Influence of habitat variables on the presence of the pimpano turtle (Chelydra acutirostris, Peters 1862) (Chelydridae) in the Cajones and the coclí streams, Quindío, Colombia

• Main Authors: Katherine Young-Valencia, Andrés Ortega-Guio, Álvaro Botero-Botero
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidad de Sucre 2017-01-01
• Series: Revista Colombiana de Ciencia Animal Recia
• Subjects: Autoecología; hábitat de tortugas; variables de hábitat; quebradas.
• Online Access: http://revistas.unisucre.edu.co/index.php/recia/article/view/492

There was analyzed the influence of the habitat variables on the presence of the Pímpano turtle (C. acutirostris) in the stream, Cajones (in Montenegro town) and The Coclí (in Quimbaya town) at Quindío department. The field phase was conducted from April to September of 2012, where 36 field trips took place, lasting one hour each 400 m per transect sampled. The Coclí stream has an approximate length of 2000 m and in these two transects were established. At the same time in the Cajones stream, with an approximate length of 3000 m, four transects 400 m long and an average width of the watercourse 10 m were established; the transects were separated by a distance of 200 meters. At each site where a turtle was captured or sighted, they were evaluated habitat variables. To determine the influence of habitat variables on the abundance of turtles, multivariate statistical analyzes were performed. It was found that the presence of turtles in a given site, is highly related to the pH and sludge depth, the pH (r2=14.4793, p-value=0.0417) and sludge depth (r2=12.1535, p-value=0.0163).