No abstract

Home range, movements and habitat selection of the freshwater turtle Hydromedusa maximiliani (Testudines: Chelidae) at the Parque Estadual Carlos Botelho, São Paulo state, BrazilA key factor in conservation biology is a suitable design of protected areas. Long-term study is required when determining the size, structure, shape of these areas for freshwater turtles, thereby integrating essential information to guarantee the reproductive success, recruitment of new individuals into the population and persistence of the population over the years. Nineteen adult animals (10 males and 9 females) were fitted with radio-transmitters in order to analyze the home range, movement patterns, habitat use and selection of the vulnerable freshwater Hydromedusa maximiliani, an endemic and vulnerable freshwater turtle from Atlantic Rainforest in Brazil, one of the world's most threatened ecosystems. Another eighteen adult animals (11 females and 7 males) were also monitored with the technique of thread-bobbins. Three different methods such as MCP "Minimum Convex Polygon", Kernel and Cluster were applied to measure home range size which varied between 0.2 to 1.5 ha throughout a year period of monitoring, with mean size of 0.4 ha either for the wet or the dry season. No difference was found when the home range measured using different methods were compared even with the time difference between them (72 hours for thread-bobbins and 1 year for telemetry). This result associated with the low movements showed by Hydromedusa maximiliani (3 to 138 m/day) and the intense use of burrows can be explained by the sedentary behavior and intense site fidelity of the turtles with the river. Nevertheless, the importance of the terrestrial habitat for freshwater turtles is already known though longterm monitoring is necessary to study this aspect which would contribute to future conservation strategies including nests sites and also habitat use and selection of young turtles.