TetraDENSITY is a database that includes georeferenced population density estimates of tetrapod species worldwide. It is meant to be a source for macroecological research and biodiversity conservation analyses, but also to be a reference database for population density estimates for field studies.
The database was originally described and presented in the publication:
Santini L., Isaac N.J.B., Ficetola G.F. 2018. TetraDENSITY: a database of population density estimates in terrestrial vertebrates. Global Ecology and Biogeography 27(7): 787-791
This first version included >18,000 estimates for 2100 species from ~950 studies, and only focused on terrestrial species.
We recently published an updated and much expanded version of the database, presented in:
Santini L., Mendez Angarita V.Y., Karoulis, C., Fundarò D., Pranzini N., Vivaldi C., Zhang T., Zampetti A., Gargano S.J., Mirante D., Paltrinieri L. TetraDENSITY 2.0 – A database of population density estimates in Tetrapods. Global Ecology & Biogeography, doi: 10.1111/geb.13929
Including >54300 estimates for 3717 species of both terrestrial and marine tetrapods, associated with error estimates when available.
TetraDENSITY can be explored interactively HERE
TetraDENSITY will continue to grow over time. Please get in contact if you want to highlight a recent publication to feature in the next version of TetraDENSITY. If you want to access the most recent version of the database, please get in contact.
Research papers that used the database:
Santini L., Jacucci G., Tucker M. 2026. Relationship between Home Range and Population Density in Mammals: The Role of Sociality, Territoriality, and Habitat Dimensionality. Ecography, doi: 10.1002/ecog.07936
Camacho, L. F., & Araújo, M. B. 2026. Body mass–abundance relationships reveal uneven global energy distribution across body size classes in vertebrates. Frontiers of Biogeography, 19, e164408.
Loft, T., Menor, I.O., Stevens, N., Clements, H.S., Santini, L., Thomas, S., Tobias, J.A., Malhi, Y. 2025. Energy flows reveal declining ecosystem functions by animals across Africa. Nature, 649: 104–112
Töpper, J. P., Hoeks, S., Hartig, F., Kolstad, A., Tucker, M. A., Bartlett, J., … & Svenning, J. C. 2025. Advancing general ecosystem models (GEMs): Towards a mechanistic understanding of the biosphere in the light of the Anthropocene. Ecological Solutions and Evidence, 6(2), e70053.
Fundaro’, D., Vivaldi, C., & Santini, L. 2025. Fishing shapes cetacean population density patterns in the Mediterranean basin. Ecography, 2025(12), e07919.
Santini, L., & Zampetti, A. 2025. National-scale estimates of mammal species abundance in Italy for the Habitat Directive reporting. Technical Report. https://doi.org/10.32942/X2V93M
Žliobaitė, I., Spiridonov, A., & Sinkkonen, V. 2024. How many indricotheres would have lived in Helsinki?. Ann. Zool. Fennici, 61, 131-147.
Pranzini, N., Maiorano, L., Cosentino, F., Thuiller, W., & Santini, L. 2024. The role of species interactions in shaping the geographic pattern of ungulate abundance across African savannah. Scientific Reports, 14(1), 19647.
Witting, L. 2024. Population dynamic life history models of the birds and mammals of the world. Ecological Informatics, 80, 102492.
Vidal-Cordasco, M., Terlato, G., Ocio, D., & Marín-Arroyo, A. B. 2023. Neanderthal coexistence with Homo sapiens in Europe was affected by herbivore carrying capacity. Science Advances, 9(38), eadi4099.
Wang, L., Cromsigt, J. P., Buitenwerf, R., Lundgren, E. J., Li, W., Bakker, E. S., & Svenning, J. C. 2023. Tree cover and its heterogeneity in natural ecosystems is linked to large herbivore biomass globally. One Earth 6(12), 1759-1770
Pranzini N., Bertolino S., Santini L. 2023. Predicting population size at large scale: the case of two large felids. Global Ecology and Conservation, e02677
Witting, L. 2023. On the natural selection of body mass allometries. Acta Oecologica, 118, 103889
Street, S. E., Gutiérrez, J. S., Allen, W. L., & Capellini, I. 2023. Human activities favour prolific life histories in both traded and introduced vertebrates. Nature Communications, 14(1), 262.
van Eeden, L. M., & Dickman, C. R. 2023. Estimating the number of wild animals affected by Australia’s 2019–20 wildfires. in “Australia’s Megafires: Biodiversity Impacts and Lessons from 2019-2020”. eds. Rumpff L., Legge S., van Leeuwen S., Wintle B., Woinarski J.
