Although taxonomy, ecology, and natural history information of the arboreal spiny rats is available, many gaps in some species distribution still exist. We report here the first records of the Peruvian Toro, Toromys rhipidurus (Thomas, 1928), in southern Colombia. This arboreal spiny rat was only known from the Peruvian Amazonia. These new records extend the known geographical distribution of the species by about 61 km northward from its nearest known locality, at Río Yavarí, Peru. In addition, we provide some notes on the natural history of the species.
Diferentes iniciativas han permitido conocer los sonidos de los mamíferos neotropicales. Aunque en Colombia hay algunos repositorios de registros bioacústicos, la Colección de Sonidos Ambientales Mauricio Álvarez-Rebolledo del Instituto Humboldt (IAvH-CSA) es la única de acceso público. Nuestro objetivo fue explorar la representatividad de mamíferos en la IAvH-CSA y promover su uso entre la comunidad mastozoológica colombiana. Encontramos 129 registros, la mayoría de Primates. Los registros incluyen representación de todas las regiones geográficas, excepto el Catatumbo, y 21 de los 32 departamentos del país. Aun así, solo el 3 % de las especies de mamíferos de Colombia están representadas en la colección. Éstas han sido grabadas en su mayoría por ornitólogos. Por tanto, hacemos un llamado a apoyar los repositorios públicos en nuestro país, depositar los registros acústicos para garantizar accesibilidad a estos y abordar futuras preguntas en la bioacústica de mamíferos de Colombia.
The Colombian Speckled Tree Rat, Pattonomys semivillosus, is a little-known rodent endemic to the Lower Magdalena River basin at the Caribbean Coast of Colombia. To date it is the only species of Pattonomys documented in the country. We provide information on the rarity, and conservation status of P. semivillosus based on the current and potential distribution, population density and size using information from the literature, new records, and museum vouchers. We confirmed 66 occurrences that belong to 25 localities in six departments (Atlántico, Bolívar, Cesar, La Guajira, Magdalena, Santander, and Sucre) in northern Colombia, including 18 new localities not previously reported in the literature, mostly in the highly threatened Tropical Dry Forest ecosystem. The population density in three sites of Department of Cesar was 5.4 ind/km2, 5.9 ind/km2, and 32.4 ind/km2. The species matches with the Category D of rarity, and we suggest an update to the threatened assessment (from Least Concern to Near Threatened). This information will contribute to update the current IUCN assessment of the species.