Análisis de los trabajos presentados en los Congresos Nacionales organizados por la Asociación Mexicana de Mastozoología (AMMAC)

Abstract

Introduction: The Asociación Mexicana de Mastozoologia was established in 1984 at Mexico City, with four objectives: 1) to study and propose solutions to problems and policies of management and conservation of mammals in Mexico; 2) to gather people interested in mammals in Mexico; 3) to promote and organize the interaction between people and groups interested in mammalogy, and 4) to spread and stimulate activities referred to mammalogy through meetings and assemblies, develop curricula and research and organize conferences and congresses about mammalogy. The National Congress of Mammalogy has become the most important academic forum where the progress in analyzed in the nationwide investigation of mammals, held every two years in different locations of the country; brings together about 600 people from different academic levels. It is an event whose purpose is the presentation of papers and discussion. During their activities exchanging ideas and finding solutions to the various problems faced by Mexican mammals. We reviewed and analyzed the content of oral and poster resentations of eleven Mammalogy National Congress organized by ¿ the Asociacion Mexicana de Mastozoologia, A. C. (AMMAC) from 1991 to 2012.Methodology: We reviewed the printed and digital memories of the 11 national conferences held in Mexico mammalogy, from the year 1991 to 2012. Oral and poster presentations for terrestrial, flyers and marine mammals were considered. We organized a database with the content of presentations. We arranged the data base by11 principal topics and 68 specific topics, as well as other categories including: taxonomic group, states represented and by national and foreign institutions represented in each meeting.Results: A total of 2,527 oral presentations and posters were registered. The number of presentations since 1991 to 2012 has been increasing over time. The meeting with the higher number presentation was the X NCM organized at the state of Guanajuato in 2010 (476 presentations); following by the XI NCM meeting in the state of Veracruz 2012 (430 presentations). The topics with higher number of studies were ecology 32 % (n = 795) and conservation 14 % (n = 356), while the least topic included in presentations was physiology 3 % (n = 84) and others 1 % (n = 30). The state of Oaxaca has been mentioned and studied in 10 % (n = 212) of the presentations, while the state of Zacatecas has been the less mentioned 0.5 % (n = 11) in meeting presentations. The most studied taxa are: Order Carnivora 25 % (n = 657), Family Muridae 48 % (n =346), Genus Peromyscus 6 % (n = 233) and Specie: Odocoileus virginianus 4 % (n = 170). Species in the order Erinaceomorpha were not mentioned at any of the meetings.Discussion and conclusions: Mammalogy in Mexico has developed significantly in recent years and especially since the founding of the Asociación Mexicana de Mastozoologia. It is demonstrated by the number of works that have been increasing in relation with time. Our revision aims to contribute to guide the future generation of Mexican mammalogists to focus on different regions of Mexico, topics, and taxa for which there is great concern in their study.