Anthropogenic impacts on yellow-spotted river turtle Podocnemis unifilis (Reptilia: Podocnemididae) from the Brazilian Amazon

The purpuse of this study was to investigated the influence of anthropogenic impacts on Podocnemis unifilis nesting on a stretch from Falsino river, with two forest reserves, and one urban area on the Araguari river, state of Amapá, eastern Amazon (Brazil). A total of 180 nests were found, being 89....

Full description

Autores:
Arraes, Débora Regina Santos
Cunha, Helenilza Ferreira Albuquerque
Tavares-Dias, Marcos
Tipo de recurso:
Article of journal
Fecha de publicación:
2016
Institución:
Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Repositorio:
Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Idioma:
spa
OAI Identifier:
oai:repositorio.unal.edu.co:unal/61193
Acceso en línea:
https://repositorio.unal.edu.co/handle/unal/61193
http://bdigital.unal.edu.co/60001/
Palabra clave:
57 Ciencias de la vida; Biología / Life sciences; biology
Amazon
eggs
freshwater turtle
neonates
nests
Amazonia
huevos
nidos
recién nacidos
tortuga acuática.
Rights
openAccess
License
Atribución-NoComercial 4.0 Internacional
Description
Summary:The purpuse of this study was to investigated the influence of anthropogenic impacts on Podocnemis unifilis nesting on a stretch from Falsino river, with two forest reserves, and one urban area on the Araguari river, state of Amapá, eastern Amazon (Brazil). A total of 180 nests were found, being 89.4 % in the forest reserves and only 10.6 % in urban areas. On Falsino river, we observed a spawning pattern, because the number of nests was correlated to the length and width of the nesting locations. On Araguari river, the P. unifilis nests were generally found in areas with surrounding vegetation up to 5 meters in height, minimum distance of 120 meters from residences and immediately or after places of higher exploration of pebbles. Females from Falsino river had smaller eggs, but the neonates were bigger and with higher body condition index than the neonates from Araguari river. About 80 % of the nests were prey, mostly because of the large collection of eggs for feeding. Furthermore, it was found that adult turtle hunting has been intense. Although one of the areas is in forest reserves, the human impacts were similar to those caused in urban areas, indicating the need to implement protection programs for the conservation of P. unifilis.