Literaturdatenbank
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Souza, C. A., & Vogt, R. C. , Analysis of the stomach contents of two species of turtles of the amazon: peltocephalus dumerilianus and podocnemis erythrocephala. Unpublished paper presented at 6th World Congress of Herpetology.
Added by: Admin (21 Nov 2009 12:00:07 UTC) |
| Resource type: Conference Paper BibTeX citation key: Souza2008a View all bibliographic details  |
Categories: General Keywords: Ernährung = nutrition, Habitat = habitat, Peltocephalus, Peltocephalus dumerilianus, Podocnemididae, Podocnemis, Podocnemis erythrocephala, Schildkröten = turtles + tortoises, Südamerika = Southern America Creators: Souza, Vogt Collection: 6th World Congress of Herpetology |
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| Abstract |
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Knowledge about the feeding habits of turtles is of vital importance for their conservation. The purpose of this study was to identify differences in food items found in the stomachs of Peltocephalus dumerilianus and Podocnemis erythrocephala in different seasons and habitats. The feeding of theses species was studied from the analysis of 126 stomach contents, 43 of P. dumerilianus and 83 from P. erythrocephala that were collected in Barcelos, Daraquá in the basin of Rio Itú, Rio Negro-AM, in the period May to August 1998. Turtles were collected in fyke nets Stomachs were also obtained from the local river people when they were buthcering turtles to eat. Turtles caught in fyke nets were stomach flushed without sacrificing the animal (Legler, 1997). All contents were preserved in 70% EtOH. The analysis was performed by volumetric method and expressed as percentage (Hyslop, 1980). The frequency of occurrence that considers the percentage of each item of the total number of stomachs was used to describe the feeding habits. For comparison between the variables season and habitat,we used both the volume and frequency of occurrence of food items. Both species had the same food items - seeds, fish (remains of meat, bones and scales), plant material (leaves and bark, seeds) and parts of insects and crustaceans. The differences occurred in relation to the total volume of content and in relation to the frequency of occurrence of items. Seeds and plant material predominated in the diet of one species appearing in a relatively high percentage of the total volume of content. P. erythrocephala is predominantly herbivorous species, with 88.8% of the volume of their stomach contents presenting seeds and vegetable matter. The consumption of fish was higher in P. dumerilianus. This result was different from that found in Venezuela for the species (Perez and Paolillo, 1997). Possibly P. dumerilianus has preference for consuming animal matter as molluscs and fish, but in the absence of those they consume seeds.
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