Mancini, G., Benítez-López, A., Di Marco, M., Pacifici, M., Rondinini, C., & Santini, L. 2023. Synergistic effects of habitat fragmentation and hunting on the extinction risk of neotropical primates. Biodiversity and Conservation, 32(8), 2655-2669.
Santini L., Tobias J., Callaghan C., Gallego-Zamorano J., Benítez López A. 2023. Global patterns and predictors of avian population density. Global Ecology and Biogeography 32(7): 1189-1204
Wolff N.H., Visconti P., Kujala H., Santini L. Hilbers J.P., Possingham H.P., Oakleaf J.R., Kennedy C.M., Kiesecker J., Fargione J., Game E.T. 2023. Prioritizing global land protection for population persistence can double the efficiency of habitat protection for reducing mammal extinction risk. One Earth, 6(11): 1564-1575
Mason, A. R., Gathorne‐Hardy, A., White, C., Plancherel, Y., Woods, J., & Myers, R. J. 2022. Resource requirements for ecosystem conservation: A combined industrial and natural ecology approach to quantifying natural capital use in nature. Ecology and Evolution, 12(8), e9132.
Broekman M., Hilbers, J.P., Schipper A.M, Benítez-López A., Santini L., Huijbregts M.A.J. 2022. Time-lagged effects of habitat fragmentation on terrestrial mammals in Madagascar. Conservation Biology 36(5): e13942
Santini L., Benítez López A., Dormann C.F., Huijbregts M.A.J. 2022. Population density estimates for terrestrial mammals. Global Ecology & Biogeography 31(5): 978-994
Pie, M. R., Caron, F. S., & Divieso, R. 2021. The evolution of species abundances in terrestrial vertebrates. Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research 59(8), 2562-2570
Wang, Y.X.G., Matson, K.D., Santini L., Visconti P., Hilbers J., Huijbregts M.A.J., Xu Y., Prins H.H.T., Dobson A., Allen T., Huang Z.Y.X., de Boer W.F. 2021. Mammal assemblage composition predicts global patterns in emerging infectious disease risk. Global Change Biology, 27(20): 4995-5007
Santini L., Isaac N. 2020. Rapid Anthropocene realignment of allometric scaling rules. Ecology Letters 24(7): 1318-1327
Gonzalez-Suarez M., Gonzalez-Voyer A., von Hardenberg A., Santini L. 2020. The role of brain size on population density in mammals. Journal of Animal Ecology 90(3): 653-661
Tucker M, Santini L., Carbone C., Mueller T. 2020. Mammal population densities at a global scale are higher in human-modified areas. Ecography 44(1): 1-13
Sykes L., Santini L., Etard A., Newbold T. 2020. Effects of rarity form on species’ responses to land use. Conservation Biology 34(3): 688-696
Santini L., Butchart S.H.M., Rondinini C., Benítez-López A., Hilbers J.P., Schipper A., Cengic M., Tobias J.A., Huijbregts M.A.J. 2019. Applying habitat and population density models to land cover time series to inform IUCN Red List assessments. Conservation Biology 33(5): 1084–1093
Santini L., Pironon S., Maiorano L., Thuiller W. 2019. Addressing common pitfalls does not provide more support to geographical and ecological abundant-centre hypotheses. Ecography 42(4): 696-705
Santini L., Isaac N.J.B., Maiorano L., Ficetola G.F., Huijbregts M.A.J., Carbone C., Thuiller W. 2018. Global drivers of population abundance in terrestrial vertebrates. Global Ecology and Biogeography 27(8): 968-979
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