An annotated checklist of the mammals of the Chimanimani National Park, Mozambique

The Chimanimani Mountains of Mozambique and Zimbabwe harbour a diverse and unique flora and fauna. Because of its unique flora this region has received considerable attention by botanists. In contrast, the vertebrates occurring here have received little attention. The aim of this paper was to synthesise data collected on multiple recent surveys into the first annotated checklist of the mammals the Chimanimani Mountains on the Mozambique side. We combined morphological and molecular methods to identify small mammals, and we report on echolocation calls of some of the poorly known bat species. In total, we recorded 69 species including 23 species of bats (Chiroptera), 15 species of rodents (Rodentia), 11 species of carnivores (Carnivora), nine species of ungulates (Cetartiodactyla), and the rest comprising Primates, Eulipotyphla, Lagomorpha, Proboscidea, and Pholidota. Of these, five species were threatened species, demonstrating the importance of the Chimanimani Mountains for biodiversity conservation.