanal and in an adjacent traditional private cattle ranch. In 1998, feral pigs were abundant and widely distributed in the PRNH. However, the feral pigs gradually disappeared from the area and currently, the absence of pigs in the PRNH contrasts with the adjacent cattle ranch where the species is abundant. To understand the current distribution of the species in the region we partitioned the effects of variation of feral pigs’ presence considering the habitat structure (local), landscape composition and the occurrence of potential predators. Additionally, we modeled the distributions of the species in Northern Pantanal, projecting into the past using the classes of vegetation cover before the PRNH implementation (year 1988). Our results show areas with more suitability for feral pigs in regions where the landscape is dominated by pastures and permeated by patches of Seasonal Dry Forest. The species tends to avoid predominantly forested areas. Additionally, we recorded that the environmental suitability decreases exponentially as the distance from water bodies increases. The disappearance of feral pigs in the PRNH area seems to be associated with changes in the landscape and vegetation structure after the removal of the cattle. In the Brazilian Pantanal, the feral pigs’ occurrence seems strongly conditioned to environmental changes associated to livestock activity.

Over the past 5000 years, the predictable climate seasonality of the Brazilian Cerrado has played a crucial role in shaping the life history strategies of species and the structure of ecological communities of this global biodiversity hotspot. However, this biome is becoming hotter and drier, with a notable lengthening and intensification of the dry season. Declining rainfall results from three key factors: the expansion of the South Atlantic Subtropical Anticyclone, warming of northern tropical Atlantic waters, and reduced evapotranspiration during the dry season due to widespread land conversion. The evapotranspiration drop also plays a pivotal role in regional warming and higher vapor pressure deficit. Climatic change already affects the physiology, phenology, and reproduction of the Cerrado plants, while also driving community‐level alterations, such as woody encroachment and ant–plant–herbivore interaction outcomes. Dry season lengthening is likely to reduce the biomass and alter the dynamics of microbial communities, with negative effects also extending to invertebrates and other groups. The pronounced warming reduces the amount and duration of dewfall, an important water source for insect pollinators and other animals with low vagility during periods of drought. Concerning vertebrates, the most suggested impact is the loss of specialist or endemic species, with restricted distributions, and the expansion of generalist species, lowering the levels of β‐ and γ‐diversity across the region and making communities poorer and more homogenized. In summary, climate change is actively reshaping Cerrado communities, and species' survival will largely depend on their phenotypic plasticity, evolutionary response, and dispersal capabilities. This article is categorized under: Assessing Impacts of Climate Change > Observed Impacts of Climate Change Climate, Ecology, and Conservation > Observed Ecological Changes Trans‐disciplinary Perspectives > Regional Reviews