CauseSpec: a database of global terrestrial vertebrate cause-specific mortality

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Conservation Biology
• Wildlife Management

Background:

• Global wildlife populations are declining, increasing the importance of understanding mortality factors.
• Direct human-caused (anthropogenic) mortality's impact on terrestrial vertebrates is not well understood compared to natural causes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present CauseSpec, a comprehensive global database of cause-specific mortality for terrestrial vertebrates.
• To distinguish between anthropogenic and natural mortality sources and document specific causes (e.g., predation, harvest, vehicle collisions).

Main Methods:

• Compiled data from 1,134 telemetry studies monitoring 123,747 individual terrestrial vertebrates.
• Categorized mortality causes as anthropogenic or natural, noting specific sources and distinguishing between adults and juveniles where possible.
• Included geographic coordinates and study dates to enable spatial and temporal analyses.

Main Results:

• The database contains 43,998 known-cause deaths across 307 species, updated from previous datasets.
• Facilitates analysis of how species traits, age, location, and time influence mortality.
• Provides a centralized resource to bypass literature searches for large-scale mortality studies.

Conclusions:

• CauseSpec is a valuable, updatable resource for understanding global terrestrial vertebrate mortality patterns.
• Enables rapid analysis and publication of large-scale studies, aiding conservation and wildlife management.
• Supports research into species-specific vulnerabilities and temporal changes in mortality causes.